On Fri, 5 Dec 2008 05:58:22 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

The heater is on. I usually just turn it on/off at the wall. Is this
inadvisable?

In a word yes. B-) Not overly important for small loads but heavy ones
like heaters it is better to switch off on the appliance before switching
off at the wall. If nothing else it saves damage to the sockets switching
contacts by the arc that you see.

--
Cheers
Dave.