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.
I just saw the commercial on TV and saw an “Amish” person with buttons on his shirt. If you have an knowledge of the Amish you would know that genuine Amish DO NOT use buttons so this sent me to the computer to investigate this company that I though might be using the Amish persona to sell a product.
Having been raised in a Mennonite household I am aware of certain things about the Amish and being photographed is not allowed. Another thing I noticed was the way some of “their Amish” had their hats tilted back on the head rather than coming down on the forehead which didn’t look right.
Who in our society would not be aware that they were being used in such a way because they do not watch TV? The Amish. It a very cynical thing to do using a people who would not bring lawsuits and fight back at being used in this way.
I just saw the ad on tv a while ago. I figured it was a crock from the first minute. What I was curious about was how it worked……”cheap made in China electric heater” is exactly what I expected to read in my google search.
Made by genuine Amish “craftsmen” is neither here nor there……if it’s too good to be true it probably just is, which has been proven with mathematical calculations posted in the replies above.
What gets me is the posts I have read in a few different spots here praising this overpriced piece of made in China junk. LOL Obviously those opinions must have been made by someone with a financial interest in this “product”. LOL
Come on people. Just because they might not be real Amish, is that a reason not to buy the Heat Surge? Let’s face it, sure your can buy an inexpensive electric heater encased in steel with wires in front of it. If you buy a Heat Surge, you are buying a nice looking piece of furniture with fake flames instead of a wire grid. I think most people would expect to pay more and as far as using it to heat your house, NOT. It should just be used to warm up a room or two. It’s funny, celebrities advertise all kinds of products from trucks to golf clubs and many people buy their products, not because they endorse them but because they like the appeal. Sure, you can buy an electric heater and pay less but just keep in mind, you can spend $35,000 for a very nice new car or you can spend less than half of that and get a nice new car that will get you where you want to go a whole lot cheaper. The insurance is less too. It’s what appeals to you.