Patio Heaters

Patio heaters extend the useful time of an outdoor space, keeping a deck, a porch or a restaurant patio comfortable when the evening turns cool or a colder season would otherwise close it. This collection spans electric, natural gas, propane and wood pellet models in ceiling-mounted, wall-mounted, flush-recessed, freestanding and portable formats.

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What a Patio Heater Is For

A patio heater exists to extend the useful time of an outdoor space. At home that is a deck or porch that stays comfortable when the evening turns cool, and on a covered patio it can carry the space through most of the year. For a restaurant or a hotel terrace it is the difference between seating those tables through a colder season and losing them until spring. The measure of a good one is the same either way: how many more nights people stay outside instead of moving in.

Not every heater is equally radiant

Most patio heaters work by radiant heat, which lands on people and surfaces directly instead of warming the air in between. That is what makes them work outdoors, because warmed air drifts off the moment a breeze picks up. How much of the output actually arrives that way depends on the design. A purpose-built infrared heater puts an emitter behind a reflector and aims nearly all of it at the people below, while an open-flame pyramid or mushroom model sends a good share straight up as hot air. Both warm a patio, but infrared models hold up far better in wind and on an exposed deck, and an open-flame model earns its place on the look of the flame.

Choosing the fuel

Electric heaters are infrared across the board. They need a circuit rather than a fuel line, and they mount close to a ceiling, which is what makes them the usual answer for a covered patio or a screened porch. Natural gas and propane heaters cover by far the widest output range here, from compact patio models up to industrial tube heaters built for warehouses and hangars. Pellet heaters sit between the two and radiate in a circle, which suits people standing around a heater rather than seated along one wall.

Where the heater goes

Overhead is the default. Ceiling and wall-mounted heaters keep the floor clear and put the heat above head height, and flush-recessed electric models sit inside a soffit so only the face shows. A gas heater must never go in a ceiling recess or soffit, because it needs open air around it to burn and to clear its exhaust. Portable propane heaters and pyramid heaters need no installation at all, at the cost of swapping tanks.

Coverage is a site number, not a product number

Infratech publishes three coverage figures for the same 3,000 watt heater: 8 by 8 feet on an average patio, 6 by 6 feet in cold or windy conditions, and 10 by 10 feet in a protected spot. Read the protected figure if your patio has walls on two sides and the cold figure if it is open to the weather. Where one heater falls short, two overlapping heaters beat one mounted higher, and most models here call for 6 to 12 feet of mounting height. Add a control if you want to run zones separately.

Frequently Asked Questions about Patio Heaters

Which patio heater is best for a covered porch?

An electric infrared heater, because it needs no fuel line, no flue and very little room above it. An Infratech ceiling mount clears the ceiling by 6 inches, where a 34,000 BTU Sunpak needs 18 inches, so the electric unit fits under a porch roof the gas one will not. Gas is still an option under a roof open on two or more sides, but it has to be ventilated.

Do gas patio heaters put out more heat than electric ones?

Yes at the top of the range, though the fuel alone does not decide it. Gas reaches the highest output here, with industrial tube heaters at the very top, while wood pellet heaters reach 90,000 BTU and electric models top out near 20,500. The smallest gas heaters sit at 9,500 BTU, below plenty of mid-size electric units, so compare the BTU figure on the model rather than the fuel on the label.

How high should a patio heater be mounted?

Most models here call for 6 to 12 feet, and the exact figure depends on the unit and its tilt. Bromic asks for 6 feet wall-mounted and 8 feet ceiling-mounted. SunStar's gas heaters drop from 8 to 11 feet when aimed straight down to 6.5 to 8 feet when tilted 30 to 60 degrees, because angling the heater brings the heat pattern closer. Mount too high and the warmth spreads thin, mount too low and you shrink the area it covers.

Can a patio heater be used in an enclosed space?

No gas or pellet heater belongs in a fully enclosed room. Sunpak's manual requires at least 4 cfm of supply and exhaust air per 1,000 BTU per hour, with the exhaust openings above the heaters, and states that the heater must never be used in a fully enclosed area. Portable propane heaters are stricter still: the Hiland manual says outdoor use only, never inside a house or any unventilated or enclosed area. Electric infrared heaters burn nothing and carry no such restriction.

How much area does one patio heater cover?

It depends on the site as much as the heater. Infratech publishes three coverage figures for the same 3,000 watt unit: 8 by 8 feet on an average patio, 6 by 6 feet in cold or windy conditions and 10 by 10 feet in a protected spot. Read the protected figure if your patio has walls on two sides and the cold figure if it is open, then plan on overlapping two heaters rather than stretching one.

Do patio heaters work in the wind?

The radiant ones do, and that is the point of radiant heat. Infrared warms people and objects directly, the way sunshine warms you on a cold day, so a breeze has nothing to blow away. Open-flame heaters like pyramid and mushroom models are the ones that struggle, because a good share of their output rises as hot air before it reaches anybody. Wind also shrinks the area any heater covers, which is why Infratech's cold and windy figure for its 3,000 watt unit drops from 8 by 8 feet to 6 by 6.