Designed for rooms of up to 200 square feet, the $69.99 Morento Smart Space Heater is a Wi-Fi-enabled heater that warms up small to medium-sized rooms quickly and quietly. It has three heating modes and can oscillate, and you can control it using the onboard panel, your phone, or with Alexa and Google voice commands and smart home routines. The Morento heater offers several safety features to help prevent fire hazards, but it doesn’t support motion sensing or energy usage tracking. For those features, you’ll want to check out the $69.99 Lasko AR122 ThermaSmart Ceramic Tower Heater.
Design and Features: Some Safety Protections Included
Available in black or white, the Morento Smart Space Heater is a 1,500-watt positive temperature coefficient (PTC) ceramic heater designed for rooms up to 200 square feet. It measures 17.0 by 6.8 by 6.8 inches (HWD) and is perched atop a base that provides 70 degrees of oscillation. At 4.4 pounds, it is easily transported from room to room using the built-in handle on the back of the device.
The heater offers three heating modes: H1 is the highest and draws 1,500 watts, H2 is a low-power setting that draws 900 watts, and the Eco setting uses your target temperature and ambient room temperature to automatically select the optimal heating mode. There’s also a fan-only mode. Safety features include overheat protection that turns the heater off if it becomes too hot, anti-tip protection which turns it off if it is knocked over, an auto-off timer (1-12 hours), and an auto-off feature that turns the heater off after it’s been running for 24 hours. Unlike the Lasko AR122, the Morento heater does not offer motion sensing or push alerts when the heater is shut down or when the timer has run down, nor does it tell you how much power it is using.
The front of the heater has an air outlet grille that covers the heating element and a single fan. On the rear of the unit is a removable air inlet panel and dust filter, and on the bottom of the base is a spring-loaded switch that turns the heater off if it’s knocked over.
Near the top of the front grille is a 3-inch LED panel that displays the set temperature. The display also has indicators for power, Wi-Fi, the timer, the heating mode, Eco mode, the child lock, and the heating temperature unit (Fahrenheit or Celcius).
The top of the heater houses a control panel with buttons for power, raising and lowering the target temperature, and selecting a heating mode. The onboard panel also lets you control the auto-off timer, child lock, and oscillation mode, as well as configure Wi-Fi and mute/unmute button sounds.
Connectivity comes by way of a built-in 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio. The heater works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands but does not support Apple HomeKit or IFTTT applets. The heater uses the Havaworks mobile app (free for Android or iOS) and gets its own panel on the home screen. When you tap the panel, it opens a screen with a large circle with the target temperature and the current room temperature in the middle. The outer edge of the circle rotates when the fan is powered on and stays still when it’s off.
(Credit: Morento/PCMag)
Below the circle are plus and minus buttons for setting the target temperature, and at the bottom of the screen are buttons labeled Switch, Gear, Countdown, and Settings. The Switch button is a power button, the Gear button lets you select a heating mode, and the Countdown button lets you set the auto-off timer. Visit settings to control the child lock and oscillation, change the temperature unit, and mute the control panel beeps.
Back at the home screen there’s a Scene button for creating automations to have the heater work with other Morento devices or turn on when the outdoor weather changes. Here, you can also create schedules to have the heater turn on and off at specific times and days.
Installation and Performance: Fast Warming
Preparing the heater for its first use is fast and easy. I downloaded the app and tapped Add Device on the home screen, plugged in the heater, and allowed Bluetooth access. The app immediately recognized the heater, so I entered my Wi-Fi credentials when prompted, then renamed my device, and was ready for testing. I had previously linked the Havaworks app with Amazon Alexa while testing a different Morento device, so the heater automatically connected with the virtual assistant during setup.
The Morento Smart Space heater did a good job warming my 110-square-foot office. It needed 10 minutes to bring the room up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit from a starting temperature of 60 degrees and another 12 minutes to get it up to 80 degrees.
However, I was surprised to find how hot the front grille became after just a few minutes of use, and it got even hotter after 10 minutes. I had no such issues with the Lasko AR122, which remained relatively cool to the touch while operating.
I measured the Morento heater’s noise output using the NIOSH Sound Level Meter app, and it registered 41dB when running. For comparison, the Lasko AR122 heater put out 47dB when running in High mode, 43dB in Medium mode, and 38dB in Low mode.
The Morento heater had no trouble responding to my Alexa commands to turn the power on and off, change temperatures, and enable oscillation. Additionally, my Alexa routine to have the heater turn on to 75 degrees when a Eufy Floodlight detected motion worked every time. I created a scene in the Havaworks app to have the heater turn on with oscillation when the outdoor temperature fell below 38 degrees, and it, too, worked perfectly.
Verdict: Simple and Effective, But Limited
The Morento Smart Space Heater offers an affordable way to heat up smaller rooms in a hurry. You can control it with your phone or with your voice and create routines and scenes to have it interact with other devices. It offers several safety features, including overheating and anti-tip protection, though the metal grille gets warm when it’s in use, and I’d like more notification options. The Lasko AR122 ThermaSmart Ceramic Tower Heater costs the same and offers a few additional features, including power usage reports, push alerts, and a motion sensor that turns the heater off if nobody is present in the room, making it a better buy for the same price.
Morento Smart Space Heater
The Bottom Line
The Morento Smart Space Heater quickly warms small rooms and features Wi-Fi connectivity so you can control it with your phone and voice, but other smart home integrations and features are limited.
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About John R. Delaney
Contributing Editor
