Thermo Tiki Stainless Steel Floor-Standing Propane Patio Heater with Cover

The heater works as it's supposed to. The problem is that it is not stable. My heater fell twice before the tank was empty, and now the heat reflector plate is destroyed. I am searching for a reflector plate, but I don't know what will fit.

We bought this as a gift. They said the holes didn't line up for the bolts on the wheels. They had to drill another hole to put the wheels on. Other than that, it is beautiful!

JUNK JUNK JUNK! I got two because they looked good, and my patio could use two. They had all these good reviews. I totally skipped over the other 1-star reviews. Being naive, I guess. First, building both of them each took an hour or more. Each of the four parts in the deflector shield were wrapped individually in tight protective plastic seal on both sides which was REALLY hard to get hold off and peel, because it also was into all the rolled corners and such. I had to use a steak knife to fish it out of those nooks and crannies. Then there was the issue of the wheels: There were wheels included, yet the bases included in both boxes did NOT have holes for the wheels to attach to; they only had holes to attach the L-brackets that are there to permanently fix these heaters onto your deck. So, I had to drill holes into the steel bases. Then realized the first one I built was looking crooked, once put together. Like, leaning five degrees off the vertical, like the Pizza Tower. My fault? Maybe I squeezed some screw too much? Nope. The long pipe you see going vertically is soldered at the factory to a base plate at three points. It was soldered wrong! There is no way to fix it, unless I know how to unsolder & resolder. Holly smokes! That is when I started reading the bad reviews that were buried within the glowing reviews (later I read an article on the web how products pay for good reviews, just google/bing for "Amazon rating problem"; c'mon people!!). They were all complaining about it not lighting up. Seriously, a heater that won't light up and heat??? Also crooked? Also no wheel holes? Where is the quality control? I was concerned. Very. Once I finished putting the first one together, I tried to light it... nope. It wouldn't come on. It took me about 10-15min of clicking the PILOT button to get it to light. But it did light. I was relieved. I must have been lucky to get a functional unit. I convinced myself that it must have been the initial air in the hose etc. So, I built the 2nd unit I had received. Then I tried to light that one. Nope. Not happening. I went back to the first one.... Nope. Not happening anymore. I tried both with two different tanks. I tried on the PILOT setting and on the HI setting. I tried with the PILOT button and with a gas lighter I use for my BBQ. Nope. Nope. Nope. Not working. I bought two units, and only one of the lit up only once. I don't even know if they are good heaters, once they work, because THEY DON"T WORK! Now I am stuck with two completely built heaters, not working, two full new tanks I had bought for these I have no other use for anymore, and I had also bought two of the "Fire Sense Full Length Pro Series Patio Heater Vinyl Cover"  Fire Sense Full Length Pro Series Patio Heater Vinyl Cover  (which are, by the way, EXCELLENT) because the cover included in the box with the heater is simply a flimsy joke: it is short, barely covering the head and not the full body, made of low quality tarp material, hard to put on unless you are 6ft5in tall, etc. After the first heater had worked just once, I had thrown away all packaging material, plus they are both fully built. I don't even know how to return it. And, I cannot just put it out as trash, since the trash truck won't pick them up as such. So, I would have to find a truck to carry them to the dump, and then pay the city to dump them. Argh!!!

The Thermo Tiki is a much higher quality heater than I expected for the price. It puts out the heat and started right up. Better than units I've seen on restaurant patios. Packaging was good; no dents, as some reviewers have noted. Going to turn it on now and enjoy the AZ sunset. My sweet hubs put it together...here are his detailed assembly notes!The assembly directions in the Owner’s Manual were well illustrated and broken up into logically defined steps. Having pictures of all the fasteners involved and placing each type of fastener in its own blister pack section were nice touches. From a purely technical competence perspective, the assembly is not a big project – just follow the directions and it all comes together as planned.Estimated assembly time (60 minutes) is optimistic – it took me more like 2 hours. A large part of the extra time was taken up in peeling off the protective film from many stainless steel parts. Be sure to peel off the outer side film from the heat deflector parts (the side the curls around the lip of the reflector) first as doing that makes getting the inner side film out of the curled up lip easier.The assembly guide suggests to use a Philips screwdriver to open the pilot light sight port. I had to switch to a medium size broad flat headed screwdriver as the Phillips screwdriver cammed out – the retaining screw is really tight. Also, don’t count on just using the pretty primitive wrench provided. Nuts and bolts are involved in many cases so a tool on each end of the assembly is often required. Best to use box end metric wrenches of the correct size to tighten the nuts and something substantial to hold the bolts.

This unit was relatively inexpensive. It came in a single carton and needed assembly. Assembly was easy -- the instructions were very well written, among the best I've seen for a 'some assembly needed' appliance. Once started the heater proved very effective -- I've not managed to get it off 'low' yet. (I'm used to this design of patio heater at restaurants; maybe its because this was new or was running propane rather than natural gas but it seemed to deliver a lot of heat compared to the others I've experienced.)

Bought this is November of 2014. Rarely used it, I think I only ever ran two propane tanks through it, and last night it wouldn't start. This has been my typical experience with this product. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have been unimpressed with this particular model so I am going with a different brand this time in hopes of having better luck.

Decent product, but I can’t give it 5 stars due to the fact the base that I received was missing the two holes needed to attach the casters. Someone at the factory forgot to drill those two holes and QA didn’t catch it. Thankfully I have a drill and skills.

not as warm as expected