Contents
Exterior
Although only the front mesh grille and trim (and the screws anyway) are actually steel, the rear housing is made of thick PA66+25%GF which is almost as good (more comparable to what you may find on a power tool, than average home appliances). The heater overall weighs about 1.7kg (excluding the cord), over twice as heavy as many cheap models!
Intake grille slots have radial width between around 5.8mm and 6mm. The front mesh has a considerable amount of give, but DēLonghi have allowed this to occur without fouling the fan, and it will spring back as long as you aren’t downright brutal.
The older unit had a few irregularities on the mesh, but this EX:3 appears flawless.
The switch and thermostat knobs are arranged concentrically (although their rotation ranges don’t overlap) for extra style points, I guess.
The switch knob is easy to grasp whether you’re reaching from in front or above the heater.
Four foam feet (to prevent wobbles and dampen vibration) are stuck to the base; on the older version two were misplaced, but I managed to find them and stick them back (in the worst case you could buy replacement material). Thankfully, they are all placed properly on my new EX:3 unit. Still, being supported on a “cross” of struts makes the rear feet a bit prone to be squashed-in (I rotated one 45° to cure it, but with limited success); to avoid this, either the recesses could be solidly filled, or at least given a tighter array of struts. But since most cheaper heaters don’t even have soft feet (definitely not all four of them), I can’t be too hard on this…
You can also see the 10 drain holes for any water dripped-in from above (although in the older unit, they didn’t quite go all the way through for some reason; but you could always drill the rest of the way).
The tip-over switch is still a basic button type, but as we will find out later this is of little consequence.
With the heater you get this card, with an elastic cord hooked behind the pointer on the power knob.
Although DēLonghi are probably correct (if a bit pompous) about the “marriage” between style and reliability, the “Silence System” is an overstatement (if you need real silence, look for a convector such as their similarly-sturdy HSX3324FTS) and in my view, they would do better to mention where they go above the standard (more on that on page 3) than boast about just complying. This should of course include instructions to switch the heater off (and wait) to allow the thermal cut-out to reset, if tripped.
(That said, marketing in general is not DēLonghi’s strong point, so maybe we can’t blame them for trying…)
Cord
We get 1.8m of H05VV-F2X1.5 (ordinary-duty PVC insulated and sheathed, 2 core 1.5mm2), manufactured by I‑Sheng (cable) and Lian Dung (plug, type LT‑219). The cable feels flexible enough (once straightened out), although the plug wire terminations may remain a weak point. On the upside, the cord clamp is very solid, so should never break.
The back of the heater has three hooks which you can wrap the cord around (albeit only one turn, about 67cm) to take up some slack.
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