A distributor in Germany once asked me why his oil-filled radiators were getting returns. The units worked fine. The problem was he sold them as "fast heat" in a market where buyers wanted silent, steady warmth for bedrooms. Wrong product for the wrong room. That's the kind of mistake this article is meant to prevent.
If you're sourcing electric heaters for retail, you're probably looking at two workhorses: oil-filled radiators and convection panels. They look similar on a spec sheet. They behave very differently in a customer's home. Here's what actually matters when you're placing an order.
How They Make Heat
A convection heater heats air directly. A metal element warms up, air passes over it, hot air rises, cool air drops. You feel warmth within a minute or two. Turn it off, the heat stops almost immediately.
An oil-filled radiator heats a sealed body of thermal oil. The element warms the oil, the oil warms the metal fins, the fins warm the room. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to feel anything. But once it's hot, it keeps radiating heat for 20 to 30 minutes after you switch it off. That's the core trade-off: speed versus residual warmth.
Where Each One Wins
Convection panels are the better choice for a wall mounted electric heater in a bathroom, hallway, or small office. They're thin, they heat fast, and they're easy to mount. A 1500W panel will handle a 15–20 m² room in a well-insulated European home. In a drafty UK Victorian flat, expect closer to 10–12 m².
Oil-filled radiators are the pick for bedrooms and living rooms where people want a silent electric heater that runs overnight. No fan, no clicking, no dry air. A 2000W unit with 9 to 11 fins will hold a 20–25 m² room at a stable temperature. They're heavier, they take longer to warm up, and they cost more to ship. That last point matters more than most buyers realize.
The Shipping Math Nobody Talks About
A 2000W oil-filled radiator weighs 9 to 12 kg. A comparable convection panel weighs 3 to 4 kg. If you're importing from an OEM electric heater manufacturer China, that weight difference hits you twice: once in freight, once in Amazon FBA fees. I've seen buyers kill a product line because they didn't run this number before committing to a container.
MOQ for either type is typically 200 pcs per model. Lead time runs 15–45 days depending on whether you need custom packaging, a private label electric heater with your branding, or modified wattages. If you want CE, RoHS, UKCA, and ERP compliance documentation, add a week for the test reports.
Controls and Features That Actually Sell
A mechanical thermostat is cheap and reliable. A digital thermostat with a timer sells better in Western Europe. A wifi smart electric heater sells better on Amazon US and in smart-home-heavy markets like the Netherlands.
My honest advice: don't put wifi on every SKU. It adds 8–12% to unit cost, and it creates after-sales headaches when the app breaks or the customer's router is 2.4GHz-only. Offer one wifi model as a halo SKU. Keep the volume on mechanical and digital.
Tip-over switch and overheat protection are non-negotiable for any market that enforces ERP. For bathroom use, you need IP24 minimum. Don't let a buyer talk you into selling a non-IP24 unit as a bathroom heater. It will come back.
Running Cost Reality
A 2000W heater running at full power for 8 hours uses 16 kWh. At €0.30/kWh, that's €4.80 per night. Most units cycle on and off, so real consumption is lower, maybe 60–70% of that. This is why energy efficient electric heater searches spike every winter. Buyers want low wattage electric heater options for small rooms, and they want thermostats that actually modulate.
If you're selling into a market where electric heater vs gas is a live debate, be honest in your listing copy. Electric is cheaper to install, more expensive to run in most of Europe. In parts of Asia and North America where gas infrastructure is thin, electric wins outright.
What I'd Order
For a first container, I'd split it: 60% convection panels in 1000W, 1500W, and 2000W, and 40% oil-filled radiators in 1500W and 2000W. Add one wifi SKU. Skip the 500W and 2500W extremes until you have data.
Make sure your supplier provides CE and RoHS certificates with the shipment, not just a promise. Ask for the ERP test report by model number. If they can't produce it, walk.
The takeaway: oil-filled and convection heaters aren't competitors. They're room-specific tools. If you source them as if they're interchangeable, your returns rate will tell you otherwise by February.
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