Cheap Paraffin Inverter Heater.
A UK Energy Crisis is here and Gas and Electricity prices have rocketed. These Heaters are now likely to save you more money than ever, especially if Electricity is your main form of heating.
2023 Seasonal Update 29/10/2023 – Brico Bravo deals have been removed as they are no longer shipping from Italy to the UK, so we will no longer be advertising their goods here.
Prices of inverter heaters have increased in line with everything else, but with the increase in the saving they bring, you should recoup the outlay cost very quickly.
Prices & Stock will constantly change throughout the year, and we cannot guarantee availability between blog updates. Clicking the “buy now” icon will take you to the current vendor listing with real time price and availability.
 | Inverter 5086 3.2kw Heater | |
 | Tosai-241 Paraffin Radiant Heater. 2.2KW Output | |
 | Zibro LC-2230 Inverter Heater |
Why I built this blog and why I frequently still update these deals.
Over the last few years, I have invested heavily in several paraffin inverter heaters in order to heat my home and outside workshop, and in doing so I have saved many hundreds of pounds in expensive Electricity costs, in fact around 50% of the cost of the actual heater was recouped in the Electricity saving which was made during its first winter outing way back in 2011!, and even now at the end of 2023, my home is still heated entirely by three of these little portable heaters. Read the background story about how I got into using these heaters here.
One thing which I have noticed is that consumers within the UK are getting a raw deal in relation to the cost of actually purchasing these paraffin inverter heaters, compared to consumers based in Europe (where these heaters are more popular), and so when my regular UK supplier hiked the price of my usual Corona Paraffin Inverter Heater by £49, I knew that I had to find a cheaper alternative, and in doing so I was shocked at the savings which could be made, in fact I paid £150 instead of £249 for what was actually an almost identical paraffin inverter heater with a similar spec and heat output, the only difference was the fact that it was much cheaper through being purchased online in Europe. Yes, the UK has the well deserved nickname of ‘Treasure Island’ for good reason.
Bear in mind that purchasing from a European Supplier carries no more risk than buying from any UK source, any credit card purchase protection will still apply and there are no additional VAT or Duty payments required to be paid to customs upon entering the UK. In fact even the carriage charge is no more from Italy than some UK suppliers are charging. (This also means that if the heater has to be sent back for warranty purposes the cost of the carriage to do so, won’t be prohibitive)
I found that buying two paraffin inverter heaters from my source in Europe was painless and trouble free and just as easy as placing an order with my previous UK source. The heaters turned up in good condition three days later, and have been happily running on domestic Kerosene heating oil ever since.
I have no connection with the European Source i’m recommending whatsoever, other than being a satisfied customer of theirs, i’m purely offering this link out of goodwill so you too can save some money off the high prices which we are currently being charged for paraffin inverter heaters here in the UK.
You can read more information regarding my own personal experience of using Inverter Heaters in place of Electric Heating on my Paraffin Inverter Heater page.
You can also save a lot of money on Class C1 Paraffin in these Inverter Heaters simply by using Kerosene. Which is sold in the UK as Domestic Heating Oil.
Cheapest I can find: £150 delivered
(Link removed – Stock no longer available, see below for alternatives)
Brico Bravo are no longer offering shipping these inveter heaters outside of Italy. However you can buy one from the UK for £198.95 from here:- http://fave.co/1zL5in0
Brico Bravo, are once again shipping the Inverter Heaters to the UK, the current price is £146.85 from here, be quick because stock didn’t last long last year!.
Has anyone looked into the DYNA GLO 956 from the U.S. It’s a fine looking heater @23’000BTU. I am awaiting mine.
The only negative I can see is the high cost of the propane to run it. Propane is generally cheap in the U.S but here in the UK, the Cylinders cost quite a lot and to get the cheapest price means buying the largest cylinder (47kg) which can be difficult to handle and store. Even buying propane in the 47kg Cylinder option would cost more to run per KW/h in the UK than using a heater running on Heating Oil, LPG, or even Electricity, and the cost of a smaller cylinder of propane would essentially double the running cost again. It might be different over in Ireland, because I don’t know what you are paying for Propane and the bulk delivery options, but you do need to work out a kw/h comparison based on your local cost of propane in order to see how much in real terms this heater will actually cost you to run, and how it compares to the cost of any other options available.
Brilliant site. I’m a paraffin heater/ stove/lamp/lantern lover. I’ve a couple of vintage paraffin heaters which are used regularly in the colder weather, but reading your article on inverter heaters tipped me over the edge into the 21st century! I’ve just ordered a Corona 5096 inverter from Grundy Ironmongers. Looking forward to trying it out. Of course, for power cuts, my Rippingilles Fyrside wick heaters will be called into service.
Thank you for a fantastic website.
Hello, I agree these are great heaters when they don’t smell. I bought one in Uk and one in Italy. The Kero heater being used at the moment has started to smell quite a bit while on and I am unsure why or how to address this. No-one appears to service these and I think even with video help I don’t want to start shedding screws and grappling with wiring.
Could you suggest what might be happening? The deodoriser does not seem to make much difference at the moment. The fuel I am using is the expensive one in 4 litre containers from a uk supplier. Good wishes,
Hi Judith
In all honesty the deodoriser feature made no difference on my ‘Kero’ branded heater, even when it was new and so I always thought of it as something of a gimmick, although my heaters tend to just put out a whiff of a jet fuel type smell lasting for a few minutes either side of switching off and on, and don’t seem to smell at all when running even on domestic heating oil for several hours at a time.
You really shouldn’t be getting any smell with the expensive pre-packaged Premium Paraffin, as it is marketed as odourless and the reason why it is so expensive. Have you changed source of this fuel recently? Is the fuel fresh rather than being stored?. The only conclusion I can reach is perhaps poor or incomplete combustion is causing the smell, have you checked and cleaned all of the user accessible filters recently? – on some heaters the air is filtered through a screen mesh filter located in the back of the heater – on my Corona model, the filter looks like the screw off cylinder type fluff filters you see on Washing machines, on others its just a fine mesh filter which clips off on a frame. These are user accessible without taking the heater apart.
So my initial advice would be to check the filters, followed by perhaps trying a different brand of fuel. You could also consider getting a “Mr Filter” funnel, which removes any water contamination in the fuel, one visitor to the blog provided pictures of severe water contamination to his heater, which also ran on premium fuel, so it can cause all kinds of problems, despite its premium branding.
Failing that, you can buy Kerosene scent, which you add to Kerosene to sweeten the smell when burning, inevitably they only seem to be available in Pine, which makes the room smell like toilet cleaner, but they do work. This will only mask the issue of course rather than solving it, but may be the only option if the above advice doesn’t work, and you don’t feel confident about servicing the heater.
One final option is to try the Dipetane additive I recommend, this professes to clean the internals of the heater and combustion chamber with regular use, it may not be a quick fix and will never be as effective as a service but it might help solve the issue, if it is related to poor combustion.
Unfortunately, your options are going to be limited to trial and error, but at least it gives you something to try without having taking the heater apart.
CAN SOMEONE RESPOND TO ME.
Have a corona heater, I serviced it and it worked burning 3 ptrs overnight, after not being used for 5 years.
I had drained everything out of it. I tried to use it today, and it keeps coming up with EO, and its the same fuel it burned yesterday.
Are there any service centres in south of UK as I cant be asked to take it all apart again.
I live in Kent, folkestone to be precise.
I have now bought 2 new heaters a 3.2 and 4.6 KW at first using permium grade fuel but after a week got the equipment to pump Kerosene from my domestic oil tank to 25L containers. I can honestly say that the burn quality is no different to premium at all and with the addative Dipetane ( im using 5Ml per Litre as on instructions) there is no smell whatsoever. I wish i had found these heaters years ago !
Hi Richard. Glad you are also finding benefit to using these heaters, don’t forget that when using domestic heating oil in new heaters, instead of the recommended fuel that you will void the warranty. Obviously its up to the owner as to whether this influences their decision or not, all I can give is recommendations from my own experience, and I have had two heaters which have been used on nothing but heating oil since I bought them in 2011 and have replaced no parts. I do recommend servicing the heaters every spring (which is what I have done), this is fairly straightforward and just involves cleaning carbon and soot from inside the combustion chamber, and importantly the flame rod (flame detector).
I am desperate to buy one of these inverter paraffin heaters but want something nice to look at in my conservatory I want a stove like feature in white run on parrafin that doesn’t cost the earth do you know of one that’s doesn’t cost the earth with all due respect those advertised would look ok in a garage but aesthetically they lack something for me
Sorry Jackie, i’ve never come across anything like that, in fact there are only a handful of these heaters available currently in the UK and they are all designed to the same format, to be portable, practical and functional. If a traditional woodburner isn’t an option you may be better looking at bio-ethanol fireplaces – although these are expensive to run and only output 1.6kw – 1.8kw worth of heat they are more in line with your requirements.
Just bought Qlima SRE8040C 4Kw. on Amazon for £111.91 delivered, but the next day they had gone up to £260 and now are unavailable. I think Amazon slipped up there, lucky me! It works a treat, wish I could get a similar bargain for C1 fuel, guess I will end up using C2.
Further research indicates that Qlima are no longer selling electronic paraffin heaters ( which were rebranded Toyotomi units). Best I can find now is Zibro LC30 for £199 on the Toyotomi UK website. Most of these heaters seem to be made by Toyotomi and are imported to Europe by companies in The Netherlands or similar. The potential snag that I can see is that there seems to be no service network or spares supply in UK. Does anyone else have more info?
I would imagine with all households seeing a £175 increase on their Energy bills from further Government Green taxes – even before the Seasonal Energy company increases are rolled out, that demand for Paraffin Inverter Heaters will be on the rise over the next Winter – as the cost of Gas and Electricity will likely reach record levels.
So those distributors choosing not to stock them this year will be missing out on what may quickly become a growth market. Either way, from previous years, these heaters don’t seem to be widely stocked until well into the Autumn, so I generally carry out the seasonal updates on this page around October / November
I don’t know if these are any good or not but they are on special offer @£199. It doesn’t say how long the offer will last but i am thinking of getting one as a back up for my 5096.
https://www.joneshomehardware.co.uk/heating/zibro-paraffin-heaters/flem-sre3010-paraffin-heater/d271
I’m looking into this kind of heater for a 3m x 5m garden room where I am now working. I see from the various pictures that they often have electronic controls. Do they need a mains supply as well or do they run off a battery? I’m curious because I’m wondering if they will operate during a power cut.
The fan convected inverter heaters with the electronic display require a mains supply, and consume around 800w for their pre heat cycle of the combustion chamber for around 2 minutes before they ignite.
Once the heater is lit the pre heat element turns off and the consumption drops to around 22w which is purely the combined requirement of the fan, controls and fuel pump.
If power cuts are likely to be frequent, then you could perhaps power the unit from a high capacity UPS which would take over running the heater from its internal batteries during a power outage.
A 1600va / 2000va rated UPS would power the unit for quite a while – assuming that the heater was already running when the outage occured and only required 22w of power to run the fan etc.
A suitably rated ups would of course still allow the heater to preheat if it was started from cold during power failure but you would lose some capacity from the batteries in order to power the 800w pre-heater albeit only for about 2 minutes.
Alternatively one of the modern wick based heaters may be more suitable if you wanted the heater to run truly off grid.
Does this company ship to The USA ?
Found the Zibro Lc 132 on Amazon £205.56 inc delivery and £40 for import duty.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zibro-LC-132-Dual-Unisex/dp/B07VWRR6ZW/ref=asc_df_B07VWRR6ZW/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=472427659432&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1151686053457009875&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006745&hvtargid=pla-885246127874&th=1
Any good? Thinking about getting one to heat a single room rather than using central heating for the whole house as my gas went from 2p to 3.7p recently and I don’t like switching it on!
Using an inverter heater to heat one room would work out cheaper than heating the whole house with GCH, provided domestic heating oil was used in the heater. However, heating one room with GCH would probably still work out the cheapest option, once the cost of buying the inverter heater was put into the equation.
It really depends on whether you want the hassle of turning all of the radiators in the house on / off as you heat between one room and the entire house. It also depends on whether Gas goes up again when the cap gets reviewed in spring.
Hi Admin,
A quick query: Can you really use Home Heating Fuel in an inverter heater (which I understand use the evaparotive method)? Are there any special precautions to take with using Home Heating Fuel? Do some of the parts foul up quicker with carbon deposits?
I’ve been using domestic heating oil in my heaters since 2011, and other than a relatively cheap flame rod in the Corona heater when it was about 4 years old I’ve never needed to replace any parts.
Both heaters are still running ten years later, which would be remarkable longevity even when used with the recommended fuel.
What I’m saying is, I don’t believe using domestic heating oil (28 second kerosene) since I purchased them has reduced the service life of my heaters (in my personal opinion), but then I do also service them at the end of every winter. In recent years I also use a kerosene additive as well.
You will void the warranty on a brand new heater by doing so however as it’s outside of the manufacturers recommended fuel, and like everything in life, you do so at your own risk.
This blog is purely about my own personal experiences in using these heaters in order to reduce my reliance on expensive Electric heating and subsequently also reduce my energy bills – which is even more topical these days.
Sorry, but there is nothing in this world less likely to endear me into spending my free time to help somebody, than people who shout demands at me using the caps lock and with an air of entitlement.
Which of these paraffin/ kerosene heaters are controllable? I ask because
1. I am staying in a rented Shack with a Zibro Komin R19c.
2. It gives out a hell of a lot of heat. In fact to heat the 5x3x2 m room it is too much after about half an hour and I have to turn it off.
3. There is no way to control it/ turn the wick up or down.
4. When I switch it off or turn it on it creates a horrible stench of paraffin fumes.
5. I am tempted to buy one for myself but would prefer on that is:
a) Controllable b) Doesn’t smell of paraffin fumes when lighting or extinguishing.
Any ideas?
Sounds like you are using one of the wick based heaters, not the Electronic Inverter versions, which are discussed here
The Electronic versions, being fan based have a greater degree of control and temperature accuracy, including a Digital Electronic Thermostat which modulates the heat from the burner, so the closer the heater gets to reaching the desired room temperature, the burner output is reduced automatically.
Some models also have full thermostatic control, so they switch themselves on / off automatically to maintain the selected room temperature. But you won’t get any of those features with a wick based heater.
Unfortunately, you will always get a smell of paraffin when these heaters are first turned on and again when they shut down. These type of heaters don’t have an outside flue, so where else can the smell from the combustion process starting and stopping go.
The brief smell is the trade off with getting close to 100% efficiency. I’ve never used a wick type heater, so I can’t make any comparison in relation to the smell from one of these compared the the Electronic Version and whether it is any better or worse, but when my heaters start and stop, they produce a Kerosene smell which lasts for less than a minute, it never really bothered me, but if you are overly sensitive to the smell of Paraffin, even if it only lasts briefly then these heaters are not for you.
Hello All
I’ve only recently discovered these heaters and have a few questions.
Would they be suitable to run on a canal boat? I’m concerned that there may be fumes or do they need a vent of some kind? Also with propane gas there is a lot of moisture created which can cause condensation and dampness. Does this happen with these newer type Paraffin heaters?
Science suggests that burning Paraffin / Kerosene will produce some moisture, although i’ve been using these heaters since this blog page was started in 2011, and its never been an issue for me, and I haven’t experienced any damp or condensation problems. I’ve not seen any reader comments suggesting excessive problems with condensation either. Perhaps its down to the fact that ironically, the coldest / most drafty rooms are inevitably also the best ventilated.
These heaters were popular domestic space heaters in places like Japan for decades before they became popular over here and one of their biggest selling points is the fact they are portable, and burn clean enough to not need an outside vent or flue. Of course, this fact also makes them close to, if not 100% efficient.
In comparison, I’ve used gas bottle Calor heaters in the same building twenty years ago and had very noticeable amounts of condensation, so (purely in my own opinion & my experience) if these heaters do produce moisture, they don’t produce it in the same volumes as traditional Calor heaters.
I would be a bit more careful about using them in a relatively small space though – depending of course on the space available and taking each situation on its own merit. Most of these heaters are designed as space heaters for an average size room, although many people also successfully use them in Caravans both static and touring, so if you were to use one during the entire winter months, I would advise leaving any internal doors open to create as much open area space as possible in order to heat as much as possible of the entire boat (They will!) rather than just confining it to a living space or bedroom, and certainly don’t leave any combustion based heater running whilst asleep or unattended. If you have any form of trickle vents fitted, then these should be left open whilst the heater is running.
One of the positive features of the Electronic versions of these heaters is that in addition to the usual safety features like tip over and flame failure cut out they do have built in CO2 monitoring, and will shut themselves off if levels of CO2 rise above safe levels. I would, however suggest fitting an additional CO2 monitor as well just for added peace of mind, they are about £9 from Ebay and are probably just as vital these days in all applications as the humble smoke detector.
These heaters do require 240v to run a small internal element for a minute or two just to pre-warm the combustion chamber prior to igniting the burner, and then to run the fan during operation, so you will need an Electric hook up capable of at least 6A or an inverter. Once lit they only consume a small amount of power whilst running – about 20 watts.
Would I consider one for a Canal Boat Application myself? – Yes, provided the practical and safety measures I mentioned above were followed, and it was possible to open up most or all of the room space inside the boat to increase the heating (and ventilation) area.
In relation to smell. When starting and stopping, these do emit a brief (< 1 minute) paraffin smell, I can only describe it as like the jet fuel smell you get around airports, but it goes quite quickly. During normal running, I don't detect a small from these heaters at all, certainly nothing like the chemical background smell which used to come from Gas Bottle heaters. I personally, add a splash (10ml) of an additive called "Dipetane" to each 5 litre fill of kerosene. The jury is out on how effective this is, but there is generally enough feedback on it to believe it at least helps with a cleaner burn, and in turn this means less carbon in the combustion chamber, and reduced future maintenance. Finally, its only possible to burn domestic heating oil (28 second kero) or Paraffin in these heaters, don't be tempted to use the commercial 'heavy' (35 second) heating oil or red diesel as damage will occur (as well as being very unpleasant to be around). I only mention this, as I know that a variety of different fuels are often available at or close to mooring locations up and down the Country. But if you can get a good price on heating oil, these are a very effective and economical form of heating. But again, you will need to make your own decision as to suitability in relation to the space available that you are heating, but hopefully the tips above will help.