We love our infratech heaters. They are dreamy. Required a significant upgrade to our electrical which was annoying as it was not done correctly in the build. It has a timer and varying temps. We have two.

I frequent a nearby restaurant that has an outdoor covered patio with some sort of heaters when the weather gets cold. When the heaters are needed, I eat inside the restaurant.

I realize Mark is being cheeky here but heaters allow us to use our covered patio all four seasons in Vancouver. We love them

Is he being cheeky? If you don't like the cold, then you should probably be inside. That is just logical. Using outdoor heaters - especially regularly - could be considered wasteful. Maybe he is just trying to call it out in a polite way?

We also have Infratech heaters. Work great.

Thank you everyone for your feedback. We are considering between Bromic BR-ETNG-40 versus Infratech CD-4024SS -- Thank you.

I think you need to define "cold" and your expectations of "comfortable". 40 degrees and cuddled on a couch under a blanket with a heater is more doable than 0 degrees and wanting to be in shorts. Either way, electric resistance heating is one of the most expensive options you can choose, so if you have expectations of running it constantly, your utility company will thank you.

It is the former rather than latter option and we will be using it a few times a month in the winter months. So not that frequent usage.

That’s similar to us. We aren’t out there every night but I love being out there all the same. Cozy on the couch with a blanket. We also have a fire pit. Infratech is great. We considered other brands but Innfratech’s ability to heat was just so much better

These are ours

In designing spaces that to some degree shelter life, there is a balance that needs to be determined that sometimes pits 'comfort in the space' against 'experience of the space'. The enjoyment of experiencing a heated open covered porch lets one live an oxymoron.

It may be equated to ice fishing. Whenever I have gone ice fishing, I have always caught a lot of ice.

And there is always the attitude of, "I paid a lot of money for this covered porch, and by golly I am going to get as much use out of it as I can!"

I think heated patios get the best use in shoulder seasons and evenings when it light out and beautiful but a bit crisp. They simply extend the possibilities. Especially during the height of Covid the covered and heated patio was magic.

We have a gardening group that likes to meet face to face through the year but as most of us are 60+, we are still (yes still) hesitant to meet indoors. One member has a lovely covered deck that this sort of heating would be great for but when I priced it, I thought it very expensive. Currently, another member drags a propane fire pit over and we enjoy the warmth from that.

Seeing some of the comments here,  I was thinking these heaters might cost thousands of dollars a piece. Looking it up,  I see most infratech options are around a thousand dollars.  This seems totally reasonable to have for outdoor comfort.  Yes, it will cost more in electricity to use it.  But the analogy would be heated pools, which are quite common.

They aren’t cheap to install. Our total cost for two heaters installed, three years ago, was about $5600 Canadian.

I prefer a hot tub when it gets cold outside

Replying to the comment by TT:

> I see most infratech options are around a thousand dollars.

They basically nickel and dime you. You want flush mount - that is another 600. You want anything more than a simple on/off switch, that is another arm and a leg. And don't forget the install cost for the electrician to provide 240V separate circuit for these.

I am going through some of the same decision making and almost tempted to not bother with them. As somebody here said that the electricity company will be thanking me if I do end up using them for significant periods of time.