Are space heaters safe?

[KNG]

Are space heaters safe to use around birds? I mean besides the obvious fire hazard thing..I'm not going to leave it on when I'm not around. My room has been getting cold and I think it needs supplemental heat. The type of heater I have is Holmes HFH416-UM Swirl Grill Power Heater.

PS. Lola has been adjusting very well to apartment life. I have to wear earplugs because she's constantly trying to make noises at night...I think we keep each other up. I did discover that she likes to say "Go poopie" quite often though. How's that for her first words? Hahaha

[patdbunny]

A lot of them are teflon coated. So you need to run them on high for several hours outside to burn off the teflon coating before you can use them safely around the birds. I've used space heaters safely for years after I've made sure the coating's burned off. Same with some new appliances. I just bought a new oven/range and the manual specifically said that the fumes were hazardous to birds until the oven's been used several times.

[zazanomore]

I don't know if my space heater has teflon or not, so I just haven't used it since I got my birds. Better safe than sorry.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

If the coating is Teflon, I wouldn't trust it to burn off. Other types of coating or even manufacturing residue you can probably heat and give it a chance to outgas. A Teflon-coated heater I'd personally stay right away from, I don't know that you can really remove the coating by cycling the heat. Although that's an interesting concept, I could stop worrying about that aspect of my self-cleaning oven as it has been cycled many times. Hmmm....

After a bit of research, Teflon can be burned off, but at very high temperatures, well above what a space heater would generate (but in the vicinity of a self-cleaning oven, perhaps). Heating elements seem to be almost ubiquitously coated with Teflon to boot. It apparently reduces corrosion of exposed metal. In theory if the temperature of the heating element never goes above 400°F, the heater should be safe to use, but I wouldn't trust an inexpensive heater to be that well regulated and they typically cycle full on/full off rather than holding a lower power setting. I'd look at manufacturers information carefully before using a space heater near my birds.

[mrstweet]

I use two different ones around my birds that I have found to be "safe". I use one of the oil filled radiator style and a Lasko one that I have had for years. I closely monitor when these are used, and used them elsewhere in the house for a few weeks before I used them near the birds. (Lasko one like this: http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... ps-sellers)

It has a feature where after it heats to a certain amount it shuts off and then will turn back on when the room gets cold, so I can set it on the 3rd dot and the 1st heat setting and know my birds will be safe.

[prtmom]

Concerning your new range / stove... I need to buy one. Did you experience any problems with your new range and the birds?