Outdoor heating, with the arithmetic shown
Trusted patio heater picks for people with a cold patio and a budget. How much heat your space actually needs, what it costs an hour at real published energy prices, and what survives the wind.
The top pick from each roundup, with the price where a live one exists. Every one links to the comparison it won, so you can see what it beat.
Best overall
The published-radius honesty test. One of the very few towers whose maker publishes a coverage radius rather than a vague area, and the 9 ft figure survives the arithmetic. That alone puts it ahead of most of the field.
Best electric
Wind, and anywhere with a roof. Radiant heat that a breeze cannot blow out, on a plug. 1,500 W is only 5,118 BTU/h, which sounds like nothing next to a propane tower and lands far more of itself on you.
Best tabletop
One table, four people. 11,000 BTU heats a table, not a patio, and being clear about that is the whole point. For a bistro table on a balcony it is the right size and nothing bigger fits.
Best wall mounted
A published coverage figure. One of the very few electric units whose maker publishes a coverage area at all — 110 sq ft — and it mounts to a wall or hangs from a ceiling on chains. No ingress rating is published, so keep it somewhere sheltered.
Best for parts availability
A full open patio. The mushroom tower the whole category is a copy of. 48,000 BTU is enough for a genuinely open patio, and the parts are the easiest in the category to replace when something eventually fails.
Best propane radiant
Radiant propane with real output. Double the burners and a swivel head, which is the version that actually solves the single unit's worst flaw — you can aim it. Still job-site equipment, but job-site equipment that reaches a seating area.
Six sections. The first is the catalog; the rest are the reasons a heater does or does not work on a particular patio.
The catalog
Every type of patio heater, compared on published output and computed running cost, with priced picks in each category.
Do the math
Square feet to BTU, cost per hour at real published energy prices, and how long a cylinder actually lasts — every step shown.
The real variable
Which heaters survive a breeze, how to stop one blowing over, and why a windbreak beats a bigger heater.
Fit and safety
Covered patios, screened porches, wood decks, pergolas and gazebos — the clearance numbers and the heater that fits.
The other option
Fire pits, fire tables and chimineas against patio heaters, on output, heat direction and running cost.
Fixes
Ordered fault trees for a heater that will not stay lit, an electric unit that stopped, and the parts that fix each.
The page this site is built around
Every publisher in this category gives you a number. Almost none shows you where it came from. Ours multiplies your area by a published rule, corrects for whether there is a roof and how exposed the spot is, and prints every step — so you can disagree with a specific factor rather than with a conclusion.
It also tells you what that output costs an hour on propane and on electricity, and how long a 20 lb cylinder lasts at that burn rate.
Four pages that carry the argument. If you read nothing else here, read these.
Five axes, not two. The comparison resolves on whether you have a roof.
There is no wind-proof propane heater, and pretending otherwise loses people.
The published numbers, and the subtraction that decides most covered patios.
The fire pit wins on rated output and loses on where the heat goes.
Flame & Flagstone is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. When you buy through a link here we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. That is the whole business model — there are no sponsored placements and we accept no free product.
It does not change what we recommend, and the thing that keeps it honest is that every figure on this site has its arithmetic on the page.