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.
Thanks so much for the useful information.I just cancelled my order with HSN it was priced at $399.00. I think I will save some money and go to Wal Mart.
By the way my wife was quick to notice that the Amish don’t use electricity, and that was before reading all of these comments. My mistake was not doing my homework prior to ordering.
If you don’t want one, don’t buy one, but after reading this blog, I would not buy one. I looked at the whole site, and did not find the Good Housekeeping Seal anywhere.
Let me start off with the fact that I am in no way connected with the amish nor do I profit from the sales of the heat surge fireplace. I feel saddened to see so many “negative” people. Who really cares if the amish depicted in these ads are real amish or not. Do you wish to purchase an amish person? The heat surge is the product being sold, not the amish. I, myself, do not own a heat surge firplace; however, I am going to purchase two, one for the upstairs bedrooms and one for the main floor downstairs. I have seen this product in use, therefore, can verify that this is one great product. It is made from “real wood”, very nice weight and has a beautiful finish. My brother purchased two and my mother owns one. This fireplace heats the house remarkably well, in fact, I made the statement to mom that I was going to have to wear summer shorts when I visit her in order not to have a “melt down”. She uses only the heat surge and not her furnace. Her heating bills are a lot lower than mine each month and her electric bill is much lower than mine, and I remind you I have no heat surge yet. I love the way the unit can be moved around the house with ease; however, if it is placed in a central location of your home, there is no need to move it at all. The heat flows to the other rooms nicely. Contrary to what others had to say, there is no smoke, no soot and no loss of heat. My brother and mother have had their heat surge now for a couple of years and absolutely no problems whatsoever with their units. The heat surge is much better than any space heater I have seen on the market for sale. Those of you who wish to listen to all of those “negative” people, go ahead but you are really missing out on a quality made piece of furniture that produces great heat.