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 think the “hey, these things are awesome and fill my life with joy!” postings are hilarious, so by all means keep those coming. It’s a shame this blog has tapered off.
Oh, and one points people to check out what the BBB has to say about these folks. Presumably here:
http://www.bbb.org/canton/business-reviews/fireplaces/heat-surge-llc-in-canton-oh-20005318/
Notice all the good things the BBB has to say about Heatsurge LLC:
“Following the BBB request to modify the ad, the “coffee maker” claim was removed from the print promotion, but is included in the television commercial as “uses about the same energy as a coffee maker.” This correlation is based upon the two electrical products drawing the same average wattage from the standard electrical outlet. Recent ads have indicated that the company has changed the headline to read ” Only uses about 8 cents an hour” . The BBB will continue to monitor this statement.”
“Solid Wood (Oak)- inquiries have indicated confusion as to the validity of the mantel being made of solid wood (oak). The company has informed the BBB during a 9/11/08 meeting, that they are now using real wood.”
I guess this is what the above poster would call ‘investigation’.
‘Yo, you guys using real wood now?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Good enough for us.’
The BBB goes on to rave:
“This business is not a BBB Accredited Business.”
Clearly the BBB is big on Heatsurge!
All I know about this is that my husband and I purchased two of these heaters about 3 yrs ago and we really love them. They heat well and are energy efficient. I don’t know if the Amish actually built the mantle, but I am not really concerned because it does look nice and works well.
I bought the heat surge more than 2 1/2 years now. Two weeks ago while watching tv in the family room with my wife, I heard a very loud bang like an explosion. I stand up and look around both the back and front windows of the house but didn’t see anything. When I came back to the family room, I saw the glass of the heat surge shattered but intack. the unit was not even on. ( Are you kidding? Temp. outside this summer is 90 deg. F). Last winter I didn’t even use it because it didn’t heat up my small family room as advertised in the tv. this was the winter of 2009. This winter of 2010 the unit was “not” being used at all. The unit is worthless as a heater.
I called the company but “they” don’t sell me replacement parts. I have to go to a qualified technician for safety reasons. I have a vast experience in electro-mechanical repair and an electronic tech by trade. I trained a lot of guys in both fields until I retire 2 years ago. I am 67 years old now and can’t buy a replacement glass to replace the broken one….for safety reasons? This is very basic and a mickey mouse work!!! I will buy my own glass in a local glass store. They want me to buy the whole insert for $249 plus shipping. This is big crap and a scam!!!
Thanks for reading my stuff. I am mad.
Oscar