Space heater in carry on?
 

Am I allowed to bring a space heater in my carry on luggage? I can't find anything in the TSA list of prohibited items that at all resembles a space heater. Anybody have personal experience?

As long as it is not an oil-heater but just wire-element heater or an infrared heater it should not be a problem.

I have taken a toaster oven in my carry-on.

Hooray and thanks! I will be nice and warm in Boston tonight!

You might blow a fuse if you try to plug it into the aircraft 110VAC outlet, though. Best case, it won't put out much heat. :)

You know, prior to my FT days, I think I would have just shaken my head and asked "why on earth would anyone carryon a toaster/space heater!?!" Now that I've been flying a bit more, I fairly nonplussed when I see random things being shrinkwrapped as luggage or watch customs officials pull out leaking jars of food (?) from people's bags. :p


As this is a practical question about carryon luggage and security checkpoints, we'll move this thread over to the Practical Travel Safety and Security Issues forum for further discussion. Thanks. :) /JY1024, TravelBuzz co-moderator

There's always an explanation and most times, it makes perfect sense.

I had a toaster oven that was barely used and not being used. Family in another state wanted a toaster oven. It was obviously not cost effective to ship it, wasteful to just discard it and let the family buy a new one, and too tricky to pack safely enough to check.

Now the smoked turkey that makes an annual trip home with me? It always gets a bag check and a swab. I don't check it because I would like to trust TSA and the baggage handlers, I really would...but when I'm meeting family for Thanksgiving and I'm the one bringing the main course, I'm not taking any chances.

That was my first reaction. "What on Earth......?" But I've also grown accustomed to seeing some strange things carried on to a plane.

Strange is watching a passenger sit in the aisle of a plane and fire up a coffee machine....not too far away from the livestock in the cabin. Yemenia, early '00s. :)

I carry a "My Heat" personal space heater in my bag. Only once in the year I've had it has my bag been searched. I need it because a lot of the places I work in are very cold. Got tired of freezing all the time.

Electric would be fine. Done it before with no problems.

I thought I was the only one who'd ever seen this...around that same time, pre-9/11, on SV out of Riyadh we saw some dude lighting what reminded me of a Bunsen burner to make tea in the aisle. Some big Saudi guy built like a linebacker jumped up and apparently explained to him in Arabic why that wasn't a good idea. :D