Vornado Velocity CUBE 5S (2025)

Heat distribution and the thermostat

Vornado’s vortex approach moves air in a spiral column, and that is what lets this heater warm a room evenly without oscillation. BHG’s testers wrote that this “petite model is powerful enough to uniformly heat a room without oscillation” and named it their Best Small pick for 2026. Wirecutter tested the model directly and found it “provided some impressively consistent heat, even if it wasn’t the strongest heater we ever tested.”

The thermostat decides whether the unit is pleasant to live with, and here the evidence is mixed. Per-setting wattage is unpublished, so what Medium actually draws is not documented anywhere. The only running cost is electricity, and with no published wattage steps a running-cost figure cannot be computed from verified data; retailer copy caps the top setting at 1,500 W, which is also the practical ceiling for any US space heater on a 15-amp circuit.

WIRED’s broader point applies directly: large space heaters are not more powerful than small ones, because nearly all of them are capped at 1,500 W. What differs is how and where the heat goes. On that measure this cube does well — the same vortex design is why WIRED’s tester calls Vornado’s heat distribution among the most even he has measured. Placement matters: the heater wants an unbroken line to the opposite wall or corner.

Noise and surface temperature

WIRED’s tester put the Cube 5S on the Not Recommended side of its 2026 roundup: “This cube’s outer housing stayed quite cool, and the fan functionality is welcome. But its surface vent got a little hot, and the fan was a bit on the noisy side compared to other Vornados.”

No decibel figures exist for this model, so the noise complaint is hands-on judgment, not a measurement. For a bedroom heater it still matters, because quiet operation is the main reason to pay Vornado money at all. For context, WIRED measured its own quiet pick, the Vornado TAVH10, at 36-46 dB, and the budget Honeywell Surround 360 at 55 dB.

Safety, warranty and upkeep

The manual documents the safety set in plain terms: a tip-over switch cuts power if the unit falls and restores it when the unit is set upright, a multilevel overheat shut-off cuts power if airflow becomes blocked, and the case stays cool while the grille does not. The overheat shut-off is a manual reset: power off, unplug, remove obstructions, wait 5-10 minutes, re-power. If it repeatedly shuts off or will not reset, Vornado’s support line is 1-800-234-0604.

The warranty is the strongest part of the offer: five years against defects in materials or workmanship, with repair or replacement at no cost to the original owner. Service runs through a Return Authorization: call that number or email help@vornado.com, ship the unit with the RA number clearly marked to Vornado in Andover, Kansas, and allow 2-3 weeks after receipt. Abuse, modification and shipping damage void the cover. The certification index dates this model to 2024-11-06, so long-term reliability data is still thin.

Upkeep is light. Vornado recommends weekly vacuuming of the front outlet and rear inlet grilles, a wipe with a soft dry cloth, and a periodic blow-out with pressurized air to keep the element and motor clear of dust, hair and debris. There is no filter to replace and no consumable to buy. There are also no user-serviceable parts: the manual’s instruction for faults is to return the heater to Vornado, so the warranty, not a parts bin, is the repair path.

Where to buy it

Vornado lists the Cube 5S at $99.99 on both of its product pages, and Home Depot lists the same item number at $99.99; BHG’s 2026 roundup cited $100 at Walmart. The Swivel Base page is in stock while the “(2025)” white variant page shows out of stock — same machine, two listings.

Two cautions when shopping. An unofficial storefront, vornadoheater.us, lists this exact model at $30 against a $99.99 reference price and answers to a different support phone number. Vornado’s live safety recall covers the SRTH Small Tower Heater, a different product.

At $99.99 this is a reasonable one-room buy if you value the warranty, the cool-touch case and even heat over extras. Above about $120 the trade gets harder to justify: WIRED’s top pick, the Dreo Whole Room Heater 714 at $100, adds a remote, dual-axis oscillation and measured 40-50 dB noise, and Vornado’s own TAVH10 measures 36-46 dB at $160 at Walmart and $132 at Home Depot.

Which model this is

This page covers the Vornado Velocity CUBE 5S, item number EH1-0212-43, sold in the US as the white “Velocity CUBE 5S Whole Room Space Heater (2025)” and as the “Velocity Cube 5S Whole Room Heater with Swivel Base” — Vornado’s own pages carry both names for the same machine. The Amazon listing for this model is ASIN B0FNP4CB4B.

Do not merge it with the lookalikes that show up in the same search results: the Cube 5 OSC adds powered 70-degree oscillation, the Cube Osc+ carries the remote control, and the Velocity 5R is a tower. None of them is this model. Vornado’s owner’s guide identifies the machine only as model VELOCITY CUBE 5S.

Sources

Manufacturer:

• Vornado VELOCITY CUBE 5S owner’s guide (PDF)
• Velocity Cube 5S Whole Room Heater with Swivel Base
• Velocity CUBE 5S Whole Room Space Heater (2025)
• Vornado Owner’s Guides

Independent reviews:

• The 5 Best Space Heaters of 2026, Tested by BHG
• 8 Best Space Heaters (2026): Tested, Measured, and Mistreated (WIRED)

Retail listings:

• Home Depot: Vornado Velocity 5 Cube 5S, Model# EH1-0212-43
• Lowe’s: Vornado EH1-0212-43
• Vornado manuals and certification index (device.report)
• Vornado heaters collection

Owner reports:

• No exact-model owner threads were found in readable sources; the owner evidence here comes from independent hands-on tests.

Shopping cautions:

• SRTH Small Tower Heater recall (vornado.com)
• vornadoheater.us unofficial storefront listing this model
• notice-facile.com spec sheet — contradicts the owner’s guide; treat its figures as unverified