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 am not sure which part of Amish country they found their workers. In the area of Upstate NY that I grew up you would not have been able to find an Amish farmer that spoke such clear English without a thick German accent, nor would they have used the pneumatic nail guns you can see in the background of the TV advertisement. They also would not constuct something that would use electric when they themselves do not use electric. The cardboard box in the back of the horse and carriage was a real treat too.
That said, I would like to thank the marketers for providing such a clear oportunity to explain to my children what false advertisement is.
Thank you so much. I rec’d the ad today in my sales paper. I live in Arkansas and was especially interested in the heater. I was really sucked in and rearranging funds in order to pay for it. I thought I’d better check it out first and happened up on your site. GOD BLESS YOU! I am so over them and their bogus ad. How do they know when the 48hrs. are supposedly over anyway? I am not well versed on the amish, however what I do know is that they will not allow themselves to be photographed and know about it. Oh yes, since when did they start promoting electricty?
I too am thinking of purchasing one of these heaters, and after reading your blog was very concerned, so……..I went to the web site selling the Amish heat surge units. Guess what? They have the Good Housekeeping seal! Now for those of you who don’t know what that is, Good Housekeeping is one of the BEST voices for consumers. If a product has their seal, they have made sure that it’s tried & true to its statements. Also, if you purchase an item with the Good Housekeeping seal, Good Housekeeping guarantees you a 100% refund for any product that doesn’t hold true for you for up to 2yrs after the purchase! So……just to make sure this wasn’t “photo shopped” into the heat surge advertisement, I went directly to the Good Housekeeping web site. Guess what! It’s there! The Amish heaters are truely backed by the Good Housekeeping seal! So, for all of you folks (like me) who were almost swayed by this blog that apparently didn’t do their homework, there’s your facts. Good day.