Bowin SLE Lo-Nox

Looking for user guide – We have just purchased this heater and it has no user guide, can anyone provide me with on please, specifically how to clean the filter as the light is on and don’t want to keep using with out have the filter clean. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanking all in advance  Show details

The Heat is on.with a Bowen SLE LO-Nox – I have a Bowen, and its a pity they are not made anymore, One of the best LPG heaters I have ever used, its on everyday on lowest possible speed and heat setting,excellent,I service it myself as there are no service agents this side of NSW, Keep the filter clean and a good vacuum keeps it going, covered and wrapped over summer and placed in my garage.If you can come across one , do not hesitate buy it, you won't be sorry.  Show details

A fantastic heater – I have had my bowin heater for fifteen years, it has worked well with no problems. A friend accidentally kicked it last winter and broke the front grill. I decided to finally have it serviced so it can be cleaned and have the grill replaced. I contacted the Sydney number and they were great, they had the spare part and came to my house and did the… Read more

service. It was not that expensive and I should have done it before. I've used this heater extensively, often using in the night on a low setting, I like that it has a temperature control. If you have one don't be afraid of getting a service, I'm hoping for a lot more years with my unit. I terms of the fan noise, it does make noise but has never worried me as it is not that loud.

BOWIN SLE2 – Bought ours second hand due to Bowin's reputation as being super efficient and clean operating heater with patented technology. All in all fairly good, BUT..... Bowin as a company no longer operate, and there is only a few service people who can service them. Servicing is very expensive and apparently parts are scarce. Ours tends to cycle for… Read more

about 30 minutes before overheating, we then allow it to cool down before restarting. It's a headache and a shame that an Aussie product that was industry leading fell by the way side and now lacks support.

Powerful clean burning heater – I have had our heater for over 10 years and had one fault with it because I didn't clean the filter properly. I used to vacuum it and after the unit kept cutting out I took it to the repairer in Dianella north of Perth. He advised me to wash it in water with a bit of detergent and let it dry thoroughly, no more problems. It can be a bit loud on a… Read more ·  1

maximum setting but it adjusts its fan speed once the room warms up and is reasonable. Many people that see it in operation ask where to get one, unfortunately they can only buy second hand. Make sure if you do the yellow fault light is not on and behind the filter has no dust.

Plastic grill breaks and so does the plastic clip that holds the lid shut.

I would definitely buy another one.

Good and bad – We have two of them. No trouble with one, has worked well for many years. the other one, however, stops after anything between half and four hours, no matter what temperature setting or remote or manual, with the orange light blinking. Has to be switched off, then works again for a while. Bowin not helpful at all; service too expensive with no… Read more

confidence that problem will be fixed, so we put up with the inconvenience. Good heating, low smell on natural gas, good safety features. Unreliable and too expensive to repair - buy new for equivalent repair cost and throw this one away.

Just handed on my Bowen SLE-loved it! – I bought a Bowen 11 SLE when my first child was born (18yrs ago) for all the health and safety features. We moved a lot and so the heater had to be converted from Natural to LPG and back again several times. I always used the Bowen Design company to do the conversions On one occassion the heater got lost in transit. The owner tracked it to a… Read more ·  1

warehouse, picked it up after hours and then had his son drive it up to me in Blackheath (Blue Mountains) that night!

Fabulous heater, great design, unbelievable customer service. Where are they now? Low Nox burners, really effective, good design, exceptional after-sale service After 20 years it needs a service

Excellent – Good product, good service, well designed and made in Australia, the low emissions are great, one of our sons has mild asthma and he had to sell his Rinnai Avenger because it made his asthma really bad, he now has a Bowin SLE2 like ours and has no problems. We recently bought another one 2nd hand, had it serviced for approx $180 including some… Read more ·  1

minor parts, for the family room. Great Australian product had our SLE2 since 1997 and get it serviced approx every 2 winters, simple to clean grills and filter on a regular schedule myself, kids are fascinated with the pop-up-lid and we lost a couple of lid clips but Bowin mailed a couple only replaced an ignition board which wasn't very expensive plus the small centre grill which one of the kids cracked.

Service in Perth is easy to arrange and reasonably priced, friendly 'Older' bloke who knows the heaters inside out, we take it to him in Dianella about 8klm north of the city. If not serviced every couple of winters the fan can get a dust build up and it gets a bit of a vibration up because the fan is out of balance, doesn't happen if we keep the filter clean.

Good efficient heater – Have used our SLE2 for over 14 years with no problems. Runs on LPG with no smells.Very efficient, reasonable gas use. Heating around 50 square metres set at 22c. Cycles on and off with no problems. Living 300 metres from the Southern Ocean at Encounter Bay. Would buy again. Have recommended to friends. Energy efficient and heats quickly. Not intrusive in the room and still quite modern looking.

Product that lasts and lasts – I have had this heater for 20 years and it has been a great asset. It is now about to give up the ghost. I wish I was in Melbourne with it, so that I could give it a complete overhaul and have it serve me for another 20 years. Living in Perth makes it disdvantageous to own a Bowin because of the exclusivity of Service franchise. There are only… Read more ·  1

2 (that I know of) registered service centres (sole traders), one south of the river in Rockingham and the other, north of the river in Dianella. Both centres are quite a distance from me. Having said that, the product quality makes it a pleasure to traverse the distance to get it serviced. reliable, economical to run and efficient expensive, minimal service centres

Heater is good, servicing costs the earth ! – Purchase the heater in 2010 (we bought it 2nd hand). it has worked fine, and warms the room quickly. it's not too loud, and is safe with young kids. overall, we're very happy with it. HOWEVER, we had to get a circuit board replaced this week. could not find anyone to service the heater except for Bowin themselves. the callout fee was $130, and the… Read more

circuit board was another $130 + (despite them telling me over the phone it would cost about $30 for the part). very very expensive. reliable heater, and safe with young kids expensive to service

Bowin SLE Lo-Nox – We have had our Bowin heater for 12 years. It's still going strong. We have recently had to replace the grills but this has not affected its performance. It heats our entire home & we find it the most comfortable and cost effective form of heating. It has been extremely reliable, is energy efficient & while it was expensive to purchase (12 years ago was well over $1200) it has been very worth it!!

Really happy – I don't normally write reviews but after reading these reviews I thought I would add my experience. We could not have been happier with ours. It's now into it's sixth season with no sign of problems. We recently installed a spilt system heat pump and thought we'd use it rather than the bowin. We've gone back to using the gas heater. It's no… Read more

noisier than the split system and it heats far better. We have an open plan house and the bow in keeps it far snugglier than the split system. Reliable, heats really well and really fast. No smell and looks ok

Excellent – I find it a very good heater for our house we use it to heat an area of about 70s meters and it gets hot very fast i would recomend this aussie made product over the rinnai for shure This is a great heater was also looking at the rinnai avenger 25 but i liked the low nox idea on the bowin sle25 am happy with product i dont find it all that noisy… Read more

as do some other reviewers. The sle25 suits a large room at even on low it still produces a lot of heat

Excellent – Excellent. Don't understand other bad reviews. My families lungs are worth the investment for the low NOX emissions. Have had 2 for a number of years and only had, probably unnecessary, maintenance services done at home. These seemed good value for money as experienced, decent on time and good value technician has done check / clean to ensure… Read more

all OK for coming winter. Very effective heating without the pollution/smell most other flueless heaters produce. The high setting is great for warming a freezing house when you get back late with tired kids and the lower setting is fine to warm and keep rooms warm warm during the evening on on a cold wintery day. Too easy for toddlers to access controls and either turn off or onto flat out.

To easy for paint to get scratched and fins to get damaged however not hard or expensive to replace.

OK – Good heater, warms effectively and quickly, low emissions, was reliable for 7 years of very regular use, expensive repairs, unhelpful service desk. Other unflued gas heaters give me migraines within 2 hours of turning them on. This heater does not. For health reasons definately would recommend. Very expensive to service. I had the heater for 7… Read more

years and it has had heavy use as I am in a cold climate, but when eventually it wouldn't start the cost of repairs included call out fee $132 plus another $132 for parts, hence $264. Since I only work part-time this was considerably expensive for me BUT the alternative is to install a flued heater which is definitely beyond my current means. I did try to go without a heater (used hot water bottles and blankets instead) but I got bacterial pnemonia (was hospitalised) and wonder how much living without a heater contributed to this.

Excellent – Fantastic unit which works better than i expected. Low-nox sold me as well as good efficiency compared to others. 6 years and still running great even when run more than half a day thru 6 winters. Only noisy if it's a quiet room. Only the ignition spark might be loud enough to wake you (i don't get up but my wife might, though only… Read more

infrequently).

We had to repair our board after our 15mth boy pushed the heater over and it stopped working. We took it to Brookvale and no issue at all with service - no idea what others have experienced but we had fantastic support. I also doubt other heaters would be a lot cheaper to service (if you take it to a local store for another brand, they still charge you freight!).

You CAN get it with a longer hose - we asked for a 3m one which makes it much easier to roll and point the heat in a certain direction. Only have to ask the sales people! Brookvale can also install it with a longer hose if you have the 1m one.

No smell when using natural gas (unit might not have worked so well with bittled gas but i don't own that version)

Would have NO hesitation in buying this unit in a heartbeat if i had to again and recommend it to everyone i know! Works great, heats super fast, lo-nox massive advantage with kids and new apartments where window seals are better than old houses, timers - 2 of them - are great: heat up before you wake up and heat up before you get home! Doesn't get hot enough to burn you. None - except it doesn't like to be tipped over (our 15mth boy pushed it over and power board blew)

Terrible – We have one of these. It cost a bomb. Worked ok for a while. But just outside the warranty period, the fan died. Without the fan, nothing works. Only repair option is to take it to Brookvale, where they will "replace the main board" (for a broken fan?) at huge expense. I'm talking around $300 or so. Or we can pay the same expensive repair… Read more

bill PLUS another $100 for THEIR technician to come to us. Yeah, right... We live in the Blue mountains (...?) We never go to the city, let alone the northern beaches. So it still sits forlornly in a corner, and has done for years. Only reason it still sits there is that we haven't (yet) got the heart to throw away something SO expensive. If I could give it a zero, I would. Looks Nice. :) Expensive. Unreliable. Unbelievably poor and expensive repair system.

Terrible – In NSW, can only be serviced in Brookvale (or pay through your nose to have them come to you). Very un-helpful on the phone. I will never buy one of their heaters again!!! Unfortunately, cant rate them a Zero! Service (what service?) is crap.

Bad – Nice appearance. Expensive to maintain and purchase. What good is looks if it is expensive and unreliable. A bit disappointing. Some other reviewers seem happy with their unit perhaps I just got a bad one. Sorry, its a lemon for me. Won't buy another under this brand, not risking my hard earned money. Fast heating. Hi-Lo fan setting + Auto.… Read more

Expensive to service. First fault appear just within warranty period, won't ignite. Same fault appeared again 2 years later. Gas hose could be a bit longer. Thermastat sensor protrudes about 8mm on the side which could easily be damaged if you have kids or simply brushing past.

Good – This heater uses lo-nox technology so you're confident that there's no nasty gases that build up inside the house. It heats up the house very fast but it is a little noisy so you know when its on. Its also a little costly, but I think you get your money's worth, since it uses gas and is also safe to your health. Its flueless so you don't have… Read more

nasty gases building up inside the house that can irritate the lungs, especially if you're asthmatic. Heats up very fast. Controls are simple and easy to use. Very economical. Its a little noisy when its on, which is just the fan spinning but fortunately ours haven't started to rattle as some others have said. Costly.

OK – The metal covers are noisy and the machine needed regular expensive service. What a pity when one wants to buy an Aussie made product It heats very effectively when it works Whenever it has been stored for the summer months, it needs to be serviced. This is very expensive and rarely under $200. The panels vibrate and rattle. Very irritating. This also needed constant repair that was short lived.