MasterPlug Auraline Black Glass Panel Heater Review

Introduction

Convection heaters might all work in the same way, but that doesn’t mean that you have to compromise on style or features, as the MasterPlug Auraline Black Glass Panel Heater demonstrates.

Available in black or white, this panel heater can stand on the floor or you can wall-mount it to keep it out of the way. Its front control panel is a little basic, but connect this well-priced 2kW heater to Wi-Fi and you get more via the app.

Design and features

• Can stand on the floor or be wall-mounted
• Black or white versions
• Compatible with the SmartLife app

A lot of convection heaters are very ugly, but the MasterPlug Auraline Black Glass Panel Heater is much more attractive than most. As the name says, this heater has a glossy glass finish to it that gives it an air of quality and makes this heater look at lot more expensive than it is. I’ve got the black version, but there’s also a white version.

The eagle-eyed may spot that the MasterPlug Auraline Black Glass Panel Heater looks very similar to the Princess Glass Smart Panel Heater that I reviewed a few years ago. Both have the same finish, screen and controls. While the Princess heater was a 1.5kW model, there was also a 2kW model – the same rating as the MasterPlug here.

However, the MasterPlug version is cheaper at the time of review, and there are a few app differences, too.

As with the Princess, the MasterPlug Auraline Black Glass Panel Heater can be wall-mounted, or you can attach the provided feet to the base and have it freestanding. The feet are as annoying to attach here as they were to the Princess heater.

Thanks to a deep recess on the feet, the tiny screws are hard to get through the holes. I recommend a magnetic screwdriver to hold the screws while you delicately move them into position.

Once attached, the legs provide a lot of stability, but if the heater is knocked over, tip-over protection cuts the power to prevent damage.

Once plugged in, the heater has a physical power switch on the side that cuts power off. For most cases, you can leave this switch on, but it’s handy to have the option to fully cut power in the warmer months or if you won’t be using the heater for a while.

With the main switch on, the heater is controlled via the touch buttons on the front. There’s a simple power button that turns the heater on and brings the screen to life, showing the current room temperature.

The plus/minus buttons let me select the target temperature in 1°C increments up to 40°C. Once the target has been reached, the heater turns off until the temperature drops, and then the heating process starts again.

There’s a timer button, which cycles through hourly increments up to 24 hours. It’s handy to have if you want to give a room a boost, but want the heater to shut down after a set time.

Finally, there’s a control to switch between high and low power modes (2000W and 1000W). Lower power mode is useful if it’s either slightly warmer weather and you’re worried about overshooting the target temperature, or you have solar power and want to keep power usage below your energy generation on a bright day.

To get more from the heater, you need to connect it to the app. This heater is compatible with the SmartLife app, where you can mix and match devices from different manufacturers, or you can use the MPSmartEnergy app instead. Both give you the same interface, so there’s no good reason to us the MPSmartEnergy app over SmartLife.

Be careful, as the app gives the wrong instructions for getting the radiator connected to Wi-Fi: it shows a flashing LED and says to hold the reset button, showing a diagram of someone holding down the power button; the flashing icon is actually on the LCD and shows what looks like a ringed-planet, and the reset button is actually the mode select button.

Once connected to the app, you get the same controls as on the MasterPlug Auraline Black Glass Panel Heater itself, plus the timer can be set in minutes as well as hours.

Scheduling is available via simple rules: you need one for each time the heater should turn on and which temperature it should aim for, and another rule for each time you want to turn it off. It’s handy to have this option, but it’s not as thorough as the full scheduling tool you get with Mill WiFi Max Portable Heater 1500W.

What MasterPlug offers over the similar Princess heaters is full energy monitoring in-app, so you can see how much energy the heater is using and how much it has used over time.

Performance

One of the main benefits of a convection heater is that it’s completely silent. Aside from a clunk as the heating element turns on or off, there’s no sound to be heard from the MasterPlug Auraline Black Glass Panel Heater at all.

The front gets hot, but no so hot as you’d burn yourself, but most of the heat comes out of the vent at the top. As the MasterPlug Auraline Black Glass Panel Heater heats up, it causes air to circulate, warming the room.

Testing it in the large front room of the Trusted Reviews Home Technology Lab (just shy of the 25m² maximum that I’d recommend for a 2kW heater), it didn’t take long to raise the temperature from 17°C to a more pleasant 21°C. For living rooms and larger bedrooms, this heater would be all that you need.

I measured the MasterPlug Auraline Black Glass Panel Heater as drawing just under 2kW on maximum power and just over 1kW on low-power. How much energy is uses will depend on many things: the target temperature, starting temperature, outdoor temperature and target temperature. But, overall running costs are the same for this electric heater as for any other model specified for a target room size.

Should you buy it?