Rugbuddy 470 Under Rug Space Heater, 5.5' X 8'

Still working a year later. Not that I use it a lot. Room right above garage, not insulated very well. It worked to cut the cold from the floor. This is not a heater to warm a room if that's what you are looking for.

It gets cold in Minnesota! We have a large family room in our older house with a horribly cold floor (it's built over a crawl space). I wouldn't think of sitting in this room without wool socks and slippers. Not any more! The rug buddy as transformed the floor into a cozy oasis where you want to keep your feet. I also believe it has warmed the entire room. The room has a hardwood floor and an area rug. We installed the Rug Buddy between the rug pad and the rug. The installation was easy and except for the cord you don't see it or feel it when you walk on the rug (you feel the warmth but not the thickness of the Rug Buddy). My only complaint is the cord which I felt was too short.

Not pleased at all with this purchase. Why doesn't it produce more heat?! I was super excited by the prospect of adding some heat to the living room, especially with a unit that is unseen and completely out of the way. The product; however, doesn't really live up to the idea. Yes, I followed the instructions, yes I have a rug pad underneath, etc. The RugBuddy gets "warm," but in my opinion not warm enough. Sure with bare feet on the rug, it feels nice, but to get any more benefit that you'd have to be laying on the floor, and who wants to do that? Even then, it's just barely warm. Certainly never gets anywhere approaching hot and you definitely could't heat the room with it. I expected a noticeable difference in the living room, as the heat from the rug radiated upward. Even running for long periods of time, it doesn't even the chill out of the air, and I keep my thermostat at around 70 degrees as it is. I bought the largest one, which is $300, and for that I could have bought several heaters and a good pair of socks. Maybe for $100, it'd be worth it but as it stands right now, this was just a pain to install, for little to no added actual warmth and now I'll have to tear apart the living room again to get it out from under the rug. More than anything I'm irritated by the prospect of having to remove it. Another super annoying feature is that the top of the unit is slippery, almost tarp-like material. You have a rug pad to keep the rug from slipping, which you then lay a slippery material on top of, that doesn't offer any non-slip assistance. So the rug now bunches and moves around, but just in the middle where the ineffective rug heater is located. The sides of the rug, which are still in contact with the rug pad are fine. The material of the heater also makes a crinkling sound when you walk on it. AAAHHH - I'm not running this company but I could think of several ways to improve this product. If you're looking for a super expensive way to mildly "warm" your feel, any time you just happen to be standing on a specific rug, then go for it. Otherwise, don't waste your time or money.

After a horrible experience with customer service (see original review and the responses that follow below), our second experience was quite different. Ingrid has resolved the situation. While we originally gave this product (and company) one star, Ingrid deserves 5 stars. The Rugbuddy product itself (assuming our new one works longer than one year) would probably get 4 stars from our perspective - our first one died quickly, but we can see that the new "500" model is an improvement over the "470" model - so buy the new model. :) The Rugbuddy doesn't heat our porch as much as we had hoped - but that said, it at least takes the chill off of the floor and helps the room feel a bit more comfortable. We no longer regret making this purchase. So, with Ingrid's great customer service and an improved product somewhat redeeming our original short-lived product and our awful customer service experience, we feel comfortable balancing out our review to 3 stars, and hope nobody else has a similar experience as our first one. Thanks, Ingrid, for righting a bad experience - we appreciate it! Here's our original one-star review, which we want to leave up since it was our original experience... Unfortunately I'm having the same horrible experience as others - used one winter with OK results but this fall when it started getting cool outside the Rugbuddy simply wouldn't heat at all. And worse, there's no help from the manufacturer. The 5 year warranty is a hoax and product does not last even when well taken care of in a room that's rarely used. Amazon is usually great but they need to drop this product line and stop distributing junk that costs people hundreds of dollars from a company that won't honor their warranty! By the way, I'm not sure if it'll say "verified buyer" next to my name or not when I submit my review, but I suspect it won't because the size of the Rugbuddy we bought is no longer available so we can't post a review of the product we actually purchased (same thing, just bigger at approx. 8' x 10'). But believe me, my experience is very real - we lost hundreds of dollars on the Rugbuddy purchase and the warranty they state at the time of purchase is apparently a total lie. Spend your money on products from other manufacturers, or you'll be paying hundreds for a thin, useless layer of wires underneath your rug! I hope this warning can save others from having the same awful experience we're having!

Works great as promised to keep floor warm. Couldn't use suggested purchase "timer" because it is too large to allow use of other opening in outlet. Also power cord unsightly and hard to hide. I cover it with another rug though they suggest not doing this I believe.

I live in a temperate climate and wanted radiant heating but it does not make sense for me to spend that money when I don't need it for most of the year. This rug buddy met all my needs. It's warm, only one heat setting, whatever it is it's perfect because I can sit on it for hours without getting too hot. I don't feel it under my thin rug. I think it may not be as warm with a thicker rug. I will admit that no one in my family sits on the sofa anymore, we have throw blankets and just lazr around on the floor. Great for a tired back. Because I sit on the rug more often, I vacuum and steam it at least once a week to keep the rug fresh. I wish it had a button to turn in and off instead of plugging and unplugging or buying another attachment.

I did much research before arriving at this purchase. I live in New England and have electric heat. My baseboard heaters run efficiently, but use between 750 and 1250 watts per heater. At 16.2 cents per kilowatt hour, the heating costs add up. I bought this and the 165 watt rugbuddy based on amazon reviews, and, after researching different types of electric space heaters, I thought the rugbuddy might heat my living space with lower watts. The rugbuddy works well in conjunction with other heaters running at lower temperatures, but is not so great as the sole heating source unless the weather is brisk outside. The 165 works great in conjunction with the smallest, 350/500 watt baseboard heater in the bedroom. when it is 17 to 20 degrees outside, the room is 64 degrees inside. Plastic window insulation, thermal curtains, weather stripping, and caulking all contribute to help raise the temperature while lowering power consumption. However, the 470, I feel should emit a little more heat. I have been contemplating testing out a piece of aluminum foil between the rugbuddy and the rug to increase the heat produced. But I'm not quite sure if that will lead down the path to Darwin award candidacy. I wish the manufacturer would supply a rug mat that might amplify the heat in such a manner with safety consciousness in mind.

I love it. We have a basement on concrete slab. The floors are cold in the winter even the rugs are chilly. This warms up our main 8x10 rug perfectly. It takes about an hour before you get the rug warm but once it's on it's amazing on your feet. May add a slight amount of heating efficiently to a small basement