Outdoor Portable Heaters

Portable where the area changes: a courtyard used differently on a Friday than a Tuesday, a footpath that packs away, a function space that spills outside. Fixed where the layout is settled and you want the floor clear and nothing to store, which is what outdoor panel heaters are for.

Many venues run both — mounted heaters under the solid roof, portables wheeled out to the edge when it fills. Start with the area you most want to use in winter and heat that properly rather than spreading units thinly.

Gas, in most outdoor cases. A bottled unit stands wherever you need it with no lead across a walkway, which is the whole reason the format exists. The trade-off is handling bottles and swapping them when they run out mid-service.

Electric portables make sense under cover, close to a power point, where you want no bottles on site. Check what the unit draws against the circuit it will be plugged into, and have an electrician confirm it if more than one unit goes on the same circuit.

On a level, firm surface, out of the walkway, away from tablecloths, umbrellas, menus and anything else that can blow against it. Clear of the path staff take with plates, because that is where it gets knocked.

Then use the clearance figures from the unit's product page for distances to walls, ceilings and anything overhead. Those numbers are specific to the model and are the only ones worth working from.

More than most venues first buy, because a radiant heater warms the people in line of sight of it rather than heating the air. Two units at the edges of a seating area usually beat one in the middle.

Work from the seating plan: which tables do you need warm, and can each of those see a heater. Send us the layout and the exposure and we will tell you what the range covers.

Radiant heat is carried away and a tall portable unit becomes something that can be blown over. If it is windy enough to be closing the umbrellas, the portable heaters should be off and moved against a wall or put away.

A sheltered corner performs far better than an exposed one, which is an argument for heating the part of the area that has some protection and accepting that the exposed edge is a summer space.

It depends on the burner and on what you pay for gas or power, so any figure we gave you would be made up. What you can compare is the gas consumption or power draw stated on each product page, and that is a fair way to rank two units against each other.

The bigger lever is usually how long the heaters are on, not which heater it is. Turning them on when the area fills rather than at open makes more difference than the model choice.

Keep the burner and the reflector clean, check the hose and fittings on a gas unit before each season and whenever a bottle is changed, and have gas work done by a licensed gasfitter. Store the unit dry and covered out of season.

Wheels, covers, reflectors and the fittings that wear are in outdoor heater accessories. If a unit stops performing, tell us the model and we will point you at the right part rather than guessing.