De'Longhi Dragon Digital Oil-Filled Radiator Review
Silent, fanless, all-night heat from a sealed oil radiator with a 24-hour timer and a surface you can touch.
The verdict
If the heater is going in a bedroom, this is the one. The Dragon makes zero fan noise, has no glowing element, and its patented thermal slots keep the surface temperature low enough that brushing against it isn't an emergency. Three wattage levels, a real thermostat, a 24-hour programmable timer, and a ComforTemp button that holds a sensible room temperature cover the control side. It takes 15–20 minutes to get warm and it's heavy, but for steady, silent heat through the night there's nothing better in the plug-in class.
$189.95on Amazon
Price as of Aug 23, 12:31 AM ET — subject to change.
What we like
- +Completely silent — no fan, no clicks beyond the thermostat relay
- +Patented thermal slots keep surface temperature lower than old-style fin radiators
- +24-hour programmable timer plus ComforTemp one-touch setpoint
- +Three power levels (700 / 800 / 1,500W) and an anti-freeze setting for vacant rooms
- +Thermal cutoff and tip-over safety; oil is permanently sealed, never needs refilling
What to know
- −Slow to warm up — 15–20 minutes before you feel it, best left running
- −~26 lb and bulky; wheels help but it's not a grab-and-go unit
- −Premium price for a 1,500W heater
- −Still a hot appliance: keep bedding and curtains three feet away
Full review
Oil-filled radiators work differently from everything else on this page: an electric element heats a sealed reservoir of diathermic oil, the oil heats the steel fins, and the fins warm the room by convection and gentle radiation. No fan, no moving parts, no noise. The downside is inertia — it takes a while to get going — and the upside is the same inertia: the fins keep radiating for a while after the thermostat clicks off, so room temperature stays steady rather than sawtoothing.
De'Longhi's Dragon is the nicest execution of the idea. The thermal slots between the fins keep the outer surface cooler than traditional radiators, which matters in a bedroom where someone might brush past it half-asleep. The 24-hour timer lets you have it warm the room from 5:30 AM so the bedroom is comfortable when the alarm goes, then shut off when you leave. ComforTemp is a one-button 'hold a reasonable temperature' mode, and the three power levels mean you can run it at 700W overnight in a small room for a fraction of the cost of 1,500W flat out.
It's expensive for what is fundamentally a box of hot oil, and it's heavy. The Amazon Basics radiator below does 80% of the job for half the money if you don't need the timer and the surface-temperature engineering. But for the 'I want to sleep with a heater on and not hear it or worry about it' use case, this is the pick — with the usual three feet of clearance from bedding, and plugged directly into the wall.
Best for: Bedrooms and nurseries (with clearance), home offices, and any room where fan noise is unacceptable.
Specifications
| Heat output | 1,500W high / 800W medium / 700W low (~5,100 BTU max) |
|---|---|
| Heater type | Oil-filled radiator (convection + radiant, no fan) |
| Modes | Low, Medium, High, ComforTemp, Anti-freeze |
| Thermostat | Adjustable with ComforTemp auto setting |
| Timer | 24-hour programmable |
| Room coverage | ~150–200 sq ft (supplemental) / small bedroom as sole heat |
| Safety | Thermal cutoff, tip-over switch, low-surface-temperature thermal slots, UL |
| Noise | Silent |
| Size / weight | ~16 × 10 × 25 in / ~26 lb, on casters |
| Cord | Standard, wall outlet only |
| Warranty | 1 year |
Ready to get one?
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$189.95on Amazon
Price as of Aug 23, 12:31 AM ET — subject to change.
Head-to-head comparisons
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