I saw a two-page ad in the Rocky Mountain News this week about some new miracle heater called the ‘Amish Heat Surge‘ and it fell into the category of things that sounded to me to be ‘just a little fishy’. Later I saw a commercial for the same product. Sure enough, after doing some calculations, I figured out that this is just a scam to overcharge people for a cheap electric heater made in China. Searching the Internet, I found a few unhappy customers who fell for it. Even though the heaters are ‘free’, you pay $298 for the ‘Amish authentic wood mantles’ that enclose them. In reality, there’s no reason to wrap an electric heater with a wooden box or mantle. It also has some sort of fake fire effect. Oh, and shipping costs $50 EACH. And they’ll stick you with an extended warranty for $28 each. So for around $770, you’d get a pair of heaters that do the same thing as a pair of $27 electric heaters you can pick up at Wal-Mart.
A 5,119 BTU/hr heater generates about 1/20th the heat produced by a household furnace. It will draw 1.5 kW. For every hour this thing runs, it will cost about $.15 in electricity, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but over a 730 hour month, that adds up to an extra $108 on your electric bill. Electric resistive heat is the most expensive way to heat a house. It costs about twice as much per BTU as natural gas heat. Just to put it in another perspective, a 2,100 sq. ft. house in my home state of Colorado uses about 6 therms of natural gas a day in the coldest winter months. At the current gas price of $1.20 per therm, a typical gas bill is $216/month during the winter months. To heat your house to the same temperature with this electric heater, you’d need to have 5 of these heaters operating at the high setting 24 hours a day. The additional monthly charges on your electric bill for just the heaters would be $540!
The ad talks about only using it to heat zones, which can save on your heating bill, of course, but only at the expense of having some of the rooms in your home being uncomfortably chilly. And you can’t really completely turn off your central furnace without the risk of pipes freezing. In other words, if you put a heater like this in the room that has your furnace’s thermostat, and thus your furnace never comes on, you may freeze pipes in a remote part of the house.
The ad is full of high pressure sales nonsense, such as requiring a special savings code that expires in 48 hours, or you’d otherwise pay $587 each! There is a limit of 2 per household and they need to ‘turn away dealers’ because they can’t keep up with demand.
If you’re one of the people reading this article who bought an Amish Heat Surge heater, please note that I mean no disrespect to you. I’m just tired of con artists using slick advertising to suck people into buying things that aren’t worth a fraction of the sales price.
ok so my grandma bought me one of these for my house psssshhh amish my ass you can tell these thing are put together on a line in china by 12yr old children. yeah they heat but what you said is right. but i cant say much it was free to me.
I saw the add on tv for the first time about a year ago, and was sold. But never took down the information. I just saw another add on tv tonight and was so excited and ready to purchase it.
I was typing the words heat surge into google, and ya know how google has a box that pops up underneath with options, well the second option was amish scam, if I had gone straigt to the website I would of never read the reviews.
After reading them I am mixed on weather to buy or not. I was certain it was a scam but then read the Good Housekeeping seal information. I don’t know what to do. I also enjoy the glow and look of the fireplace, but if it is not quality then it’s not worth it. On the other hand, if good housekeeping will refund the money, do I want to take the chance, and might have to go through the hassel of contacting good housekeeping to get a refund and pay for shipping? I wish there was a similar fireplace that was in a department store.
I know you probably won’t publish this because I am raving about this heater. My uncle drives the Amish who make the mantles and he got us one of the heaters three years ago. It is amazing and beautiful to look at. Who wants to sit and look at the Wal-mart heater?? This fireplace heater heats our entire living room,dining room and kitchen on the high setting and does not run up the electric bill. Everyone who visits makes great comments about it. You do need to read the newspaper ad closely though, as you only are getting the heaters free with payment of the beautiful handcrafted Amish mantles. READ people don’t just assume.