Amish Heat Surge Miracle Heater Scam

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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!

This heater can be yours for only $385

This heater produces the same amount of heat and costs $27 at Walmart

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.

233 thoughts on “Amish Heat Surge Miracle Heater Scam

  1. I got my HeatSurge EV2 portable fireplace free 2-1/2 years ago by exchanging rewards points. I LOVE IT! I have 1225 sq ft upstairs, with another 1225 sq ft basement. When I run the central heat at 65-degrees, my electric and gas usages sky rocket to $170 or more per month. With this portable fireplace, I roll it to the bedroom at night and it heats 14’x 16′ so efficiently that I have to keep it on the lower setting so I don’t get too hot. My central vent doesn’t warm my office better than 60 degrees, but this little fireplace gets it to a toasty 73 within an hour. High heat warms my 20’x20′ living room so well that I have to turn it down after two or three hours. Best reward is that by only heating the room I am in instead of the whole house all of the time, my highest winter utility bill has been $101. The only gas is used for the hot water heater instead of the furnace. This definitely works better than the space heaters that Walmart sells. It uses a lot lower amps than those little heaters, and that translates to lower electric bills. You can call me a fool, but I’m saving money and my utility bills are proof.

    • I agree with you. These heaters are amazing. My mom has thi first one they came out with and the only thing that had to be replace was two light bulbs. They are by far better than what you buy at Walmart Sears or Home Depot.

  2. Pingback: Don't fall for the "Amish" knock off items - Amish Direct Furniture

  3. My mom bought one when they first came out and I was extremely sceptical. But I have to say it heats her whole downstairs of her house and has saved her a lot on her gas bill. Her electrical bill didn’t go up at all. These heaters are not meant for a constant heat source to replace a heater but more to heat a room up if you don’t want to run your furnace to heat the whole house. It’s great for bedrooms and basements. She hasn’t had any problems with hers except she had to change two light bulbs. In my option I think they work great and are very dependable unlike the ones you buy at the store that just don’t last at all and I know from experience.

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