Safe Heater for Chicks, Coops, & Animals, OH11x40, 150 Watt

This worked great for my chicken’s first winter and gave me a lot of peace of mind. After running it to get rid of the smell, I hung it in the coop even before I needed to turn it on so they could get comfortable with something new overhead. I turned it on once it was below 20 degrees. They would roost directly under it and seemed to be comfortable with the output. It raised the temperature directly below the heater only and not the entire coop, which I understood is how it’s intended to work. I hope this is long lasting but I highly recommend and would buy again if I had to.

I purchased this heater because reviews of lower wattage ones stated that they could not keep chicks warm enough unless they were in the basement or house. Mine were going to be in an attached garage.I was skeptical that this would keep the chicks warm enough because the temperature in the garage was upper 40s. The directions said to keep the heater no closer than 6 inches from the shavings. This was not good enough and the newly hatched chicks were standing to keep warm. I lowered it to 5 inches and they settled down and it worked great afterwards. I did raise the heater to 6 inches after a week. I was not concerned with a risk of fire because the shavings were not hot. That was because the garage was cool. Had the garage been warmer, then 6 inches would have been fine.These heaters work really well. I have an LED light bulb on a timer so the chicks will get a sleep cycle at night. The chicks are much calmer with this method of brooding and are doing amazingly well.The units does have an intense smell of epoxy for the first day. It does go away and then the only smell you will have is chick poo, which is worse. (and normal)You do need to remember to clean out under the heater. The chicks will poop under it a lot and raise the bed up. You should do this every three or four days. I use a dust pan.I have 65 chicks under this one (11x40) and I think that is about the limit. I cannot remember how many chicks the manual states it will cover. While other reviewers stated that you can do more chicks because the chicks are moving around, if you do a nighttime sleep cycle, they all congregate under the brooder heater when it is dark.I will never go back to heat lamps. These work much better, are safer, and cost less to run. It also makes their feathers come in faster because they grow faster when the chicks are exposed to colder temps when they are not under the heater. This does not affect slow feathering breeds, however.

The media could not be loaded. This is the 3rd heater I have purchased for my chicken coop. The first 2 heaters were forced air, with a heated coil. In other words a fire waiting to happen. I am lucky there was no mishap, as I had to knock the dust/ash out of them every morning. First 2 heaters (at a price point of about $40) died within 2 weeks. I was skeptical about this plate heaters, but it is a winner. Construction is sturdy, gets hot, but not too hot, and my girls love it. Don't let the price point scare you. You are paying for quality. I would recommend this heater to anyone looking to warm a chicken coop. It is safe and effective. Don't waste your money on forced air.

I purchased this for use in a tortoise house. I don't like using bulbs or high-intensity heat when there is substrate involved. I figured I'd see if this 40" unit could heat my entire roughly 44" square by 37" tall tort house. (It is fully insulated and I live in Southern California.) The answer is- no. But it's close. With evenings in the 50s it does stay just around 70 degrees. (Set at 80F though.) I do want it a little hotter than that so I'll be adding a secondary heat source. All that being said this really isn't intended as a stand alone heater. In its primary purpose as a basking area it does work fine. I am trying to use it differently which was really my mistake in planning. My tort certainly prefers the side of the house with this heater. And I like the even heat distribution though it does heat slowly. I am sure that's part of the issue- by the time the temp. drops this can't catch up to make up the difference. The reason for 4 stars is that there isn't a power switch- just the plug. My power strip (with digital thermostat/power) is tucked behind the tort house and not easy to get too. A simple power switch- for this amount of money- should be a no brainer. (Of note- I bought the unit for top mounting and then changed how I wanted it. The brackets shown are what we rigged; not their hardware.)Update- I built a new solid front door for nighttime. . And also added a different plastic flap for the day. We just had a cold snap of 40s at night and this kept it nice and toasty at 80+. (California) For reference the tort hut is 4’ x4’.