Turbonics. VERY happy with ours. Learned about it (and GW forums!) right here in Kitchen forum. Our plumber, who'd tried to dissuade us from getting them ("they're noisy" "you'll hate it" etc...) was impressed with these when he installed them. We have the Kickster (+3 or +4)--we had two installed; one on either side of our island.

If you call the company directly, they will help figure out which model you need (we wanted to end up with same BTU's we were going to lose by moving things around and taking down a wall in the kitchen).

They are quiet (you hear the air noise, but no "squirrel cage" squealing which apparently is common with most kick heaters) and can be hooked up to a switch or not.

Here is a link that might be useful: Turbonics

Thank you Cat_Mom, do you know where you purchased yours? Btw, I've admired your kitchen many times and have shown it to my dh for inspiration. I believe we live near each other in NY.

Thank you for the compliment! I'm glad you like our kitchen! :-)

We bought the Kicksters in Congers at AF Rockland Supply on Rte 9W. When we purchased them (late '06 or early '07), they were supposedly the largest distributor in our area.

Where are you located? I think I remember that you live nearby....

Thanks for the info. My DH will try and head over there this week. We are in New City.

You're welcome. We're near Suffern. Was in New City yesterday (in the rain, ugh!).

We have a toe kick heater, not sure what brand, but we love it. We have an period house with rad heating and it is wonderful to be able to turn on heat in one room and get instant warmth.

There was a lot of discussion of toekick heaters on this forum a few years ago. If I recall correctly, the concern was heaters connected to the hot water heating systems. I think the problem was with them not putting out heat properly, but can't remember exact issue. Ours is electric.

What type of heating system do you have?

I have two Turbonics 6/8 Toesters in my kitchen tied to my hydronic heating system. They are sufficient to heat the entire kitchen and former LR space, albeit slowly if one demands a large change in temperature. I know this because pending the last coat of floor finish, the LR is still missing its baseboard heaters.

This heating performance is in spite of the Toesters being operated at lower than low speed. Fan speed is deliberately turned down because I found that the fans would start "breathing" when the access panels in the floors of the cabinets were closed. (Turned down means using a motor controller in series with them and wiring them for low speed.) Although the 4-inch kick space meets the requirements of the heaters' drawings, I suspect that there is too much restriction above the fan for the fan to operate stably. I didn't care for the sound, even though it was subtle. Smaller units may not have this issue with this height.

kas

A motor controller or fan controller is like a lamp-dimming wall switch, except a CW action lowers the fan power rather than increasing it as in a lamp dimmer. They are also tolerant of inductive loads. Most electrical distributors should carry them.