Heat Surge fireplace - what’s up with that?
by rd @ 1:29 pm 588 comments »
Just ran across a two-page spread in the Sunday paper for the Heat Surge Roll ‘n Glow portable electric fireplace which set off a red flag alert in my blog-addled mind. The company HeatSurge, LLC has a website amishfireplaces.com where you can enter a code to presumably get 2 free heating units during this special offer by purchasing the accompanying Amish-made mantle, you just have to respond within a 1-800-ripmeoff-ish 48 hours.
The headline for the ad reads “Amish man’s new miracle idea helps home heat bills hit rock bottom” which would indicate that an Amish man (traditional Amish sects disavow the use of electricity, phones and mechanized stuff) invented this product. The small print states that the heating technology itself was actually invented by an “engineering genius” in China. The Amish are making the handcrafted wooden mantle. Some consumers have taken issue with the company’s claims, with the most comprehensive evaluation appearing on Yahoo! Answers here.
The other claim in the ads is that the unit consumes less electricity than an electric coffee-maker (I believe that is if they are on for the same amount of time) while producing over 5000 BTU’s of heat and that you can save amazing amounts of cash on your home heating bill by moving the unit from room to room. (The Paul Harvey endorsed, EdenPure, makes similar claims). In both cases, though, turning the heat down in the rooms you’re not currently in, is not normal home owner behavior. ConsumerReports.org has a post on space heaters and lower heating bills. The Heat Surge units do appear to create a nice fireplace-like appearance, don’t require a chimney or flue, and can be rolled around the home. Checkout ConsumerSearch.com or pick-up the October Consumer Reports for a closer look at space heater ratings.
A better way to conserve heat might be to add some insulation to your home and get programmable thermostats that can regulate your home heating by zone and time to enable you to turn the heat down when you’re not home or in a particular room. Do your research before jumping to throw money at a ‘miracle’ offer that appears to be too good to be true. Also consider safety issues concerning space heaters. Portable space heaters cause thousands of home fires each year.
Anyone who has purchased one of these units or done additional research on the Heat Surge product, please chime in.
Related: Space Heater Alternatives to Heat Surge and Heat Surge Update
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I just purchased one of these electric fireplaces and I love it!! I work out of my home office, and to have the heat on in my 3800 sq. foot home while i’m not in it majority of the time is a waste. I just heat my office while i’m in it. That’s not the reason I bought it, i like the way the flame relaxes me. The unit is extremely quite even on high. I priced other units online and they were 600.00 for less BTU’s. As far as the buy now in 48hours, well, I’m certain the ad runs all the time, so nobody will miss out.. :0)
The Amish do not use electricity in any form nor do they allow themselves to be photographed.
This is extremely shady. Anything that uses electricity to produce heat consumes alot of electricity. Your coffee maker actually DOES consume alot of electricity even though it’s small.
Eden Pure finished dead last in Consumer Reports Oct. 2007 report.
If you have access to nat. gas, it takes a lot of discipline to come out ahead by heating just one room at a time with electricity.
Electric heat costs about twice as much per delivered BTU as natural gas in most parts of the USA. One kilowatt hour of electricity supplies 3413 BTU. One hundred cubic feet of gas (almost exactly one “therm” on your gas bill) is 100,000 BTU. Look up your local prices and do the math. One therm costs about $1.05 right now in the upper Midwest. Divide that by 80% efficiency on a typical furnace = $1.31 per 100,000 BTU delivered. You need 29.3 kilowatt hours to deliver 100,000 BTU (at 100% efficiency). At 10 cents per kilowatt hour, that’s about $2.90.
Thanks for the heads-up on Eden Pure.
Jon, So don’t get one. I would spend more time ranting, but thats not me.
I also bought one of these fireplaces through the same company and I agree with cindy and I also love it. I paid about $385 for the entire fireplace. I got mine with the oak finish. That price also includes shipping and 2-year extended warranty (I usually don’t get warranties but it was only $28 and it covers the entire unit including damage to the wood work). I didn’t really care about saving on the heating bill (if you can or not). I’m always cold so I have the heater in my living room so I don’t have to turn the thermostat up if I’m cold. I also priced similar units and the price on this fireplace was good and just the size I needed. The fireplace also has a faux coal front that looks good too (its electric so they don’t look real or anything but its nice) and there is also a screen at the back that looks like flickering flames and is adjustable. As for the Amish, they are very shrewed business people so I can see them making the mantel and not really caring what someone puts into it even if they are electric, as anyone would who is trying to make a living. Also I asked the sales person who was on the phone when I called (Shock..they were from the US), when the 48hrs is up you have to pay for the heater and the fireplace together (The ad says the heater itself is $249) which is like $550. So, so far all is good and I’m very satisfied.
Jon:
Thanks for the detailed, educated math. You’re right on the bullseye here. It’s cheaper using natural gas per square foot of space. It clearly shows you are a smart, educated consumer, unlike some others who commented.
My husband and I purchased two of these Heat Surge fireplaces and we have seen NO savings on ur electric bill. We turned our thermostat down to 68 degrees for the month, and our electric bill went up. Go figure. Where is the savings at?? They are misleading the public into a ton of savings, and all you have is fireplaces that look good in your home. We purchased these for the saving, but their is NONE! Very dissapointed and would not recommend these unless you want to pay higher electric bills.
I’m in the HVAC business. I bought one for my wife and will test it myself to see if its true or a marketing angle. Gas and oil are cheaper to use than straight electric heat. However if you heat one room with the fireplace/heater and don’t care about a lower temperature in the other rooms. Then that’s fine. If the thermostat is in the room with the heater, the whole house will get cold as the thermostat will not call for heat as long as the heater is working. But if it heats one room and you are happy with that and it looks good that’s all that matters. Watts are no different whether it is a heater or a coffee maker. As long as you have a dedicated circuit and not use extension cords its fine also. The instructions should mention all that.
My only concern is that I cannot reach them at all and when I call the ordering line they hang up on me and will not take my message. That leaves a large question mark in my mind. It makes me think they are having a scam.
This is a spectacular scam. Read the article in total sometime. You’ll see the that heating portion of this is actually the work of a “Chinese engineering genius”. (Nothing against the Chinese, it just made me laugh when I read it in the paper.) When you call and ask about the fireplace they tell you that the fireplace is made in China, and the mantel in Ohio. So, what gives? Has the Amish man invented a superconducting mantel? Has he he imparted some magical qualities to the wood? None of the print advertising for this keeps a straight story or makes any sense. but the word Free sure seems to get people going.
Mark,
Better check out your facts regarding the Amish. Your correct about their not using electricity, but as I found out this summer while attending an Amish auction, they do allow their picture to be taken as many of them had didgital cameras & cell phones. After asking, I found out that it all depends upon their local community (church), as to what forms of modern technology their elders allow them to use.
My mother got two of these for her home, which is entirely heated by electricity anyway (the neighborhood does not have natural gas infrastructure available). Using these heaters in the main living spaces of the house has reduced her electric bill and greatly increased the comfort levels of the house. She was even able to turn off the main heat in these rooms and use only the Heat Surge units.
The safety argument does not apply here because there are no hot surfaces. The fire danger from portable heaters comes from the extreme surface temperatures which catch surrounding items on fire, not from some inherent danger of heat-producing products in general.
The ads are misleading, sure - but that’s what advertisers do. The product itself is attractive and effective. Comparable to natural gas? Maybe not. But for some people, that’s not an option, and these heaters definitely beat the baseboard heaters in electric-heated homes for efficiency and effectiveness.
I purchased one of these heater with the intent of getting another if it performed as advertised. Do not waste your money. Get and electric oil heater and it will do the same for far less.
Just wanted to say that we bought a sun twin heater last winter and thats all we heated the upstairs of our ranch style home.And we live in indiana!But i bought the heat surge this winter and we have it upstairs and the sun twin down in our faimly room and that is all we have heated with this winter.The basement stays around 70 deg and the upstairs is around 72/73 deg.And our electric bill went up 40 dollars with using the 2 heaters.Beats paying $2.17 a gallon for lp gas a gallon,figure that out when you get 2 or 4 hundred gallons.
This also looks like a big scam to me. I tried contacting them by email as well as phoneto ask some questions with no luck. On Friday no one had yet responded to me so I emailed them again and stated that I felt they were scamming me and to cancel my order. I then contacted my credit card company to freeze the account I used to purchase it.
Can someone give me more info on the sun twin? It sounds to me like I’m better off throwing the add away, because I like to keep my whole house heated. and this is room to room? Too much hassle not enough savings?
Purchased this product and my electric bill more than doubled. Only comment from the company was “I don’t know”
We purchased the Heat Surge fireplace for my loft library and we love it! It is the perfect size, is much more silent than a space heater and is very attractive and does give one a sense of fire. I keep it on all the time and enjoy going up to my loft now…we live in Minnesota and in the winter this was always a cold area in our 5,000 sq foot house. It is a wait and see on any cost savings - I was just looking for a way to warm the loft without having to turn the thermostat up, which heats the whole house. I am also impressed with the company. The second day of using the fireplace after it arrived, the flame was not working. The heater was but there was no movement which simulated the flame. I called the customer service number and they said they would send another one out. When it comes to the door, just use the new box to put the defective one in and than call them again, and they will pick it up. It took over 2 weeks to get the new one, but I had no hassle of having to pay for my own shipping and or find a box, and we now have a new fireplace that is working just fine. We are completely satisfied and got a kick out of their clever adversting. What they claim probably is not accurate and they have a real come on - but the product is excellent. Many friend have seen it and order one for themselves. I don’t see any scam. We are very happy and very satisfied.
I bought two fireplaces. One I kept and the other I gave to my father. I have a room in my house without any heat. It really does a great job heating the room on an as needs basis. My father doesn’t have a fireplace in his home and he loves this one. The mobility of the unit is the best part. They’re attractive and quiet too.
I’m very happy with my purchase.
I am looking for the electic fireplace with mantel I saw a beautiful one in our hometown paper and on TV for $297.00 or so and free shipping.
I am on full disability and I need all the help I can get with my bills this looks like something I maybe interested in. I live in a Amish community and have many Amish friends so I trust what you say.
Thank you
Jackie Madden
I absolutely love this heater. It is very attractive, and, with my thermostat turned down to 65 deg., it rarely comes on. Which is a big relief when fuel oil is currently 3.14 per gallon. So, my electric bill went up 40 dollars in a month, and used about 40 less gallons of oil, which at 3.14/gal, would be about $125.00. I live in a modest rancher, keep the bedroom doors shut all day until about an hour before bed, so it takes care of the kitchen, living room, bathroom and hallway during the day, with the help of sunlight anyway. My furnace does come on at night, when there is no sunshine to help and the bedroom door is open. Overall, however, I am very pleased with this unit. It has already begun to pay for itself, and by spring should have itself paid for. I save 80 dollars a month times 5 months equals 400 dollars, MORE than I paid at like 350. ITS NOT A SCAM!
I bought this for my Mother for Christmas- she LOVES it- Super happy!
You pathetic losers. You spent $350 for a scam. You could have achieved the same heat savings with any 1500 watt electric heater. You’ve been conned.
I just received my oak fireplace today and like gary my flame was not working I ended up taking the mantle off and taking it apart and putting the rod with shinny tinsel back together. The people obviously didn’t know to bend the clamps and twist them around I just found them inserted into the holes and slightly bent not enough to keep them from coming out but I quickly fixed and put it back together. Works great and I think what they mean about it saving money is if you have a crazy bill from heating the whole house, just use this where you need it and it will for sure save you $$$…..I love it…and so do the ladies!
I worked at an electric company for 25 year answering questions about “new” “miracle” electric heaters. they all say they are the most efficient electric heaters in the world. well they are. that’s because every electric heater in the world converts a kilo-watt hour of electricity into 3413 BTUs. period. can’t do better or worse. a 1500 watt heater is a 1500 watt heater. you can buy them for $12 or wrap a mantel around them, call them a miracle, install cool looking fake flames and charge $400. 1500 watts= 1.5 kilo-watts. 1.5 x 3413= 5119 BTU produced by a 1500 watt heater. all 1500 watt heaters. the cost depends on your local rate of electricity, not a national average. If you pay 10 cents per kwh, then a 1500 wat heater will cost you 15 cents per hour. period.
I purchased 2 Heat Source units recently and am disappointed with the heating output. A small ceramic heater at one tenth the cost is just as efficient. Am thinking of returning my 2 units for a refund. Does anyone have any experience with that? Please e-mail me at: Cdburk533@aol.com
If you have enough time to sit there and bash the amish then maybe you should take the time to do a little research on the different branches of the amish. True, the more strict traditional amish communities do not use electricity, but there are other branches that have accepted some of the new world things. Also the last time I checked this is America and anyone can make money, including the amish. So maybe before you start bashing a culture you don’t understand then maybe you should get to know them before you start making comments that will cause more predudice than what there already is.
As with all things, there are always a few SourHeads who bash anything. I purchased the Amish Fireplace Heat Surge and I love it! I turn my furnace down very low and use the fireplace almost exclusively. It heats a huge area (large living/dining area plus kitchen, hall & bath)wonderfully plus gives great ambience to my living area. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the warmth of a real fireplace (you can actually back up to it and it feels like the real thing heating your back) and the warm feeling a fireplace gives to the emotions…so soothing to the soul.
I am thinking of buying one of these. I realize the heat output may not be that great, but I like the idea of a mantle/fireplace look (not the look of a space heater).
Are there any other units that host a small fireplace effect that produce heat? I didn’t want to spend $600+ for a full sized fake fireplace.
These are the same jokers that sell uncut dollar sheets and unused coins for a ridiculous premium, as well as miracle pills for joint pain.
Snake-oil salesmen.
As many have said before, a $20 ceramic heater/blower does exactly the same thing.
I feel bad for the (mainly) poor folks who fall for this crap.
The how about those positive comments above? I bet many are from the folks at “Heat Surge” themselves. If you can lie in an ad, why not lie on the net as well?
I think the add SUCKS and the way they make it look like they are doing you a favor by “giving” you a free heater is CRAP!. Research like reading this blog on the internet saves people money. I wanted to try and save energy by using this heater. I won’t be buying one no matter how pretty it looks. The way they use trickery to advertise is enough to make me not want the blasted thing!
Just my two cents. Now I will turn off my PC and save that energy.
If we would only use the same energy effeciency logic and analysis when purchasing cars, homes and other extremely large expenditures. It seems that most of the people who purchased the heaters are happy. So some one decided to take a space heater repackage it and market it using an age old strategy, association with a respected and trusted group or entity. It is only one of many ways Americans are duped into buying all kinds of insane products such as bottled water and huge stupid vehicles that use more energy in one day than two or three more reasonably sized cars.
Dan, no one is bashing the Amish, just thes ‘Amish’ heaters. These advertisers are using the Amish name to make their product more attractive.
I don’t have one yet. Which is better, the Amish Heat Surge, or the EdenPure? OR, are they both CRAP. I own an all electric ranch style home.
My husband purchased one of these fireplace heaters for our small mobile home. It’s been very effective at heating almost our entire house - 2 bedrooms, kitchen,living room,bath.
We have only had it since 12/21, so I’m not sure how much we’re saving yet. But, we only have electric heat so, turning down our heater & using the fireplace is great.
I’ve got a great deal for you on a full size, Amish made Brooklyn Bridge. You can have it for FREE. All you pay for is shipping & a minor handling fee. Such a bargin!! send your money to me now!
I DONT GIVE A CRAP WHAT ANYBODY SAY’S ABOUT THIS HEATER PURCHASE THE BOTTOM LINE IS EVERYTHING IS MADE IN CHINA,JAPAN,AFRICA,ECT…. GOD BLESS THE AMISH FOR FINDING THE NITCH IN THIS COUNTRY TO KEEP IT REAL AND TAKE CARE OF THIER FAMILIES WERE JUST SO STUPID,THAT WE ACTUALLY LET THE GOVERMENT GIVE US THE AMERICAN DREAM AND TAKE AWAY. WE COULD MAKE IT HERE IN USA BUT THAT WOULD CUT PROFIT AND GIVE 5,000 AMERICAN PEOPLE JOBS THIS IS MY FIRST TIME ON COMPUTER TYPING SO WHAT I WILL GET BETTER
This is my opinion on this.
I think that if you want too spend all your money on stuff that will just break in a year or two. I think that the amish have lots of tallent and that they should be the ones who makes and sells there product, and not stuff from china or from out of state b/c every thing that is made out of state is no good and needs to be sent back. Amish need to start advrtising so that people can learn that Wal-Mart and exc. needs there product.coment me back and i will give u a good price on some fire places.
Imta or whatever. Please cease and desist the ‘all caps’ approach. People tend to tune out those that yell and besides I’ll bounce you next time.
I can do the Amish one better. I won’t let my sect use the wheel. Top that.
It would appear that the following questions are in order for this product:
1: Do you have natural gas for your fuel? If not, you may want to look at it.
2: Do you care for aesthetics? If so the extra money is worth the good looks, if not then anything will do.
Indeed, if you want this but don’t want to pay for the wood, they even have an option to buy only the heater Check towards the bottom of the page.
Oh, and elsewhere in the website they talk about zone heating. I would throw plenty of salt at that, as in the colder regions we have to deal with freezing pipes. Maybe in the south and southwest one could practice zone heating long enough to make it work (or in houses without plumbing), but in a large portion of the United States I’d be cautious about it.
Just purchased two of these units. Yes, electric heat costs more per btu than gas.
Yes, most electric space heaters are hazards but then again, so is gas heat, wood-burning heat, candles, kerosene, etc. You have to take safety precautions with EVERYTHING you use, not just space heaters, so this really is a non-issue except for those who refuse to be careful.
Yes, most people do not think about heating just one or two rooms at a time. But are we really talking about turning off all of the heat to the other rooms? No. Just turning down the overall heat and applying spot heating to where we are at the time, with an overall potential for cost savings in the nature of the cost of the gas saved by lowering the thermosat versus the cost of operating an electric space heater.
I have used electric space heaters for years to do just such a thing and have found that while my savings have not been astronomical, it has allowed me to save some money while being comfortable in the room I am in.
For myself, as I grow older, I find that I must have a certain ambient temperature or my old body begins to ache and pain tremendously. For me, space heating is an economical way to keep myself warm and painfree while not feeding too much money to the utility company.
Oh, and one more commment:
I can not speak about the Amish in Ohio, since I live in Iowa. We do have Amish communities in Iowa and I know from first hand knowledge that they do ride their buggies into town and tie up their horses behind the bar while they enjoy a brew or two, watch the TV over the bar, make telephone calls, etc. The Amish in Iowa choose to not have electricity, telephones, etc. in their homes, farms, etc., but do not have an out-and-out ban on their use. I think that if more first-hand research were done on the Amish communities in Ohio, similarities to the Iowa communities may be found.
My wife and I purchased two of these heaters despite feeling hesitant about it. The ad claimed the heater was a new kind of technology that used a turbine to take cool air and super-heat it. I’m not really sure about all that. They do heat well, but I have yet to check my electric bill. I’ve been tempted to return them, but not sure if I can? I wondered if I could claim false advertising? The ad claims the mantel is made from “SOLID OAK” -However, I discovered it is a laminate mantel-not solid oak-isn’t that false advertising?
I read the article in saturdays newspaper and was excited to place my order for two of these free heaters. With the total cost being 768.00 (free). This was bothering me so i went to the computer to do my research, after a short look into these free heaters (and reading everyones input at this site and several others)i determined that i could do a lot better at the local store. I don’t need another piece of furniture taking up space and i could do without the fake fire look. I just wanted another sorce of heat other then my gas bill.I bought an oscillating tower heater with remote control from home depot for 75.00 and am very pleased with its performance. Thanks for the help!
To All: Read the dec 28th comment from Buzz ‘Captain Electric” Alexander. This is all you need to know,the facts Dano just the facts!
Thanks Buzz
Just had one of these delivered. Packaging has obviously been opened and resealed with clear tape. No instructions or printed information of any kind was enclosed except info on how to install batteries in and use the remote control. Didn’t even take the “Amish Fireplace out of it’s wrappings! The first thing I was looking for was the specifications telling me how many watts it used for how many btu’s of output. Can’t find out on sellers site but you others who have commented and my own experience, I’m an engineer, have convinced me that I have been conned! I kind of expected that even when I ordered it. Has anyone tried to return one of these and how has the seller responded. My company has sold our product on the internet for years and so here is a tip. If you buy something from a seller and use a credit card, you can get in touch with the credit card company and have them return funds to your card. I believe this seller is deceiving the customer, the product is “not as advertised” and I doubt that the credit card company would support them. The credit card company probably already has developed a large file of customer complaints about these people. Generally, in a situation like this, the seller gets a lot of product out and the money in and when the customer dissatisfaction problem catches up with them, simply declares bankruptcy or goes out of business and leaves a lot of people with a product that is not “as advertised” but we are stuck with it. Let me hear from anyone who has experience with trying to return the product. You know, a couple of years ago I bought a like new 1500 watt electric heater at a garage sale for $3.00! My wife uses it in her office and it’s still working perfectly! Now that’s a real world savings on heating!
I just recieived my heat surge electric fireplace unit and it is what I expected. I am 70 and recently moved from my log home in the mtns to a small green built condo in town. Although my condo is snug,it is on a concrete slab and the floors are chilly and my feet are cold,in part to a smashed foot last year. I missed my mtn log house and the pellet stove and thought this little fireplace might fill the void. It gives off a gentle heat and a little ambiance on our cold Colorado evenings when I am just sitting, reading, writing,painting or watching TV.
I know my electric bill will go up a little, but I did not purchase this heater with the intention of heating my whole place. I turn it on for a few hours in the evening. It has a 2 stage heat setting, 750 Watts or 2559 BTUs or 1500 Watts or 5119 BTUS and a 2, 40 watt bulb lighting element. It will be far cheaper than the $100 a month I paid for propane in the mtns in addition to the $2.00 a day I paid for wood pellets to heat my place in the winter.
I don’t have to clean a firepit, haul pellets or wood through the 105 inches of the 2007 winter,spring snows. I just turn the unit off and on.
As far as the Amish, many have used tractors for their farming and electric cash registers for their buisinesses for years and many pay taxes, unlike the illegals who get medical,housing, educational and welfare by the millions of dollars without a lick of work. And God Bless the AMISH, THEY DON”T RUN FOR POLITCAL OFFICE OR PARADE AROUND AND DEMAND RIGHTS. THE WORK FOR THEM. I would much rather support the AMISH by buying a fireplace, a chair or a quilt or one of their other wonderful homemade crafts than pay taxes to support the obsenities and crimes of the illegals and/or our politicians any day.
(I did a photo study of an Amish Community and an Amish school a few years ago. They were very gracious and although they could not pose for photos I could take as many pictures as I wanted. They invited me into the school and it was evident the children were better mannered, better disciplined and most likely better educated than the majority of our public school children. Unfortunately most only attend school until 8th grade. I was presented with a paper heart from a basket of hearts, with a good wish message on it. The kids were used to tourists and visitors but went about their work as usual. They were not putting on a show.
As some of the posters have said, it is nothing more than a standard 120v dual range space heater. The furniture and ambience value are also there. That said, if your are looking for a unit that fits the bill for what a space does then this is a waste of money. If you are looking to enhance your decor well then it probably will be ok. As a general rule it is not efficient to heat with a space heater. It should only be used to enhance or augment an area that is not well served by your standard heat source. If using a space heater instead of your standard heater saves you money, well I would think you need to step back and evaluate a couple of things. 1. How well or efficient is your current heat source, 2. How well are you insulated.( If you think adding insulation doesn’t make that much of a difference, I’m here to tell you that I was pleasantly surprised when I did). Just reference Buzz’s post on 12/28. It takes energy to make heat. Just remember the law of physics The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can change its form. Well I could go on with reasons, but do your homework and decide with logic and not with your emotions. I think in there ads they are not lying, but just not telling you everything. I am sure it is a quality product, is it worth it to YOU!
I researched more about this company-scam. I tried calling their customer service # (800-924-7964) the same day I ordered my heaters, to cancel my order but couldn’t get through to anyone so I called my credit card to told them about this scam. My credit card agreed to cancel my credit card # I gave them in order to avoid their charge. I had to get a new credit card # with Visa, this was the only way I could avoid being charged for the 2 heaters I ordered! Don’t get caught up in this scam!
Hello,
I have to say, I fell for the scam myself. Between my sister and I, we bought 3 of these. We ended up sending them all back. It cost over $100 a piece to send it back to them and I STILL haven’t received a credit on my card. My electric doubled and my gas bill stayed the same, plus it cost me over $100 to send it back and whatever the cost was to send it to me in the first place. The ad was very misleading saying the use only solid oak (which they did use a veneer because it was peeling off). It looked and felt cheap to me. So, all in all, this was a very expensive lesson learned. If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is:) I learned the hard way. Think twice before buying one of these.
A big thank you to those who posted notes explaining that the wood is not solid.
The heat insert I expected to be just an electric room heater. I already knew that ALL electric heaters are 100% efficient in converting electrical energy into heat. What I didn’t expect was to receive a “solid wood” mantel made from a thin oak veneer glued to particle board.
I will attempt to cancel my order.
The cost of this product seems excessive and overkill compared to a small portable 1500 watt space heater that I bought for $25 over 10 years ago. I only use it when I get a chill. People need to think logically about their objective when purchasing such a product.
Thanks for all of the input. I was contemplating buying a heater like this to heat my garage since running gas is not an option. Sounds like this is not a very good option either. Can anyone provide an alternative to heat a garage that doesn’t require venting or costly modifications. As for the advertisement…not for one minute did I think I would be getting a product from the Amish…had to know it was just a marketing ploy but then again what isn’t these days.
I purchased two of these. One quit working. Cann’t get thru to customer service. Was put on hold for almost an hour than cut off. Doesn’t appear to be solid wood. A peice on the front appears to glued and the other had a dent of the conner that looks more like particle board.
What we are talking about is a space heater, which works fine, like most all other space heaters. It’s not the answer for the GREEN people or the answer for the penny savers. No, it a rather good looking space heater.
Yes, my Mom bought one and it works fine in her 12×12 room. Nothing more, nothing less.
We saw the ad and read it completely and it said that the heater was made in China and the mantle by the amish. This is not a scam. For fine furniture WITH a heater, it was/is a steal.
The cabinetry is awesome. It is hand rubbed cherry and finished beautifully.
We put one in the den in front of the fireplace and it looks so real. We were going to install gas logs but are thoroughly enjoying having one ‘fireplace’ in the bedroom and one in the den.
We live near Atlanta and have not yet turned our furnace on because our bill with our heat pump was around 350 a month last winter.
We are hoping to see savings this year.
There are a lot of amish puppymills however and from what I have seen on you tube, they have no mercy on their dogs and
refer to them as “livestock”.
Just received my heater today. I called last week to cancel, was told it had already shipped, and I could just refuse it. UPS driver told me he had been delivering a lot of these heaters lately so, I changed my mind and kept it. Was led to this site after a google search and now I don’t know whether to open the box or not. Don’t know how to tell if I have real wood or a cheap veneer. I paid extra $40 for cherry finish on mine. Now, I feel like I have been scammed. Could someone please tell me how to tell if I have real wood or not. Thanks.
Hey Cindy,
It’s often difficult to tell a veneer from hardwood. Here’s a tip on how to tell the difference, I hope it helps. This tip is from howstuffworks.com:”It isn’t always obvious what’s veneered and what’s not. Sometimes the veneer is visible at the edge of the wood surface, a thin layer glued over the base wood. If you can’t see a joint at the edge, look at an unfinished area under the piece of furniture. If the unfinished wood looks the same as the finished surface, the piece of furniture is probably solid wood. If there’s a considerable difference, it’s probably veneered.”
Some other links (copy and paste into your browser window):
http://home.howstuffworks.com/guide-to-furniture-woods-ga.htm
http://www.furniture.com/Common/magazine/shopper/veneers/veneers.asp?xs=546800d33c1-3a75-4094-8762-da67986e820c&se=633361944322500000
http://www.palliser.com/BuyingWood.php#quest2
i work for this company. it’s not so much a scam as it is a marketing ploy. i’m not a fan of the marketing techniques we use, but the same can be said about most any other advertisements. as an american living in this time period, you must be attentive. if you don’t read the article, and then don’t listen to a single word i say when you call, and then you’re pissed off about something you were “tricked” into, then that is clearly your fault. you willingly call us, you willingly give us your credit card information, and when we tell you your total, you willingly write down your conformation number. you may not be, but some people ARE interested in a space heater that’s aesthetically pleasing, and are ready to pay for it. yes, sometimes customer service is a little backed up, but we are hiring a good 20 people a week and cross training salespeople on customer service to help with overflow. we are a rapidly growing company, and we’re doing our best. while i’m not sure the details, i know there’s been a shakeup in the warehouse as well, to ensure proper care of all units being shipped. we can be contacted via the website(heatsurge.com), or by telephone at 1-800-924-7964. but please keep in mind, if you’re simply calling in to give your two cents about how you think this or that, all you’re doing is keeping us from assisting others. if you’re not interested, then simply continue on with your life. if you indeed are interested, then give us a call. thanks.
I bought two of the heaters just before xmas and just got my PG&E bill, almost had a heart attack, it had gone up from $192.00 to over $400.00! I love my heaters, they look great and put out lots of heat, but ‘OUCH’ on the electric bill!
Ordered a Heat-Surge(1-16-08 and next day realized it was probably a scam. Called the customer number and recording said it was nearly a 2 hr wait so I called the order line number, told the lady I wanted to cancel my order she put me on hold then came back on a few minutes later and said her supervisor canceled the order (1-17-08). Today (1-18-08) my debit card was charged with the amount and I can’t get ahold of anyone. I called the order number again and the lady I talked to today said you could only cancel an order thru the customer number which I called again and after 30 minutes on hold a recording said the office was closed call again later that was at6pm EST and their hrs accoring to the website is 9am-11pm EST and the lady on the order line said it was 9am-9pm either way I called at 6pm..what a rip off. I did make a comment on their website and said I would contact the BBB if they didn’t refund my money!
I am really displeased with your communications. The only thing that gets done quickly is when you order. If you have a problem, you are lied to about how the problem will be hamdled. I receieved my unit damaged. I was told it would be picked up by UPS on 1/18/08 and whe receieved a replacement would be sent. I wated almost all day for UPS. When I contacted then, I was advised that Heat Surge had not ordered a pick up. I immediately contacted Chase Bank, my creit card provider (Visa) and told them to get my money back and that I did not want a replacement.
I a convinced that something is wrong. There is no way to contact you. I was told that I could leave my number and I would get a call in three hours. I did and was put innto a folding pattermn and then told after about a hour that you were closed and to call back.
I will surely tell the folks I suggested that they buy one of your units not to as you are surely a scam!
This company runs full page ads in a number of Sunday newspapers, some of which can run up to
$10,000 a page. They sell under the names Heat Surge, World Monetary Reserve Fund, and another that sells weight loss/male enhancement products. All hve many complaints against them.The address for all is 3939 Everhard Rd, in Canton Ohio. Like one person sai about the elecctric heater is that the law allows portable electric heater to be a max of 1500 watts. 1500 watts is 1500 watts is 1500 hundred watts!!! you get the same heat (5000 btus whether you pay $29.00 or $600.00!!) you are just paying for the looks, name aor advertising !!!
My neighbor just bought one of these. Even though he’s a well educated engineer (civil) he was taken in by the claims of ultra efficiency. Additionally, while he believed the ad offered the wood surround free with the purchase of the $290′ish heating unit, his card was billed over $400. Don’t know if this was his misunderstanding or another example of the questionable Heat Surge advertising.
The unit does look nice. The wood surround is attractive but the “mantle” on top was clearly veneer over almost certainly particle board. Easy to tell when the end grain looks identical to the side grain. Whether the Amish have anything to do with it is debatable considering the other exaggerated & misleading claims.
As was pointed out, 1500 watts produces a fixed number of BTU’s no matter how much you pay for the heater. If they are getting more BTU’s out than other electric heaters using the same amount of power, as the ad suggests, they don’t need to sell portable heaters. They’ve invented perpetual motion and are looking at wealth beyond imagining.
What he got is a nice looking, VERY expensive portable electric heater no more efficient than a $25 unit at WalMart. Worth it? Your choice.
Does anyone know how long it takes for arrival I ordered one on january 9 i forgot to ask how long it takes for delivery any input thanks ,
JA
The notion that the Amish do not use electric is false. The Amish choose not to be controlled or influenced by outside forces, and that includes not being hooked up to utilities. But many of them will and do generate their own electric. I have a friend who lives among the Amish and my inlaws live in an Amish community.
I spent a day in an Amish household , old order Amish. The man provided for his family with his pallet shop which was run on electric that he generated.
The Amish women also use washing machines. Amish rebuild and retrofit old ringer washers with gas engines for their wives to use.
They also have gas heat and lighting. They often own their own mineral rights and sink their own gas wells and heat and light with natural gas.
There are also no specific rules. Different Amish sects and communities subscribe to different practices.
On New Years Day huge ad in local news. I called the 800# left a message to order. The message PROMISED someone would get back with me to place my order. NEVER HEARD A PEEP!!! Tried to call several times before deadline, always a recording. A friend order 1 on line on New Years Day. She received in about 2 wks ago, she loves it. She has not mentioned fake wood, she like the heat generated. I called the company 2 wks ago about not getting a call back. They reall had a don’t care attitude. They told me that I should have called back. We’ll I tried and still could not get through. I have a wnat v/s scam feeling. I am writing this because I truly think that if you have doubt, just don’t do it. Really to many bad storis about customer service contact, credit card problems and shipping issues makes me think. IT JUST ISN’T WORTH THE HASSEL!! Do you really need anymore to deal with. Besides winter is 1/2 over and if it is such a great deal, do your homework for next season. THNIK ABOUT IT!!
Read Consumer Reports evaluation of space heaters. You can pay around $60 for the highest rated electric heater or $400 for one of the lowest rated heaters. Both will use about the same amount of electricity. Your choice.
Total scammers. Use your head and put it towards adding insulation etc…
As for the amish, would not support them if they created world peace.
Screw over the system all the time,
While everyone else pays taxes. Freeloaders.
I’ll leave out all the immoral fabric they seem to get off on.
Like most of everyone else I have seen both ads for the Heat Surge and the EdenPURE heaters. I have read and reread the ads debating about which one to try. Thanks to all of you, I am saving my hard earned cash. I hate to be duped again. Thanks again for all of the input.
I’m 70 with deteriorating joints.Had to sell my 3 story house in MD with brick hearth and Franklin Stove (wood burning)and moved into all-electric condo building. No flame, charcoal grilling or propane allowed; gas not available ! I miss my wood fire and was HAPPY to pay $400 for FAKE FLAME (the best looking elec.fake flame I could find). Sure, I have a $30 ceramic heater,but aesthetically…I love my Fake Fireplace.Elderly neighbors above,below and next door to me keep their apts. at 75 degrees,so I only loose heat via the outside (window) wall.
I agree with m.e.winters 01/10/2008; Cindy 12/11/2007; Jen 12/15/2007 and gary 12/25/2007. I only live an hour drive from Lancaster,PA and have great respect for the Amish, Mennonites and their Brethren. We should be so lucky to have all our citizens be like them.
Furthermore, I don’t fear dying of Carbon monoxide or a gas explosion if the pilot light goes out in my electric “fire”(there is none).
You greenies shouldn’t panic about global warming either. The average birthrate in the western world is lower than 1.5 per couple, so in 50 or 60 years the people of industrial western nations won’t have siblings,cousins,aunts or uncles and a lot less CO2 will be emitted.
1 Heat Surge Roll n Glow Amish Fireplace
$298.00 Ordered 9-13-07
Delivered 9-26-07
Defective: 12-18-07
Problem: Lights light but no heat at all, 4 button lights are on.
Customer Service # 1-866-282-6587 Note: Several Calls made 12-18 -07 -12-19-07 all automated answering. Calls not returned as indicated by automated operator. Finally by calling Sales # 1-800-918-2192
I spoke to a Regina@1-800-924-7964. Claim# 1831789
I was told that UPS would come to pick up defective unit and once in their possession a new replacement unit would be shipped. I requested priority service as this fireplace is primary source of heat. Forced to live in conditions under 50 degrees in upstate NY winter until replacement arrives. Regina advised that a trucker from UPS would have me fill out shipping information so that they could pick up same day. ( Subsequent calls to UPS 1-800-742-587 indicated that UPS had not been authorized to pick up unit (no Z#) .
On 12-20-07 I visited UPS branch spoke to Supervisor: I brought defective unit there and Trinidad and I had conference phone call with Adam Dadisman (330) 966-9000 ext 8736 of Univerasl…, World Reserve…Heat Surge…etc. In light of priority need, Mr. Dadisman authorized supervisor @ UPS to accept package for return. We are to let him know tracking # (advised immediately tracking ). Mr Dadisman said they would reship that day but could not guarantee replacement unit would be here by Christmas.
FOUR WEEKS LATER… Replacement unit yet to arrive. I called Adam Dadisman Friday, Jan. 18 2008 and left message (call not returned). Called Sales #Jan. 20, 2008 to ask for supervisor. I was refered to Supervisor “Daniel” who said she was unable to solve my problem. She said somebody to get back to me within 24 hrs. In light of broken promises and commitments I advised this was unacceptable and that I wanted to speak with someone in authority who could solve my problem. No person in authority was willing to speak with me. Called Adam Dadisman …no response to date
WOW! Now I’m really confused - don’t know what to do? Wanted to buy one, now I’m not sure. Talk about mixed reviews! Thought that the nice Amish made mantle would make it worth the buy until I read the note from Dick Trost about the “wood” being particle board cover by veneer. I guess if I bought the wood, routed it, assembled it, bought the insert, put wheels on it, bought gas for my car and used my tools, I would have more into it than $300.00 so I think we will order one and let you know what we think after we use it for 1 month….
Problem with this ad that appears like a news story is that many senior citizens believe this mumbo jumbo, not realizing it’s an ad. They purchase this or some other crazy thing like two dollar bills and think they got a deal. This eally bothers me about these type of faux news stories which are really ads for productsand aimed at many seniors who cannot call or email or anything so they’re stuck.
mj
Soaring oil prices and housing have helped to derail the economy
Surge in crude has had an impact – less disposable funds for other goods
The silent killer of our economy
Many Americans are changing their spending habits. Cost of energy and other necessities have gone through the roof, leaving very little disposable funds for other goods.
The sub-prime mass and the lack of mortgage funds for housing are increasing our economic nosedive. The Feds can lower interest rate, if the financial institutions are not providing financing and or asking for a large down payment and a perfect credit score, the economy is not going no-where.
When the housing market is down, there is a snowball affect on other industries, appliances, furniture, carpeting, etc.
Economists will tell you that; when income is not keeping up with increases in the cost of housing there bound to be fallout.
Our automobile industry has gone to overseas companies, jobs lost forever. We must wake up and take some dramatic initiative to change this economic course.
Jobs in the United States are continuing to go overseas, our export has diminished substantially over the past 25 years and our imports have increased substantially in the same period.
We have resources, we have technology and manpower, why are we not utilizing them and devise a mechanism to re-instate our economic independence.
Put the politics and egos aside, let us all unite in a common cause, consider what is really good for our country without any hidden agenda or political favors. Bring honesty and integrity to our society; re-instate economic boom and fiscal responsibility.
We have been behind the eight ball before; we can muster whatever it takes to turn around our economic downturn.
Politicians are spending millions campaigning; those funds can be utilized for better purpose. Do not give me promises and tongue twisting, empty promises are easy “show me” that is the motto.
Yehuda Draiman
I bought one of these heaters back in December. I received it on the 19th of December. It did not work. It blew cold air and the settings from high to low did not work. I called the company the next to return it. They were very good at having it picked up the next day and covered the shipping charge. I did not want a replacement. It looked very cheep and I did not like the idea that it said you must unplug when not in use. I asked for a refund. I was told my account would be credited within 2 weeks. I waited 2 weeks, nothing. Called again, waited on line forever, was told it would be 4-6 weeks. Called the following week to see if any change in amount of weeks to wait. I was then told they refund in 3-4 weeks max. They said would credit my account by that Friday or Monday but to wait to check my account until the middle of the week. Still waiting. Does anyone really get their money back?
Just be careful! The craftsmanship was beautiful, but it did not meet the expectations for heat. The problem is returning it for a refund. It cost Heat Surge $49.00 to send to you which you do not get back if you want a refund. Second, it will cost double that to send it back to Heat Surge. Imainge that, $150.00 investment on a $250.00 unit. So much for the free heater as advertised.
BEWARE, BEWARE, if it sounds to good to be true, it definitely is.
read all the revues here about 2 wks ago, trying to decide. after discussion w/ my wife (whom i love very much), & hearing her say she’d always wanted a fireplace… living in a mobile home, that’s a tough one! i knew it was a quartz heater in a pretty nice looking wooden case/ mantle/ whatever you want to call it. i ordered it. order arrived quickly, it worked great out of the box, no complaints. it appears to be oak plywood, which is better than particle board. it looks nice & my wife loves it. that’s enough for me, but we also found that by running the unit in our living room, it prevents the gas furnace (forced hot air, which we both hate) from coming on much at all. as to the dollars and cents, i don’t know yet. a kw hr is cheaper than a gallon of propane, but we haven’t done the math yet. i look at it this way, my wife loves the fireplace look; it’s a really cheap fireplace; if i have to pay a couple of bucks more in heating bills, i don’t really care - so far, we’re happy with it.
I was not satisfied with the company..the unit was defective..I returned it and was told they would not refund my money for 4 to 6 weeks after they received the unit…
these heaters are great! took my husband a while to figure out the heat control. for several hours we only had the flames on with the heater off. we realized there had to be much more for 350.00 so he got to checking & finally found where the heat button was to turn it on low or high. we have purchased 2 & turned our thermostat down to 65 & the rooms are really nice & warm with the heater on low.
it also makes a beautiful piece of furniture for your home.
i say go for it!
My son got taken advantage of when trying to claim his “free” fireplace. He is disabled and the operator took down his information and then deducted 347 from his checking account. When trying to resolve this the customer support makes you wait hours on hold or don’t deliver on the promise to call back. Buyer beware. We have had a terrible time with this company.
Thinking of whether to buy one of these or not. I live in a rancher and would primarily use the fireplace in my basement when I’m in the family room. The family room floor has ceramic tile and is very cold. Does anybody have any advice on whether this fireplace would work in my scenario?
We ordered one in mid Dec. It looked really nice, but quit heating in about a week. I called the service number. A recording said they would call me back in about 2 hours, which they did. I told them the problem and I wanted a refund. They said they would send me a UPS return label via email in about 2-3 days, and then I was to schedule a UPS pickup. That has been two weeks ago. I am still waiting. From reading all the other comments, I will keep calling, but I think it will be in vain. If anybody reads these comments, and still buys one, heaven help you.
I later bought a small unit that looks like a wood stove from a home improvement store for $79.00 that heats just as good, is almost as pretty, and is still working.
I purchased an Enden-Pure Infra red heater, because of the advertising from Paul Harvey.
I have had it three months and it does not perform as advertised.I purchased the larger unit for my basement Rec. room which is 16X28.
The heater does not turn off and on with it’s thermostat.It runs constantly.I returned the heater and they sent me another which also does not cycle as advertised.It also takes a lot of electricity.A 30.00 1500Watt heater would do as well. Very unhappy customer
Wow….I am sure glad I didn’t waste my time on this…what a shame….I despise people who take advantage of others. Thank you all for your comments….I am sorry that I have had the opportunity to learn from all your mistakes. I will pray for your refunds. That is horrible. Ill stick with my little electric heater. My heat is electric and my heating bill for two months is only $200 - $250 every two months my thermostat is on 65 degrees. I live in NY. Insulation is the KEY!!! Good Luck to all!!
I purchased two of these and tried to return one of them after realizing 1500 btu’s is the same regardless of slick packaging. Here is the problem, two months later and still no refund and getting customer service on phone is impossible. The unit looks great though, and if you are ordering this for the look then go for it except for one problem, the unit is already not working. Heat is still produced but fire does not light up anymore. Took it to local shop to see if they could fix and they told me this unit was not made to last (visual effects). So do yourself a favor, save your money and buy a 1500 watt space heater as cheap as you can find it and set it on a fireproof surface. It just isn’t a quality heater, doesn’t last and the customer service is horrible. For what I wanted it for it was great, but for only two months, and then kaput. And do you really want a dangerous space heater wrapped in fire starting wood if something goes wrong. Duped in Kentucky.
This unit is definitely not for people in a budget contraint. You might spend more money on your household heating.
if you want the look of a fireplace etc. then that’s all fine and good but also be sure to check around - there are other electric room heaters that are wrapped in a mantel to look like a traditional fireplace and may cost less then $350 - I know hardware stores like Menards sell them…
if you don’t care about the fake fireplace look then, like many others here have said, just get a small ceramic heater with a fan for 1/5th the price and it will put out the same amount of heat.
@ Vicky in Kentucky
if the heater is broken you could still use the wooden mantel part - have it made into a nice book case or something… albeit an *expensive* bookcase but better then just throwing the whole thing into the landfill… I did that with an old floor-model TV my family had - the TV died, there was no way to fix it. the cabinet it was in was still in great condition and was made of nice wood with nice detailing so I tore out the TV guts and built in some shelves and made a really nice book case unit out of it…
OK, quick followup - I’m looking at the sunday ad from Menards - they have an electric heater with a much larger and nicer looking (much more detail) wooden mantel and the “realistic flame effect” and it’s $300… not that much cheaper but looks a lot more like a real traditional fireplace… but I guess it wouldn’t be movable from room to room either…
so bottom line… use the internet to research any ad you see before buying anything… the internet is the real “miracle” here in that you can easily look up an ad that sounds too good to be true and get a ton of feedback to judge for yourself if it’s a scam or not.
Before considering this scam. Try http://www.lasko.com ceramic tower heater for $49.95 that can be purchased at your local hardware store. I bought mine at Lowe’s and it works great as a supplement for my HVAC system.
I usually do internet research before making large purchases, but for some reason, I was so intrigued with yesterday’s ad, I placed an order for two heaters. After not receiving an order confirmation via email, I became suspicious, then started an internet research. Today, after reading the many opinions posted here, I decided to cancel my order. I immediately contacted my credit card company (DISCOVER). After alerting them of the possible scam, they agreed to cancel my account to avoid the charges being processed. I have been re-issued another credit card under a different a/c number. I have tried many times throughout the day to reach customer service (800-924-7964) in order to advise them of my intent to cancel, but of course a recording is all I get. Thanks everyone for your comments!!
It is a scam. Do not purchase it, please. I did ordered them, tried, did not like it. Send it back via UPS $182, plus, they are saying that the 49$ shipping will not be returned even the advertisement was saying free shipping. No save on electricity. It is a real scam. Good luck if you bought it.
I paid for one yesterday and after I looked closely, I saw it was an advertisement made to look like a newsreport. I went to the internet and discovered it was a scam. I immediately emailed them to cancel the order and today I called them to cancel my order. The wait time on the phone was 1.5 hours and you had to leave your phone number and they said they would return your call. Thank God my order is cancelled.
We just got one of the Amish Heat Surge heaters. I’m very happy with it, but I can understand that not everyone would be. The facts are:
1) Saying it’s “free” if you purchase the mantel is just clever advertising. It costs about $385 with shipping.
2) It is not more or less energy efficient than any other heater. It uses either 750 or 1500 Watts, and gives you the amount of heat you’d expect.
3) It’s quiet and a very nice piece of furniture. The fireplace effect is calming and enjoyable.
4) It rolls easily, so you can move it from room to room.
We considered having a gas fireplace installed, and, of course, it would cost fifty times as much as this unit. If all you need is heat, you should get a heater at WalMart. Whether the appearance makes it worth $385 is an individual decision. It’s not a “scam”; is a nice unit cleverly marketed.
Am in the process of returning unit. Did not heat 12×18 room and the smell was horrible. I definately feel I have been ripped off. Nearly impossible to reach anybody for info on return process. I will never order another product from an ad.
Wow! Glad I read all the above reviews. I was ready to buy one of these Heat Surge heaters. My husband and I are only interested in lowering our electric and gas bill. We have completely closed off the up-stairs and heat with natural gas via a central heat and air unit. The bil we just paid was $ 144.36 for electricity and $ 163.49 for gas. We have a gas water heater, but use electric for dishwasher, dryer, stove, etc. Our home is well insulated. I have contacted our local power company to come out to talk with us In the meantime, any ideas???
We just took delivery of a the Heat Surge space heater last evening and opened it today. We plugged it in and it seemed to work like any other space heater with a fan, not as quiet as I had hoped. I am very unsatisfied with the “AMISH” workmanship of the mantle, I did not expect to see Oak Veneer, especially on the top piece of the mantle. It appears it is made from plywood with Oak Veneer,just turn the unit upside down and take a look. The AMISH in Ohio should be embarrassed with this quality of workmanship. This is the first “Amish” piece of so called “Heirloom” furniture I have ever purchased and will never purchase by mail order ever again and most likely my last Amish made purchase. I feel scammed as well and will attempt to return this item.
RD commented:
“Imta or whatever. Please cease and desist the ‘all caps’ approach. People tend to tune out those that yell and besides I’ll bounce you next time.”
IMTA clearly stated that he was new to this. A simple explanation explaining that typing in all caps is considered yelling when posting to a forum would have been a nice thing to post. Apparently RD is a moderator here and just had to make it clear that he can “BOUNCE” somebody for making a small mistake. You are much a man RD, WOW…you can BOUNCE somebody. Now go swing from a tree and beat your chest. You da man…You are…You are….
Now feel free to bounce me. I can live without this place if all the moderators are as immature and childish as you are.
I do run a very successful forum. One that I started after getting disgusted with another that was run by moderators like you. Mine is now MUCH bigger than the one that I left.
Don
Wow~~ What a variety of reviews, I am completly confused on what to do. I am assuming the old theroy my mom always said you get what you pay for………….Think I will pass on this one.
I called and ordered a fireplace heater last night and then got on the internet and found out I probably should not of ordered it. About 3 hrs. later I ordered it, I called to cancel they told me to call back the next day at 8:00 to customer service they could not cancel it. I called at 8:20 and was told it was too late they already started shipping it, but she would talk to her supervisor and possibly she could stop it. I told her I did what they told me to and now you said you I can’t. She said the Amish don’t have telephones and it’s hard to communicate with them. I then called my credit card company and they told me when it arrive send it back with conformation and they would take it off my account. So I feel this will be a long process and noone needs to go through this. I just hope my credit card company will take it off as soon as I get confirmation it has been mailed back and not opened. I hope this helps someone else. I would not recommend ever buying anything from them.
I am so grateful to everyone who has taken the time to share what they have experienced with this fireplace-like heater.
I was quite taken with the attractive marketing-a full page ad in the Denver Post this morning.
Being able to read what all of you have written has helped me to take the time to really consider my decision to buy an attractive and energy efficient space heater.
This will not be the one I purchase!
How to get rich quick! Please send me 29.99 and I will tell you my flawless system and offer a 100% money back guarantee! Just advertise a product any product; weight loss in a pill, etc. Doesn’t have to really work. Make the refund process complicated. And make a little extra on the shipping. You will make a ton of money off the people who won’t take the time to try get the money back. Read the print people a BTU is a BTU is a BTU.
I found the full page ad in the USA Today newspaper and me and my collegue got many chuckles out of the Heat Surge product claims. Very entertaining reading.
Obviously a scam from an electrical standpoint.
Electric heat is the most expensive form of traditional home heating. But we design and build electric power plants, so we hope they sell a lot of these.
I can imagine that the Amish wood mantle craftsmanship is of high quality. I can also imagine the fake flames might make someone feel good and relaxed. Then it’s good for them and that’s okay.
But a Chinese BTU is the same as an American BTU, genius or no genius.
I should write Heat Surge and thank them for the good laugh at their expense.
Remember what PT Barnum said, “a sucker is born every minute.”
Have good day.
I’m wondering how to check the status of my order for the amish heater. I ordered it last Sunday and have not heard anything yet.
Thanks
Thank you, all of you who’ve written, once again. I’ve realized that an electric heater like this is not what I need at all.
Many Blessings.
I visited the site, and there are many pictures of amish folks building the cabinets for the heaters. I have a problem with that. I have visited amish communities, and if you ask one of them if you can take thier picture, you always get a polite “no”. The website mentions mennonites as well, so maybe the pictures are of mennonites. I do not know if mennonites have a problem with pictures or not. However, I suspect that the pictures are of models dressed as amish and/or mennonites.
I purchased 2 of these, one for me and one for my sister and brother-in-law. They were delivered promptly. The mantel is beautiful on both.I order 1 in cherry and 1 in oak. I live in a small apt and it works well for me. My brother-in-law was very unhappy and returned his because he didn’t feel it heated his home enough….by that I mean his “whole” home! He kept it downstairs in his living room, did not block off any rooms, and has an upstairs to boot! Further,his house has crap insulation! I told him good luck finding any kind of little heater that would heat his house, let alone save money!
However, my concerns are as follows:
1) Before I purchased,having seen the newspaper add, I called the site. I got a prompt response from “Chedda”.I was concerned about the looks for the fake fire. She said that the newspaper add didn’t do it justice. As it turns out, it looks EXACTLY like the add….poor looks for a “fake fire”. I’ve had other “stoves with fake fires that you’d neveer believe it wasn’t real. But the mantel is beautiful.
2) I still have not received the credit back on the stove returned.
3). IT DOES TAKE FOREVER for them to answer the phone now. I just dialed, put it on speaker,and went about my business. About 20 minute later “Chedda” answered the phone….Good ole Chedda must be the only operator for this place! SUPPOSEDLY, she will research where we stand with getting my money back on the returned stove.
I have been looking at fake fireplaces forever, and feel, for the price the mantle alone is worth the money. I’ve seen many at comparable prices, but not made of solid wood.
I withhold final judgement until I get my money back.
Whew, what a lot of strong feelings about a fireplace! I think you’re all “right”…it just depends on your perspective. My mother bought one of these in Illinois, then bought us one in CA. The ad is clearly a bit of scam but Mom loved hers, it did the job and was very attractive. Ours arrived a week ago and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve had many space heaters but none this attractive and none that put out any greater heat. We have FAG in the rest of the house and just use this in a sitting/reading area that is way too cold in the winter…works for us!!!
First thing I thought too, was SCAM! Anything that requires you to respond in 48 hours isn’t on the up-and-up.
Also, for the life of me, I can’t figure out how you can heat just one room at a time. My thermostats (2) control either the upstairs or the downstairs. Unless I go around and turn off all the radiators in a room, I can’t turn off the heat in any ONE room. Sounds good but electricity is the highest priced form of heat you can buy. I certainly won’t waste my money.
Here’s a blog questioning the Ohio/Amish aspects of the advertising of Heat Surge.
http://thebellwetherdaily.blogspot.com/2007/12/cinncinnati-enquirer-insults-amish.html
This is just another type of scam that has flooded the USA. I spoke with a FBI angent and i was told that there are so many scams at present time that they could not investigate all scams and the criminals know this. so buyer beware!! these days you have to check out everything before you act.
I inspected a daycare with one of these heaters yesterday. The grill where the heat comes out is hot enough to cause a burn injury. Most electric heaters have a 3 foot clearance to combustible materials in front of them. Does anybody have installation instructions for these? If so, please forward to fire-marshalATsheridanfirerescueDOTcom
Thanks,
Brian
Just think about it. the company cant be sued because of false claims about the heater because they give it to you when you buy a amish mantle. that is the trick! only if the mantles are fake or defective or made by someone else can you do anything about it.you cant sue someone that gives you something unless it is a disease.
I purchased 2 of these surge heaters. I talked to UPS driver when they came. He informed me that he has not had any sent back. Most of people that have them love them. I was very nervous after reading commets here. The two that i received were cherry wood. Well made. Not pressed board or partial board. I was very please with the work that was put in them. Also unit very quite. Heat comes out real nice. Remote works great.For looks when its on it can’t be beat. Use it as a back up to take chill out of house and saves on propane use. I recently had 161 gallons propane delivery to my home. 429 dollars for just 161 gallons. I believe i will be able to lower furnace and run new heaters few hrs each day and will still save on LP gas. The heater was free. I am very impressed with whole unit. I will let you know what the results are after a month on heat savings or not. Again as far as looks and craftmanship go they can’t be beat. Previous commets i read said light bulbs are 40 watts each. I find that hard to believe. They are not much bigger than a night light bulb. Believe that was another lie that i read that made me afraid to purchase these units. Again the front at bottom of unit pulls off magnets appear to hold it on. That is where the light bulbs are located. The magnets that hold the front on at bottom is another nice option, when bulbs have to be replaced.
Well, I’m ashamed to say I fell for this. I really do know better. I’m sure its a heater, I’m sure it works like any other 1500w heater. Nothing special, I’m sure your aware of the math at this point.
As far as the Amish are concerned, it’s too bad they have been affiliated with the deception in this product.
I bought without doing any research, I went straight to my PC after I ordered and when I learned about the misrepresentation I called my credit card company and reported my card lost. This was after stating on hold for 5 hours with the heater company, I doubt I will ever get though.
If you want a $50 heater that looks like a fireplace and comes in a nice solid wood surround and your willing to pay $250+ for it this is the product for you. If your looking for something to save money on your bills, keep going.
i am a license electrician and 1500 watts is 1500 watts no matter what size or shape of the heater, thats the point here. you can buy a electric heater at walmart or any local hardware store for $20 to $70 that will put out the same heat. it may not be as nice to look at but the same heat.you may be able to lower your power bill if you close off most of the rooms in your home or office and heat one room. electricity is the most expensive heat to use unless YOU USE A HEATPUMP!!! oil is second highest and then propane and last is natural gas. and wood is free. in the south electricity for a 1 kw electric heater will cost about 10 cents an hour . other states will cost you 15 to 18 Cents per hour to operate.so if you run that heater 24 hours for 30 days then it could cost you about $72. just to operate the heater. i used a heatpump to heat my home with standby propane heat in case we lose power.in the days before 1970 most people heated only the living room of the house and using very little fuel to do so. duck heat is very wasteful and that is one of the reasons it cost so much to heat and cool homes these days.
I fell for this too. I had it 2 weeks before the flame stopped moving. The remote worked on occasion.
I did like it when I got it , but it is not real oak: Laminate.
I’m trying to get me money back!
I own an Amish furniture store & deal with many of the Amish in Ohio. I personally know the Amishmen involved with this scam. First let me point out that the fellow in the picture is not Amish. His name is Jonas and he is not even in the furniture business. In the background is a girl dressed like an Amish girl wiping off stain, or some may think hand-rubbing a finish. The product being used is actually a ‘no-wipe’ stain, that has to be quick since this marketing company is only paying $3 to spray stain & varnish on a mantle. The marketing company in Canton is supplying all materials to the several shops involved, including the oak plywood & banding for the edges. This marketing company has approached several shops, furniture builders and finishers, and made their offer that required a commitment. Many shops said “NO”, fearing they may have to put their regular customers like myself on the back-burner to fulfill their commitment. Many did sign up, seeing an opportunity for fill-in work and to make an extra buck. I’ve had several discussions with my Amish friends about this. One fellow does not like the deception in the ads and feels bad that his fellow Amishmen are involved. One distinguished craftsman said it best, “It took us years to build a reputation of builders of high quality furniture. I’m afraid that in time these mantles that are cheaply made will hurt us.” Another laugh I got out of the ad is the open buggy delivering fireplaces. The Amish hire local transporters to move their furniture from shop to shop. I travel all over this areas backroads (pipelines) and have never seen anything like this. The marketing company provides everything for this project including the transport. They use Amish labor so they can take advantage of their reputable name. And if you believe in miracles… I experienced my own when I put casters on my recliner so I can roll it from room to room… It’s a miracle! Read the ad twice, laugh-out-loud, and look for the miracle. And by the way, cherry stain on oak plywood doesn’t make it cherry. Buyer Beware!
I am furious at the lack of customer service this company has displayed! I got one of these things in January and it is only `February and it no longer works. And neither does the company apparently. I call, get an automated voice message informing me of a two hour wait time, or I can leave a call back so I will be contacted within two hours….four hours later an automated call comes in and then I’m put on hold for another twenty minutes and then eventually told to press one to speak to someone and then it promptly hangs up on me! Grr…… Naturally upon calling into the company again I get the same crappy options.
Yay, start the fun all over again? NOT! I sent an e-mail…and yet to hear a thing!
Yeah the heater was ok, it warmed up the room fine and it had a nice ambience and all that, but heck I would NEVER have bought one of these things for myself…this one was a gift.
If it were me…I would’nt go there. I saw the same thing in Big Lots for like 175 bucks.
There is my two cents.
I bought two, and need to return them, and called the company and UPS came today and only picked up one so I need the customer service number please from someone that has bought these to call again to have UPS come again and pick up the second one to return to Heat Surge…Thanks for any help
CEL
I read some of the unfavorable comments and my feeling is these must be from oil supplier companies. This unit is quite, no bad odors and has reduced the heat cost by more than 50%. I am very happy I found an article about this and took the chance to try it.
I was wondering about this add too, thanks for the good info! I acutally bought a very cute heater at Lowes that looks like a small Ben Franklin type of stove with the fake fire in it. They had a couple of models, I bought the cheaper one for around $100. It doesn’t have the fancy wood mantle or wheels, but it looks pretty spiffy and it’s light enough that if I want to move it elsewhere in the house I can just pick it up and carry it. Only the bottom part where it blows out the heated air gets moderately warm. The fan is very quiet and it’s sturdy enough to be safe to have the grandbabies around and at 1500 btu it heats my little living room quite nicely.
Total SCAM TOTAL SCAM TOTAL SCAM TOTAL SCAM:
I’m still trying to run the gauntlet to return these things. Arrived with the guts falling out, and the caster brackets were installed without the casters (wheels). Corners smashed , revealing the plywood, they are not wood. Fraudulently sold as having a thermostat, which they don’t. Even if you could live with all of the above the controls put out a high pitched electronic sound that sends pets running away as fast and far as they can.
TOTAL SCAM TOTAL SCAM TOTAL SCAM TOTAL SCAM
Even with all the spetacular claims of the paper and website. The fireplace claims do not beat my ser 13 rated heat/cool pump at 35 degrees. My heat pump still cheaper to run at 75
WE PURCHASED 2 OF THESE HEATERS IN JANUARY AFTER READING ABOUT IT IN THE SUNDAY PAPER.
WHEN THEY WERE DELIVERED WE OPENED 1 BOX AND THE MANTLE TOP WAS SCRATCHED. WE TOOK THE UNIT OUT OF THE BOX, PLUGGED IT IN AND DECIDED IT WOULDN’T GIVE ENOUGH HEAT FOR THE INTENDED ROOM. SO WE DECIDED TO RETURN THE 2 UNITS.
WE CALLED UPS AND WAS TOLD THE RETURN COST WAS
$224.00. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
! I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD NOTIFY THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU ABOUT THIS SCAM
THAT’S WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO.
Hi…just updating my Feb 4th note. So far the one fireplace that I kept is still working. I am dismayed to read the comment from Jim on Feb 9th regarding the quality of the mantle…however, it DOES look nice. I had one hell of a time getting my money back on the second unit and finally turned it in to American Express. They initiated an investigation and I had my money back, minus about $50.00, in about 2 weeks. That $50.00 does not include what my brother in law spent on returning the 2nd unit, so I am waiting for a letter from AMX that should explain that. I am handicapped and shop alot on the internet. I do the best I can to investigate before purchaseing. There are MANY sites who make it very clear that you are going to pay alot to return something, and to be sure that you know what you are purchasing before buying from them. I really appreciate those places. As far as HeatSource goes, I think I knew deep down that it was a scam. Although I wasn’t born yesterday, I sometimes act like it. If you cannot sell your product outright and upfront, being honest about your product, then shame on you for selling it, and shame on me for buying it. Unfortunately, this seems to have become the American way of living. And, if JIm (of Feb 9th)is correct about his Amish friends, then shame on them too. They just joined “them English” in scamming America.
One more update…as “betty-Feb 15th suggested, I just notified the BBB. It looks like to date that they have had about 45 complaints on this company.
Like many others we fell for the ad and ordered 2 units. They arrived yesterday. We unpacked one and left it running all night. The furnace thermostat never got more than 65. We would like to return both but will have to wait until Monday to start the customer service hassle. What are our chances of going through our credit card company to get our money back?
I just visited the Heat Surge website to send them a message about refunding my money for a defective unit (my third). I paid $387 for my heater, plus shipping of $49 in December. Now they are advertising their heaters for $547 and free shipping!!! They just raised they price to cover shipping. MORE SCAM. I think anybody can say something is made by the Amish rather it is or not. There is no trademark on the Amish name. It is a shame that anybody can advertise a money back guarantee, but not have to honor it and get away with it. If there are any lawyers reading these comments, can all of the people that have been cheated with damaged/nonworking units start a class-action lawsuit against this company for refunds?
I do know one thing….I will never buy anything again without researching it first. This has been an expensive lesson.
Well here we go again with the flickering of the fireplace not working that is exactly what has happend to me, and yes i think we should be able to file something, my heater worked for one month now what !
I returned mine via UPS, and guess what, UPS can’t find it. They have no idea what happened to it. How do You lose something that big? I am an x-trucker and have picked up and delivered lots of loads nation wide. When a peice of murchandise goes on a truck the driver signs for it and when it goes off that truck someone at the receiving point signs for it. I insured it for $300.00, but now UPS wants Me to prove what the value of the heater was before they will pay anything. Sounds like the Chinese, the Amish, and UPS are in cahoots on this one. I deserve what I got for being so stupid. Sign Me, STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.
My wife’s parents bought just the heating unit with the fake fire without the Amish wood surround. They love the fire and the heater but since they pay their electric bill by estimate each month until year end, they have no idea how much it cost to run. As a lot of older people they fell for the SAVE MONEY part of the full page ad.
I really enjoyed the flame and noticed that their furnace never ran while running the heater so I started looking on eBay and found a company selling the heaters. I watched as one went for $95 then later one went for $105.
When another one came on I bid on it and got it for $85 plus $26 shipping. I thought I got a real deal but the thing came damaged and I am just now starting to deal with UPS and the seller about the problem. The seller buys and sells lost freight as part of their business so maybe I got one of the heaters returned by someone else. After reading the postings here for a couple hours I think even at the cheaper price I paid for the heater that I got nothing more than a broken problem.
Harbor Freight sells a heater that looks like a fireplace for less than $100. It has the exact same output. My friend purchased 3 of them and is very happy.
Just saw the advertisement for this heater in latest issue of National Geographic. Showed article to always-freezing wife and then came upstairs to do the research. We use gas and while those bills are high enough, don’t need to waste my money on this over-priced unit. Thanks for all the comments. No ill-will against the Amish - just a bad investment on their part.
My neighbor ordered one, and it’s sitting in my room right now. She’s out of the country and invited me to evaluate it. Well, back in the box tomorrow. What a joke, and not as efficient as an oil circulating passive heater. The savings claims made in the advertisement are downright deceptive. I’ve installed thousands of cabinets, and can tell you, with certainty, they are NOT hand crafted.
Additionally, it took two months for delivery.
I cant believe all the people who have fallen into this age old marketing scheme. R these the same people that bought pet rocks?? Am I to believe that these buyers were not smart enough to see thru the scam, but yet smart enough to vote for a leader of this country? GOD, please help us.
jim
If you’re surprised or shocked that the Amish would be involved in manufacturing an “electrical” device you’ve once again been taken in by the popular media. The Amish would sell their vanishing culture for a Yankee dollar any day of the week. They do, however, walk this hypocritical religious fine line when deriving these dollars. It’s like being a witting accomplice to a crime - as long as they didn’t possess the gun or pull the trigger, they don’t see any complacency. In essense, they would be the fellas (and gals) that held down the hapless victim that gets plugged by the gunman. So much for “Witness.” How do you keep them down on the farm, etc, etc? You don’t.
Ordered a stove - began to question the validity and decided to cancel the order (within 12 hours)
Ended up having to HotCard my credit card to make sure the order was canceled!
Was on hold for 53 minutes, was told by 4 people while trying to cancel the order that their comuter was frozen up and they couldn’t do anything now, but “I will call you back.”
What is going on here?
I ordered the heater. The fake flames look good. It heats like any electric heater. The “real oak wood” is not real oak wood. It came with one corner mashed in and a dent on the top of the wood. I tried to call the number they gave me if I had a problem. I stayed on hold for about 40 minutes each time I called. Finally, the music went off and I thought I had someone on the line. No such luck. They hung up. I have had this heater for three days now and have not been able to contact the company. I sent them an e-mail but have not received an answer back. Have been scammed??
My friend just got 2 and she loves them. One in her living room and the other in her basement. I am going to order when the next ad comes out. They sure are pretty and keep rooms warm! She doesn’t think it’s a scam and neither do I.
For the people convinced they are satisfied with their purchase and claim this is not a “scam”:
If you’re happy with it, great. Most fake fireplaces run in the same general area of price range as this. The only difference is, they’re usually higher quality materials. But as stated, this is not the product you want if you’re concerned with heat, only if you’re concerned with pretty fake fireplaces. Although I have to say, if one tenth of the horror stories posted here are true about their customer service, they should be put in shackles. So even if you’re interested in having a pretty fake fireplace, stay away from a company that also sells “male enhancement pills”. There are plenty of other more reputable places to get said fireplaces.
But just because their methods are technically not illegal, makes it no less a scam.
They advertise “solid wood”. Beware anyone who advertises something like this. Particle board and plywood are still technically wood. They can make the claim, “Hey, it’s wood all the way through, so it’s solid wood.” (Also, I’m an architectural designer and another tip on recognizing wood veneer is looking at how wide the pieces of wood are. Real hardwood is usually many strips of wood, for example 12 inches by 1/2 inch by however long, glued together side by side. This is because if you want a solid piece of wood that’s 36 inches by 1/2 inch by however long, the tree you get it from has to be around 40 inches wide. Not very common and also not how lumber companies cut the wood. For veneer, however, companies can shave a log by removing an 1/8 of an inch all the way down to the log’s core in a spiral fashion and flatten it out. The result is just about as big a sheet of veneer you want to slap on top of as big a piece of particle board you want.)
The ad appears in a newspaper, and is formatted to imitate a newspaper article. They are blatantly trying to pass off their comments as comments from a non-bias newspaper reporter. But hey, they never actually claim it to be a newspaper article right? So they aren’t responsible for your misunderstanding right? Wrong. They willingly tried to lead you to believe something that isn’t true. This is why the Better Business Bureau exists, to try to prevent this kind of behavior.
Back to the horror stories of customer service people have had; I can’t believe none of you have spent the money to fly to Ohio, go to their office, and punch every single on of them in the mouth. I know I want to just reading these comments. Someone who works for the company posted on Jan 18 and basically said “it’s your fault that you didn’t read everything that was printed”. No, claiming you need to read everything written doesn’t wash your hands of your shady and immoral business practices.
The fact is, the company is trying to dupe the population into thinking they’re getting something they’re not. They are not even riding a subtle or razor edge line between right and wrong. “Everyone” is not doing this type of advertising and customer support practice. Some companies are sketchier than others, but this one is horrid. I would suggest relating your horror stories to the Better Business Bureau.
We ordered two of these heaters about 10:30 a.m. today, one with oak mantle and the other plain, total $617.00. Then I thought gee I don’t know let me look at the net about this. Well, I came across this and thought yeah they are mostly right. So at 11:30 a.m. I started calling Customer Service. I wanted to heat a area of our house that has a small gas space heater hoping I could shut it off. The more I read the more I thought it is not going to work. I was getting out my Better Business web page, and looking up my credit card company number to put a stop on it. As I was sitting there and my husband says, didnt we read somewhere that they can listen in, as the music did stop everyonce in awhile so I would say hello anyone there. Well, I told him in a loud voice, well if they don’t answer soon I will just file with the Better Business Bureau and call our credit card company. Well lo and behold in a matter of seconds (this is after being on hold for 35 minutes)I got an answer. I do have to say the woman was very polite and took my cancellation with no problems. She asked a reason I said we just changed our mind so she said she would put it down as customer remorse which is fine with me. My cancelation number is same as my order number. She said I caught it just in time. I will be watching my credit card closely.
Like they say, If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
Have experienced similar difficulty with this company. Have tried for over 2 months to get a straight answer and a refund. Have waited endlessly on the phone to speak to someone = only get stock answers and unfulfilled promises. Still waiting for a refund. They have their heater, my money - and I have nothing but frustration.
I know someone that works for this company. As everyone stated, the cabinets are not solid wood and really aren’t even that nice looking. However, my friend told me that they aren’t even Amish made at all!!! The heater part and the cabinets both are made in China. So unless there are Amish people in China….I hope someone investigates this further. Oh, and my friend that works there, he says the fireplaces are very cheap and over half of them get returned. He is also looking for another job because he says its a lousy place to work.
Regarding the comment from “J” which was posted on January 18th: Your company sucks, J, and you don’t care about your customers or your employees. Everything is a lie, a way to get your hands in someone’s pockets.
Buyer beware. 100% money back guarentee will cost you over $200 to return the units. Quite a way to make money for UPS.
I have one in my remodeled basement. The cherry finish goes well with my woodwork and it heats the area that we have it in very comfortably. It is a real eye pleaser as compared to other units which may be cheaper and of the same heat output. My wife and kids love it and it makes the basement more comfortable to spend time in this cold winter. I give it a definite thumbs up!!
Ordered 2 units-1 quit working after a couple of weeks. Customer service is terrible. No two people have given me the same info. They’ve blamed it on UPS and the Amish for not having phones to communicate with. I gave up and ask for a refund. Appears they’ll say whatever it takes to get you off the phone…the next person you follow up with gives a different version. If it’s not a scam, not sure what else you could call it!
I was going to suggest my mother purchase one until I couldn’t find and reference to this company being incorporated in Ohio or for that matter no refernce to them using Manta. I wouldn’t purchase from someone that you can’t identify. It is curious that a search of the address used on their web site is also listed as the address for an advertising agency referred to as a scam artist.
Ha! I did NOT order one of these. Why am I here you may ask? Well, I just found out that not one, but TWO of my friends had these delivered to their homes. I saw the one in oak. It looks like junk. The seams do not meet tight and I tried to tell my friend it is veneer but she insists it is “solid Amish oak” because “the ad said so”. She won’t believe what her eyeballs see. Geesh. She and her hubby think they are “going to save money” by heating their tiny home with electricity using this thing, rather than using their natural gas furnace. I tried to reason with her using *math and facts*, but to no avail. My other friend bought the one in cherry. I haven’t seen it yet but I am *sure* it is not solid cherry like he insists it is. This poor soul bought one to heat his apartment believing that “it uses less electricity than a coffeemaker” he kept saying over and over, and that he could turn off his electric baseboard heaters. I tried to pound some sense into him with facts about watts and BTUs but he had been brainwashed by the ad. So far, his first month with this toy his electric bill has gone UP 65 percent, but he said he thinks it is because “he bought a new LCD TV” to replace his old CRT TV. Yikes. Does he not know how stupid that sounds? Is he afraid to admit he made a huge mistake? How did I not notice all these years that my friends are retards? I am trying to Google these things so I can print out the facts about these “Solid Amish wood, Chinese miracle heaters” and the shady company behind all of this, and hand them a print-out if they won’t listen to *me*. Even if it is too late to send them back maybe they will stop running these things thinking they are going to *SAVE MONEY* on their heating bills by using electricity instead of natural gas, or the electric baseboard heaters already installed. When I saw the ad in the paper, I just laughed and said to myself “How stupid do they think we are??” Little did I know that they had a demographic in mind that will fall for something like this.
I also fell for the “miracle heaters”, but I did ask the girl that I spoke to if it in fact used 1.5 kw per day (I do not know much about electricity), and she said yes, and I said that it would equal 45 kw per month. I told her that it truly was a “miracle” if that was true. So I ordered two with the oak mantle. Thought they looked very nice when I received them. Couldn’t wait to hook them up.
I usually heat with wood. I am a senior citizen, so I thought that I no longer have to worry about purchasing wood and hauling it into the house to burn. If I become disabled, my needs were now going to be taken care of cheaply, more efficient, and no longer have to worry about fire, toxic fumes, etc.
Then a friend told me to check my electricity meter and see how much it had gone up. I did, and I usually use 297-310 kw of electricity in a month. After 9 days, I used 649 kw of electricity. This I cannot afford. I could not believe it. I called to return them and was told it would take me 6 months to get my money back, unless I want to send it to another address, then I will get my money back in 30 days, but I would have to pay all shipping charges which would amount to $100.00. Called back again, and told I was given the wrong information. They will have someone here to pick them up on Monday, Mar. 3. I really do not expect to pay for shipping charges because their ad is very misleading and I feel I was taken advantage of. I will be in touch with the Attorney General if this does not take care of itself soon. I am keeping all my papers to report this in case that happens. I really feel dumb about being taken in by this, and I should have checked the internet, but my computer was not working at the time. You only had a 2 day window to get it, and one day already went by. Did not pay my property taxes thinking that with this “deal” it would be worth it and I would make it up later in expenses.
It is your choice. I was using it to heat most of my home, which fit the dimensions they spoke of, but it may cost you (depending on your cost of electricity in your area).
I paid a total of $750.00 for both, including the shipping charges. Let’s see what happens from here on in. Will update later.
Thank-you all for your comments, both positive and negative. I was looking to save even more on my heating here in upstate NY. This won’t be my choice. I’ll stick to my time honored (4yrs running) method. I turn the heat off at night, back on in the am before work, off again while at work back on again when I return home.2.5hours in the am and about 5 in the eve. I have a 3 bedroom ranch and heat the basement. Last month my bill was 139, averaging around 150.No pipe problems. It takes about and hour to return to 68. I would rather be a little chilly for a short time than plug into that. Thanks again. Cheers to the power of the internet. mary
I just saw the ad in the Sunday Parade (March 2, 2008). I’m not in the market for a fake fireplace, since I bought one a year ago at Home Depot for $318 (Charmglow Electric Fireplace). Yes, both the mantle and heater are made in China, but for the amount of money I spent on my fake fireplace, I was in control of the purchase locally and able to return it personally if it didn’t work or was damaged.
The ad caught my attention, because there are older folks out there (like my mother, who lives in Indiana), that don’t have a computer and may fall “prey” to this company. I didn’t have anything else better to do today, so I did a little investigating around on the internet and went to the website http://www.heatsurge.com and http://www.amishfireplaces.com, which are listed in the Parade ad and VERY easy to miss. Several questions/comments came to mind:
1. Why are there SO MANY different telephone numbers and areas to place orders:
a. National Hotline: 1-800-242-6155
b. Frigid Zone 1: 1-800-242-6155
c. Cold Zone 2: 1-800-310-7731
d. Frost Zone 3: 1-800-625-7259
e. http://www.heatsurge.com: 1-800-627-3718
(The internet version states the Phone Orders is 24 Hrs/7 Days a week)
f. http://www.amishfireplaces.com (no telephone number given)
Possible answer: There are SEVERAL different places from which to order, depending which number you call and may be the reason some customers end up with crappy fireplaces (veneer, poorly made and poorly packed for shipping) versus more quality made fireplaces. One other person in this forum did state the company contracted out to different workers.
2. There is only one Customer Service number given: 1-800-924-7964 with limited hours of 9:00 am to 11:00 pm mon-Fri EST and
9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Sat EST.
Possible answer: There is REALlY only one Customer Service center for returns/questions/ etc., and my guess is, their real hours are 9:00-5:00 Mon-Fri (whatever timezone they are actually in). May explain why many customers have experienced a variety of issues with getting in contact with Customer Service.
3. On the http://www.heatsurge.com website, Why does the Cherry Fireplace cost $587, Oak Fireplace cost $547 (both with free shipping of a $49 value) and when you go to check out, it automatically adds a $9 remote and $28 2-year extended warranty, which does give you the option of removing the two. The page that required all my name, billing address, payment information did not have a place to type in a Claim Code (from the Parade ad), therefore I didn’t go any further to check it out. The http://www.amishfireplaces.com website looks similar to the other website, except it allows you to type in the Claim Code from the Parade ad on the very first website page and then shows the price of the Cherry Fireplace as $338, and the Oak Fireplace as $298. Also, both websites state “Save up the 20% off your heating bills and stay as warm as you want this winter”. (Maybe this could be used to file false advertisement claims for those of you who have ended up paying more for your heating bills).
Possible Answer: Like many of the other persons in this forum have said: “There’s a sucker born every minute”. If a person doesn’t do their homework and goes to the http://www.heatsurge.com website first, well let’s just say that is probably what this company hopes for.
Now, a little background about my fake fireplace from Home Depot. The mantle is bigger (came in a variety of mantle sizes), white in color (came in a variety of solid wood/real wood veneers…which is disclosed up front the material it is constructed of), and more realistic looking than the two varieties advertised by HeatSurge. My fireplace/heater came with a remote (didn’t cost extra), has various heat/flame settings and is still working great! BTW, when I was doing research before buying this fireplace, the Home Depot ad online was way more specific than this ad, even stating it was “Cost efficient, 1 cent/hr without heat, 7 to 10 cents/hr with heat”. One person before pointed out this is an average and depends on where you live.
Sorry to be so wordy, but I just felt compelled to say something. There are more better products (fireplaces and/or heaters) out there, in which customers won’t get scammed.
My oh my - what junk. I’ve already returned mine and lost out on a great deal of shipping charges. And who wrote the initial review? Obviously a representative of the company themselves. Don’t waste your money.
I just ordered mine for a room addition for our daughter whos always cold. If it keeps her from touching the house therm. then thats great! Plus it looks better then a heater youd by at walmart and it brings a beauty and warmth to the room. Who cares who made it or where it comes from as long as it does its job.
We bought two of these and I think they are GREAT. We now keep our house at 60 and these heaters will keep it warm just having them on low. I would reccomend these to anyone. I have done research and found them to be a lot cheaper than a electric heater or an oil heater. These also look nice who wants one of those UGLY space heaters sitting around. I plan on putting one in my camper this spring and fall so I don’t have to use LP. Will be alot cheaper. I have had my for 3 months and have not noticed the electric go up more that $4.50 so I feel this is very reasonable. I would buy them again.
I purchased one of these back in December. What a piece of junk. The worst part is their customer service. That is even more of a joke. I returned the unit & still haven’t been refunded. Buyer beware! Stay clear of HeatSurge, LLC.
I got my fireplace in Feb this year. And I love it. I live in a mobile home and use propane gas to heat and cook with. I have ran this heater and used my furnace very little. I know I have saved $250.00 on propane. That sells for the same price as gasoline. As for my electric bill , well it has gone up $20.00. in 1 month only. So it was well worth the price I paid for it. And I have had many wonderful comments on it.
I purchased a unit in Cherry in late December. It puts out very little heat and my electric bill has gone way up. A few days ago, the heating unit stopped working. Trying to get ahold of customer service is a joke. You hold for anywhere from 38 to 58 minutes and then are disconnected. I finally got ahold of someone on another number and they said to put it in the box and leave it on the front porch and ask UPS to leave the tracking number. UPS did not leave one, so I called UPS. UPS said that the company would have the tracking # because they are the ones having it picked up. The only thing Heat Surge had me do it write my name and address on the box. I have called my credit card company and filed a dispute. Heat Surge doesn’t answer e mails either. How stupid could I have been?? My little $25.00 space heater works better than this. I would not advise getting a unit from this company.
This heat surge fireplace is not for everyone!! It depends on a lot of conditions. I live alone and I just stay in 1 part of the mobile home. It is a steady heat source. Much better than propane gas which costs over $3.00 a gallon. My flames quit 1 time on me so I turned it off and unplug it for 10 min. Turned it back on and it is perfect now. I just reset it. But everyone has their own opinion. I am very happy with it. It is not made for a large house. Sometime the temp gets up to 76 and I have to turn it down or off.
WHAT A SCAM, I RECEIVED TWO OF THE FIREPLACES AND ONE QUIT AFTER THE THIRD USE ABOUT 2HOURS TOTAL TIME,FAN MOTOR INOP. THE OTHER ONE HAD THE MOTOR QUIT ON THE ROTATING UNIT THAT MAKES THE MOVING/FLICKERING FIRE. THE OAK UNIT HAD THE FIRPLACE UNIT INPROPERLY INSTALLED AND HAD SPLIT THE WOOD OF THE MANTEL IN THREE PLACES. QUALITY CONTROL SEEMS NON EXISTENT. THE MANTEL IS NOT ALL SOLID WOOD, PARTIALLY LAMINATED. AS FOR SERVICE, FOUR CALLS TO THE COMPANY AND I WAS PUT ON HOLD FOR UP TO THREE “3″ HOURS AND NEVER RECEIVED A CALL BACK. DON”T WASTE YOUR MONEY!
The ones that claim to have bought one and “love it” are either CHUMPS or are employees astroturfing the board to deflect the negative comments. You can buy a ceramic heater at your local Home Depot for $50 or less and get the same result, albeit without the “luxurious” wood veneer mantle
On January 14th I was charged for 2 of the Heat Surges units. Two hours after ordering, I tried to cancel, but had to wait until the office was open the next day due to the west coast time difference. I was then told they had already been shipping and was given a UPS shipping number. I immediately called UPS to stop the shipping and was told the number was not in my name, but a recycled number. Upon calling back numerous times, I learned that the unit had not been shipped until 2 days after I cancelled the order. On the 30th of January, they received the 2 untis back. I called my credit card company and was told they had 30 days to refund. After the time limit I called again and finally threatened to contact Marc Dann’s Consumer protection attorney general in Ohio, amazingly, I had a credit on my credit card, but for only one of the units. Today, I called back again and you can not get a supervisor only a flunky. I was told they would pass the message on and have someone call me. They still owe me $356.00. It is not seven weeks since the initial order.
I would recommend not dealing with this company and wonder if they even have any connection the with Amish except to maybe contract with them to build the woood frame.
well i am still waiting for a new fireplace since the other one broke down with the flickering flame failed i wrote a blog on feb 17 sent my fireplace back a few days later and still no sign of the new one yet they paid for the shipping to be sent back cause i bought the warranty.
I purchased the Edenpure heater last year. We are very happy with it! Have had no problems and several friends and family members have ordered it also. We have an older home with a floor furnance and can turn down the heater to 60 or 65 by leaving the Edenpure on. It does run most of the time but the savings is worth it for us. My husband thought the savings wasn’t worth it so I turned it off this year for a month and wow! The electric dropped by $20 and the gas went up over $80! It is easy to move if you need it in another room and when the grandkids are here I do not have to worry about them getting burned. Even the dog likes it. I know every ones experience is going to be different but ours has been good with this.
When it arrived it had paper work explaining it and a retun label if we did not like it. No, it did not come in a fancy “Amish” wood container nor does it have a fireplace looking flame but it does work for us.
As for the Amish heater, well it does seem to me to be misrepresented, has no one who is interested in it called the Better Business Bureau? Whatever you end up with I hope all of stay warm.
I do not have one of these units but am considering one. I do have a SunHeat unit with which I am very pleased. The SunHeat unit rolls from room to room and looks much like a low endtable. We have been able to close off rooms we don’t use and heat with the SunHeat heater, saving over $350 per month in propane costs. My electric bill went up appx $100 as I run the SunHeat 24/7. This type of situation is not ideal for everyone and some will not save anything if you have electric heat and do not close off rooms. This is the first year propane heat has not been cheaper than electric. We however have enjoyed the lower bills and warmer living areas.
I bought this heater for my 70 year old mother who was trying to cut back on her heating oil consumption. Well thank you for nothing. I was so excited when she called and said that it had arrived. Well hold the phone I arrived there 4 hours later to find her huddled in a chair next to this farce. Not only was there no heat being blown out , there was no heat being produced. Oh it looked warm and cozy but it was NOT. Even the side of the chair that was less than 8 inches from the heater was cold. So I started on the journey of trying to get this piece of junk picked up and my money back. Well three days later and several hours at least 6 being on hold we finally got hold of someone that promised to have UPS pick it up and I would have my account reimbursed as soon as they received the heater back…NOT HAPPENING!!!
According to the UPS tracking system they received the heater back on March 5th and now its March 12th and I call up…They have me directed to a “over flow” department who will take my information and have them call me back…She will not let me speak to a customer service rep…this broken english speaking person tells me that they will call me back.. I tell her I would rather wait..
according to my “over flow ” person she can’t transfer me to customer service and I can’t speak to her supervisor…So I guess I will have to take another 6 hour trip on hold to speak to someone ..because if they promise to call you back they don’t…
Maybe I would be better off to speak to the Better Business people?
Saw this ad in National Geographic. Thank god I didnt buy it.
JUNK GIMMICK! DO NOT BUY! Mine quit working two weeks later. I ordered two 900$ freakin dollars. What a joke!!! Read the reviews save your money for a old wood stove.
We bought our heat surge fireplace in Dec.. We are very happy with it. We live in a mobile home in Florida and we have hardly used our furnace since. We use it in the mornings to take off the chill..and again in the evenings when the sun sets and we turn it off when we go to bed. Our fireplace is much more economical than running the furnace/heat pump from behind our unit, through the ducts funning full length underneath our unit, on the ground. We especially like the oak cabinet and ours is very well made. I read most of the previous comments and most complaints were from people who ordered and immediately canceled without even trying the unit. You cannot heat an entire house with any space heater. Also, there was a complaint of the “fan” not working..or the “blower” not working. DUH! There IS no fan or blower in the fireplace. That’s why it’s called a “Surge”. Perhaps we were just lucky, but we absolutely love our heat surge fireplace!
Just purchased one of these and recieved it last Thursday. First thing I noticed was the very poor “Amish” quality mantel. Mine had a venneer tape on the edge around the top. Not something I’ve ever seen on “true” Amish furniture. Also the ads tell you that the heater is completely safe to the touch…but the instructions tell you it “is hot when in use. To avoid burns, do not let bare skin touch hot surfaces” and goes on to warn “always unplug…when not in use” don’t simply shut it off. I have mine in the family room and it makes enough noise that I must turn the volume up on the TV to hear it. And when vacuuming the room, it blew the circiut breaker and I had to pull the plug on the heater to continue vacuuming. One of my three dogs is scared to death by it and has to be coaxed into the family room even when the heater is off.
I would return it and take the loss of what seems to be about $100 for shipping…but even people who charged a credit card do not seem to be getting their refunds after returning the unit and are consequently out not only the heater but their money as well.
Hopefully, anyone thinking about purchasing one of these “Amish made Fireplace Mantles and HEAT SURGE miracle heaters” will NOT make the same mistake that I did. This is nothing but a SCAM!!!
Thanks for informing me of this “great deal!” I’m embarrassed to say I almost ordered one on-line, got a weird feeling, then googled. Way too much negative feed-back for the Heat-Surge! Thanks to all for letting the rest of us know b-4 it’s too late-sorry for those who have already been taken advantage of by what seems to be, (@ the very least), a business w/questionable ethics. Spring is coming soon!
As has been mentioned in many comments, 1500 watts produces slightly more than 5000 BTUs no matter what type of electric heater you use. I live in upstate NY where winters get COLD in a 2 story 10 room house. I have oil heat only downstairs in the four main rooms & the bathroom. The unheated rooms range from 55 to 62 degrees including upstairs. Our thermostat is set at 67 degrees. Every room has a thermostatically controlled electric baseboard heater which can be used whenever that room needs a little more heat. Electric heat (at 13 cents per KWH) is 50% more than oil heat at almost $3.00 per gallon. Spending $300 to $500 for an electric heater is not justified.
Just sign me Vern
A friend just received two of the Heat Surge fireplaces, so I’ve been interested in your comments. I WAS thinking of purchasing one, but now will not.
For those who have had difficulties with the company, my suggestion is to contact your state attorney general, consumer affairs. If anyone can get the company to move, the AG can. I’ve had productive results with Sears and other companies with the intervention of the AG.
In our state (WA), due to funding, the AG has no ability to REQUIRE anything, but evidently, companies stock holders don’t like to have problems with the AG on record.
Since my last comment, I ran across an electric stove (Muskoka) online @ Target. Since I like how it looks as piece of furniture for all year, I ordered one this morning..if it can add a little heat, all the better. ($200, but still cheaper than a Heat Surge). I’ll post my opinion once it’s delivered. Does anyone already have one & if so, what should I expect? Thanks.
We are very happy with our Heat Surge/Amish Fireplace. The flames looks really good, and you don’t have to run the heat unless you want to. It is solid wood, and can really put out heat. We bought it for the ambience, and realize that there are cheaper heaters out there, but this goes very well in the living room, and I must say, looks like a real flame
I almost bought one today for $380 plus $114 to ship it, all I had to do was send the check or pay on mypal and to think it was selling on e-bay for less than around $100, I was really figuring how to cut my budget to get one of these even going without lunches, I was going to giving up eating for one of these things, and give up having a birthday birthday for my kid.
Has anyone gotten a refund from this company yet? I am also one of the poor suckers who got two of these hoping to help my mother in NH lower her heating bill. This is definitely a scam and I think that something should be done. Do not buy these heaters please!
Hi Folks,
I just got my refund. I have to say that I am happy that this is over, but am also happy that I have my money back; or at least the money I spent on the heaters, not the outrageous shipping. Another sad reality about this situation is how much UPS charged me to ship two heaters back -$300.00 - and I packed them. Talk about taking advantage of the individual customer. I think I will take a look at FedEx or DHL for my future shipping needs. I don’t think the post office can take a large box such as the heater, but I have found them to have very competetive and many times cheaper rates. No, I do not work for the post office. For those that have not yet received a refund, I hope you see them soon. It will be a long time before I shop outside of reasonable driving range.
My Muskoka stove arrived yesterday,(5 days from when I ordered it). I’m very happy w/the appearance of it. I plugged it in & felt the heat immediately,(but to be fair, I was right in front of it). Obviously, the “flames” don’t compare to a real fire, but they are prettier than I anticipated. As long as it works properly, (for an additional source of heat for a small area), I think I’ll remain pleased w/it. It’s not completely silent when running the heat option, but it’s not loud enough to drown everything else out & the dog & cats weren’t freaked out by it & were laying next to it w/in 30 min. Oh, it also came w/a 1 yr. warranty, so hopefully…Thanks again to all who posted information re:heat-surge, it helped me make my decision.
The true calculations have been done here over and over, so I won’t repeat them.
Anyone who says that this fireplace works so well, doesn’t understand that you could have purchased a $30 heater, and used the savings to power it for *twenty-four hours a day* for an *entire winter*, and still come out ahead of this “miracle”.
So maybe for those of you who don’t quite ‘get it’ yet, tell us: who is paying for the full-page ads week after week in the Sunday paper, the full-page color ads in National Geographic, Popular Science, and other huge magazines? Who is paying for full hour-long TV and radio ads? The only reason they can afford all these enormous costs is because they have sold less-educated consumers a bill of goods and want to entice more people to spend $350 or more on what should be a $30-$80 purchase.
I bought my fireplace in Dec 2007. The flame stopped rolling after 1 month of use. I called the customer service number and waited for 20 minutes. the person I spoke with tried to help me “fix the roller” while on the phone. This did not work, so they shipped it back. I received my new fireplace 2 weeks later. Now, just about 2 1/2 months later, the flame is not rolling, again!!! I saw above where someone else had the same problem and fixed it himself. I wish I had read that before I called customer service, again (I was on hold for only 20 minutes!!) They were willing to reimburse my credit card, but I really enjoy this little fireplace. I know it is electric, but my electric bill did not go sky high. I use this in a small “den” that used to be a covered patio between my house and garage. Unable to “insulate” the concrete that is still attached to the steps outside. It does a wonderful job when my husband and I are just sitting out there watching TV, and it makes it cozy and romantic at the same time. I think it works well, and I grew up in OH around the amish and good for them to come up with a plan to make some money for their communities!!!! It costs more than $30-$80 for the heater AND the wood for the mantle, particle or whatever, isn’t cheap anymore.
bla, bla, bla,, Can grown adults find anything else to do but wine…let me get you some cheese to go with that.
I bought a Heat Surge from a client who got carried away and bought 2.I was so impressed when I was at her home,she called me a week later and asked if I would like to buy the second one.I said YES! I am so pleased with it.I live in a mobile home and it does work well heating a small home, but i doubt it is good for a large home with vaulted ceilings.Since I have had it over a month, not only am I warm, I also am no longer depressed.I truly believe the fake fireplace effect has made me a happier person.Think about it.I LOVE IT!!!!!!
To Karen in R.I.
As stated many times above, you could have gone to your local farm store and spent $32 including tax for a rock-solid heater WITH an automatic thermostat.
If you had used your savings of $266 instead of buying the Heat-Surge SCAM and invested it in insulation, you would be forever saving money. Even adding 2″ thick grey or pinkboard R-10 insulation to the outside of your concrete foundation would have helped. I know - I did that to all of the foundations on our house from ground level to the foundation footing underground by first digging a 6″ wide trench down to the footing, coated the foundation with asphalt sealer, and then coated both sides of the 2″ board with the sealer also prior to sticking it to the foundation and backfilling. Cold concrete be-gone! True, it was a lot of work, but as you have found out by purchasing the scam heater, there is no such thing in life as a free lunch!
I can’t believe how many people have fallen for this scam. When I was searching for my electric fireplaces I looked at many companies. The opening pictures did it for me before I read in to the company. nobody would allow workers to work on units that are plugged in it just looked so false but I guess there are a lot of people out there who are very trusting and were sucked in. I finally made my purchase from fireplacegateway.com. My two units look great and work as they should do. You people who have got hooked up in trying to return products and contact problems should do a little more research in future before making on line purchases with any internet companies
Thanks for all your careful comments! Isn’t the internet wonderful? What a rounded group of answers. I think I’m going to go ahead and get one as it sounds like the people who liked it and I have similar goals. Appearance, quiet, and effective heating of one room rather then heating an entire house. Also…these comments started in DECEMBER and now it is APRIL so it is clearly not a scam. Just resourceful advertising. THE AMERICAN WAY!
After reading the comments I thought I would add my 2 cents worth to the discussion. We bought two of these last December and I love them. One we have in the basement and one in the living room uner the wall mounted TV. This one has had the flame going continually (without heat) for 5 months and it is most relaxing to sit near while the snow is falling outside - gives the room a warm cozy feeling. We have electric thermostat controled heating in our home but have used these for those extra chilly days to give a quick burst of heat to the room. The flame stopped working once and after jiggling the rod behind the light bulbs it sprang back to life. I do agree that the waiting time to speak to a customer rep was a bit off putting but all in all I am pleased with our purchase.
I started reading and think that new comments should be first instead of last. I read mentioned calling the Better Business Bureau . Do any of these people know what the BBB is for?
In less than 5 minutes I got the report from the Canton, Ohio BBB. Excuses that they are growing too fast are invalid. If my business was growing too fast, I wouldn’t put so many full page ads in the paper.
I’m a Senior person. If you are a senior, please let me forward the BBB report to you free. And I mean absolutely free with nothing to buy and I won’t use or sell your e-mail again. Please publish my e-mail address:
normheitz@usfamily.net In the subject line put:
“BBB report”. You may have to wait if I get too many requests, but I can tell you to buy from who uses false advertising and I really feel sorry for these poor Amish people who may not know what they are in to. And, Yes, we need more Amish, Quakers, and other peaceful people in this country. And please don’t forget to call the BBB you spend your hard-earned money.
My name is Kim and my mom bought three of these ….I used mine and the plug started on fire after about three months of use …I had a electrician come and check my plugs and they were fine it was the heater itself ….this is not the end .. I called the heat and surge company .. took forever to get ahold of them ..when I finaly did they gave us our money back and I said wow that was too easy ..and they said well we have had this vcomplaint …I ask them if they wanted the unit to fix the prob;em so others did not have to fear this happening and they said oh that would be a good idea . well two times I left it for a rep to pick up and they never did . so its your call but I will never use one again .
THE UNIT COMES WITH A 1 YEAR GUARANTEE. IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, RETURN IT AND GET A REFUND.
STOP ALL OF YOUR BITCHING…
Yes, I am an employee of Heat Surge. I was also an employee of SCI (EdenPure) at one time. And let me tell you Heat Surge is much better. I started out in the call center taking your orders and then transferred to customer service. So I know what’s going on and Heat Surge is not “ripping” people off. The main problem is people see the word free and then read very little of anything else. In the call center there are scripts EVERY employee has to read again explaining everything. There are people hired in with the soul purpose of making sure call center people read those scripts. And as for the heaters, they are good- I have one and love it. All you have to do is make sure you read the instruction AND FOLLOW them. The heater is not meant to heat an entire house. It is not meant to be ran unsupervised, and it says in the instruction that yes the heater’s cord can get warm. Customer Service IS very busy and YES it is because the company grew so quickly, we are having a hard time finding enough QUALITY people to take calls. But believe me we are trying! The company keeps running ads I believe because we are young company with a young owner. We are makeing improvments every day. So please be patient.
Amish can be photographed, they just do not pose for pictures. As you can tell, they are not posing, that is a candid shot.
I ordered 2 heaters on March 3,2008.Still have not recieved them.Have called plenty of times.Called so much my confirmation no# has been changed 3 times.Todays date is May 9,2008.Still waiting!!
I work in the Heat Surge call center where everyone calls to order… The ad really isn’t a scam, if you have the competency to read and comprehend exactly what you are reading. It states in the ad that you need to purchase the mantel to get the heater free, and I don’t understand why people sound so surprised when I tell them what it costs…READ THE AD!!! Don’t read free and then frantically dial, gooood god people. We aren’t trying to take advantage of anyone, and if you feel taken advantage of then that’s your fault for not learning how to decipher what you are reading. Please, please, please, read the whole ad and if you decide you think it is a scam, DO NOT call us and try to tell us how you feel, we DO NOT have time to listen to your crazy banter on how we’re committing fraud. We have way to many other calls to take, and commission to make from the smart people who know what they are buying. As for the miracle heater itself, I bought one myself and I know everything about it, I’ve taken it apart in a training class, it heats my apartment nicely. Oh and if you do call just to complain about the ad, the calls are recorded and people just replay them and laugh as you embarress yourself, so do yourself and us a favor, don’t waste our time, don’t waste our pay, and don’t embarress yourself…and don’t call if you don’t intend on making a purchase…Thanks.
And these views are not shared by HeatSurge, LLC, these are just the views and opinions of a very frustrated call center agent.
I have a heat surge fireplace and just love it but I would like to buy another one for our home. How do I go about ordering one more?
Thank you, Karol Newgard
I bought mine in February or March and have had it a couple of months. It is placed in my sunroom which is a three season room. I have run the heater sporadically but it has never failed to perform. It looks great and if it isn’t solid oak it sure makes a good appearance. I really like it. I’m sorry so many people feel scammed. After all it isn’t a gas fired furnace.
If you wanted to order another fireplace, you would unfortunately have to now pay for the heater so it is now over $500-the heater is no longer free with the mantle. If you waited until another add was dropped, then the promotion would be back on but I don’t know how many ads we’ll be dropping for the fireplaces due to summer being upon us. If you wanted to order one, you would go to http://www.heatsurge.com and follow the ordering process
Just plugged mine in last night. WARNING - after an hour I noticed the cord got very warm - could be an issue. However flame looks real complete with sound and it an attractive piece of furnature. Not sure it’s that more effiecient then my electric furnace. Other then the cord getting warm I’m happy.
I purchased one of these heaters from a full page newspaper last October. I saw no underlying scams in the ad. It arrived about two weeks after ordering. I was quite surprised at how realistic the “flame” was. I bought it more for display than heat. The heating function was secondary because it has no thermostat. You must manually turn it on/off to control room heat. I’m very satisfied even though I think it is considerably overpriced. I had 90 days to send it back but opted for keeping it. For those that left a negative comment prior to mine (200+), exercise your 90 day option and return it. If you don’t, then there must be something you like about it, so stop your complaining. And for the frustrated Heat Surge call center agent, hang in there….some people would complain if you sold them one and they got nine more for free….just typical dummies.
I have one and use it in my office, which was once an attached garage and so, doesn’t heat well. I like the heater a lot and haven’t noticed a big increase in my electric bill. Another thing I’ve found is that, unlike other electric heaters I’ve had, this one is pleasant to be in the same room with–doesn’t feel like an overwhelming dry blast-furnace. I’m very happy.
I was getting ready to buy one of these. Thank all of you for the warnings, no purchase will be made on my part. Thanks again for saving me money.
thanks for all your input on this unit. i have made up my mind and will not purchase this unit. i will get something different and a lot cheaper and still pay the same rate of electricity, a special thanks to buzz. you made me a little more intelligent on this matter,
For heaven’s sake. Doesn’t anyone go to the store anymore? The electric fireplace space heater is not a magical invention. Menard’s building supply sells them in a range of a couple hundred to over five hundred. A quick search of the web shows a ton of people sell electric fireplace units in a variety of styles and prices.
Yet here we have some folks who are undoubtedly using the Amish name without permission, selling a product that is unlikely to have even an Amish fingerprint on it, let alone a gen-u-ine hand carved, and apparently hand laminated mantel. Don’t know about the rest of the country, but the Amish in Wisconsin are not big on laminate furniture sales.
Google is your friend. Type ‘electric fireplace’ in and see whats available. If its just heat you want, as some posters have pointed out, 5000 BTU’s is 5000 BTU’s. Its the same electricity, so any decent space heater will do exactly as well —- Again, I point out the key word here is EXACTLY as well.
If its ambiance you want, then look at the web stores. Lots of style and price ranges. Typically I prefer to do business with companies not under the gun for possible violations of federal laws as this same company is with their sale of a generic tv converter box for “FREE” (after 3 year $59 mandatory warranty and shipping to bring the cost to about $100) which is avail at any electronics store for about $20 after the free Federal $40 coupon. Would you jaw drop in surprise if I told you that they won’t accept your $40 coupon for this ‘free’ converter?
Honestly, if consumers would stop acting like prom dates. If I buy your product, will you still respect me in the morning? Please lie to me and say yes.
I bought the heat surge electric fireplace and love mine. It is wonderful and I am very happy that I did. My living room is much warmer now. I do not feel I was scam. Thank You Nancy
I saw this add and immediately went to google, next thing you know, I’m posting on this forum. I used to live in Ohio, close to the Amish community that produces these fireplaces. I had amish friends, ate at an amish restaurant… etc. Uh oh! They used electronic cash registers at the restaurant….had light bulbs too. That’s nutty(sarcasm). People on this forum claim to have insight about the Amish way of life, but there are so many different sects and communities that are different from each other. I knew an Amish businessman that had a cell phone and a laptop because his sect allowed it. Other sects use horses and carriages. One of the things that the Amish do is try to keep jobs WITHIN the community. Amish hire within their own sects unless they have no choice but to look for outside help, so I can gaurantee that these mantles were assembled by Amish hands. I use electric heat in my apartment and I will purchase one of their heaters. It’s better than heating areas that I won’t be in!
alright, let’s get this over with. i’m not going to lie, i do in fact work for the company that makes heat surge, and i have to clear up the air here.
WE ARE NOT A SCAM. this company has been in operation for almost five years now. we have close to 1000 employees. heatsurge is a fairly new product for us. our company is a parent company for a number of others… which explains why you would find so many different names and phone numbers under our address. there is nothing wrong with that. there is also nothing shady about it, as we are always more than happy to be upfront and honest about this fact. oh, and btw, WE DO NOT MAKE MALE ENHANCEMENT PRODUCTS. never have. that was merely an exaggeration. we make weight loss supplements and supplements for joint health.
all of the issues we have had with the BBB have been resolved in a timely fashion. all companies have to deal with this once in a while, and a company of our size is obviously going to have more customers that want to complain than a smaller one.
as far as the customer service issues go, this company is growing at an exponential rate. the time limits on our offers are put in place because we have only one call center with a limited number of employees. we cant possibly open this offer up to the entire country PLUS canada at the same time, or we would never be able to answer all of the calls.
the customer service department is staffing itself for a much better service time this winter when our ads start to go out once again. this was a lesson learned, and it was certainly not meant to be a scam or anything like one.
furthermore, i would like to say that our way of advertising is completely legal. if you’re 50 years old and still don’t know how to read thoroughly, you should probably work on it. every single company advertises, and every single company has a marketing ploy that directs its business to a certain kind of people. there isn’t anything unethical about it, that’s just the way the world works.
and lastly, i would like to say that this is an absolutely amazing company to work for. they treat their employees like gold, give us every benefit we could ask for, and listen to the opinions of each and every person as if they were the VP of the company. i LOVE working here. not to mention, they provide over 1000 jobs for our small town, and are more than willing to hire anyone who is qualified and find a place for them in the company. recently, a newspaper ad went out in our local paper, praising the owner of our company for this. plus we are STILL GROWING, due to the overwhelming DEMAND and REPEAT CUSTOMERS we have for our products. hmmm… doesn’t that say something?
i’d like to point out that almost everyone who gets on the internet to review a product are the people who have negative things to say. the people who are more than happy with their products don’t usually feel the need to get online and whine about it.
obviously, with millions of sales, a very small percentage of returns, and an over 95% satisfaction/repeat customer rate, i think the numbers speak for themselves.
if you don’t want it, don’t buy it!
obviously, not every product is going to work for everyone else. get over it!
I came online to find out how to purchase another one or two heaters. Mine is great, it was so warm that I put it in the hallway to heat my bedroom. My electric bill went down almost $100 a month…mine is an all electric house, but it is cold in larger rooms. I have a propane fireplace in the living room which has gotten too expensive. I wanted to put the heatsurge into my fireplace, but it was too big. I have an oil radiator…no good and two levels in my house, so I need at least one more…or some sensible suggestions.
Come on folks, it’s obvious that there are shills on this site posting “glorious” reviews of this piece of overpriced crap. I’m sure the “glorious” reviews are being written by employees of Heat Surge or whatever their other names are. Did any one else notice how many of the “love it” people mentioned that they lived in a trailer home. They’re obivously targeting a certain demographic -older(with diminished reading abilities and understanding), gullible persons of modest means(mobile home) with less than stellar education. Taking cold air and running it through a turbine to produce heat is exactly what a hair dryer does. Nothing revolutionary about that. The ad is deceptive because it plays out to be editorial content.It is purposely long winded to confuse people.
My question is why do reputable media like National Geographic or the Sunday Newspaper magazines accept this companies’ money and run these deceptive ads. People like this, who deceive should burn in hell along with their mounds of cash. I think this is the same company that runs the ads for free rolls of gold colored coins. Burn in hell scammers.
A few days ago I got a frantic call from a freind who wanted me to get in on this fabulous “deal” that the “coupon” for $250 savings was about to expire and I needed to get in on this fabulous deal.
Her brother, a retired medical worker was buying several and told his sister, my freind, to get in on the great deal as well.
She had ordered one for herself and her daughter, so between them they’d orderd 6.
While she called me, I got on my lap top and did some research and clearly read this was nothing more than a sick scam!
People are NOT reading the small print!
The heater is nothing more than a very cheep space heater that fits into a cheep wooden cabinet and a phoney fire flame.
The cabinet is nothing more that glue’d sawdust, which is partical board with a phoney oak veneer laminated on it.
From what I’ve read from what a few unhappy buyers say, its just photographed oak, so not even real oak veneer.
The flame looks way too phoney for my liking and is a lot of money for a poorly made product all way around.
I convinced my freind to cancel her order, her brothers as well…they were told their unts had already been shipped.
They were advised by their shipping persons, to just refuse delivery.
But I worry they will be charged shipping both ways…but my freind is convinced she won’t lose a penny.
I’m not so sure of this!
If you will just do a little research BEFORE you purchase…you won’t be taken advantage of in most cases.
I’ve also read the Heat Surge company has the same address for those “Male Enhancement” products, as well as a few of those late night info-mercials.
People…if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!
Just do a little research and you will be well educated and better informed when it comes to buying these just “Gotta Have” stuffs!
These same type heaters/fireplaces were selling at warehouse giants last year for under $400.
I think if you really had to have something like this, I’d go with “Stuff-Mart” and purchase thru them…at least you have a large corportation backing you should something go wrong.
Sorry to see so many people who can’t afford things like this…get taken!
Buyer beware!
This is what poster “S” claims:
alright, let’s get this over with. i’m not going to lie, i do in fact work for the company that makes heat surge, and i have to clear up the air here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~Did you smell something too?~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WE ARE NOT A SCAM. this company has been in operation for almost five years now. ~~~~ our company is a parent company for a number of others… which explains why you would find so many different names and phone numbers under our address. there is nothing wrong with that. there is also nothing shady about it,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~WHAT???~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Wanna bet!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are always more than happy to be upfront and honest about this fact. oh, and btw, WE DO NOT MAKE MALE ENHANCEMENT PRODUCTS. never have. that was merely an exaggeration. we make weight loss supplements and supplements for joint health.
~~~~Total lie!~~~~
TELL US this: Just why is your address on EVER-HARD road that sells penis enlarging supplements?
yes your claim of supplements for joint health, which joint are you NOT referring to?
HaHa! LoL!
all of the issues we have had with the BBB have been resolved in a timely fashion.
OF COURSE!…if you DON”T clear up the BBB issues they will shut you down!
And just how many people don’t contact the BBB to complain…very very few, even if the product was grossly misadvertised and shoddy products!
Like many others here are saying….your heater is nothing more than a very cheap 1,500 watt heater within a very cheap partical board frames. People don’t read the small print or don’t understand when your claims of being all wood…yes, partical board, chip board and sawdust glued together IS ALL WOOD! And is just veneered over with fake oak or ash or whatever is used.
It would be a lot cheeper just to purchase a $20 heater at bigger stores where you can return easily should there be a problem with them.
Shipping the unit back WHEN there is a problem is very costly! And who pays for this? the buyer!…$48 one way X2 would add up to $96!
My freind was scammed into paying $28 per year for 3 years for extended waranty…thats a lot of money!
Stuff Mart warehouse will carry these again this year, I was wrong in stating they were $400 as they are only $300 per unit.
I have to agree, is nice to have a “fake-fireplace” if you lived in a mobil home, RV or apartment…or anywhere a real fireplace cannot be installed…then these type units might add a nice ambiance to any room.
But a very spendy way just to heat one single room!
“S”…you left off the “B” in your name!
and your poor grammer and verbage tells us you’re NOT one of the brightest employees!
I’m still mrs skeptical!
I bought a heat surge unit that was defective. They are supposed to have a warranty for a year, and ours should be under that warranty. I began trying to simply get mine exchanged on 8/7/08 and am having great difficulty doing so. They aren’t backing their product, so far, we are simply out the money and can’t even get an exchange–I’ll bet trying to get a refund would just be over the top.
What brand of fireplace are you having a problem with…we are in the market for electric heaters and the amish fireplace was recommended to us (Heat Surge). Someone last year got an Eden Pure that stopped working, and they did refund their money, admitting there was a defect in that model of their product. If you could help us out I’d appreciate it. Thanks.
The photograph in the add is obviously not real. Do you think the man finishing the mantel really has it running, same with the women wiping down the mantel. Does it look like there is electric in that barn to plug it in? But when I go to Burger King and get a Whopper I have to lift off the bun to see what’s inside, it’s not so full you can see it all like on the menu. That’s advertising. I was interested in this product to heat my bedroom which is in the attic of my home. I use a pellet stove to heat the main floor and an oil furnace for the rest of the home, we have 3 separate thermostats. I called the distribution center and got a price on 2 units. It would be $694 for two units including shipping and a 1 year warranty. The (very polite) customer service representative offered to extend my warranty free if I made the purchase right away, but I told her I had to speak to my husband. She was not offened or did not try to further push me into a purchase, she simply gave me her ext. so that I could speak with her again if I did decide to make a purchase. I probably won’t purchase the unit because a space heater is cheaper, and I don’t really need anything fancy for my bedroom. However, if I did not have my pellet stove I would not hessitate to make the purchase considering I would not run it constantly, only to add heat to the living room. If you are going to run it constantly I would consider an oil heater so that you don’t have an electrical fire due to the plug catching fire (which could happen to any electronic device that ran constantly.)
I have read with interest the various comments about this product. I have been recommended the “fireplace” by someone with personnal experience with the product. It is interesting in reading the complaints that most are written with poor spelling. How sad to point a finger at defects when you obviously have a few yourself.
Thank you for all the comments pro and con. After careful reading and calling to order the Cherry model we decided to not purchase the product. There are no replacement parts if something breaks, you buy the warannty but after that ends, your stuck with it even if you do like the looks of it. My senior citizen mother ordered one today (9/4/08) and is going to TRY to cancel the order…. let’s see what happens… I will look elsewhere for a similar product.
J Berger wrote: I have read with interest the various comments about this product.
I have been recommended the “fireplace” by someone with personnal experience with the product.
It is interesting in reading the complaints that most are written with poor spelling. How sad to point a finger at defects when you obviously have a few yourself.
Wow, talk about poor verbage and grammer this poster used.
Twice they used incomplete sentences.
Talk about calling the kettle black!
What does it matter that there is mispelled words and inproper verbage used to describe a problem with a product.
This does NOT invalidate what the posters have to say.
I am well educated having over 6 years of college…I’ve never been a great speller and I admit my grammer is often pretty bad…but that doesn’t make me stupid!
Perhaps posters are tired, in a hurry or are not great typers so numerous mistakes are made, but the message comes across loud and clear.
Good for you! And since you have been recommended the “fireplace” by someone with personnal experience I suggest you purchase 10 of these phoney fireplaces!
And put them in your humble abode, one in each room!
Then when something goes wrong with one of them AND you realize these are more than costy to opperate you will kick yourself in the buttooty for not using your brains!
These units are nothing more than a cheap heater that can be purchased for about $20!
I admit, they are a great replacement if a real fireplace isn’t an option.
But nothing more than a decorative item and in no way shape or form is this a money saver.
There is NO new technology or a new way of turning electricity into a super heater.
This just is NOT true!
But poor people will always have poor ways.
Its just sad that those that “have” often take advantage of their ignorance or misfortune.
We have a very large home and have 3 fireplaces.
We’ve made some foolish and costly mistakes such as installing those fancy looking gas “logs” in 2 of the fireplaces and in another we put in a very expensive pellet stove.
Because we live far out in the country we must rent a 500 gal propane tank.
With rising gas cost there is no way we can realize any savings in using the gas fireplaces.
The pellet stove isn’t too far behind them either as the pellets are now twice the price they were when we purchased the stove.
It is costing $7 per day to run the pellet stove…it just barely takes the chill off the air.
We are going to remove one of the “gas log” unit and instal a very efficient wood stove insert. But that will be very costly, about $4,500 for a medium size/quality insert.
Then there’s the cost of wood…about $250 for 2 months worth of wood!
I don’t know how people who are on fixed or low incomes can keep up with rising cost of heating their homes.
I just pray those who can’t afford to make financial mistakes to do their homework.
They will see that these heaters are not going to save them a penny and may end up costing them even more $ should their unit not work properly. And IF the company fails to back up their product, the buyer will loose all way around.
People…DON’T purchase even one!
Unless you can afford to have nothing more than a very cheep heater with a fancy and very phoney looking flame and surrounded by a cheep mantel.
Read the small print!
Add the cost up…and if you have to pay to ship it both ways for repair, plus the cost of purchasing extended warranty,….oh my!
What a costly mistake that would be!
But like I’ve written before…purchase this ONLY if you can afford and want a phoney fireplace that gives off minimal heat.
Look at the photos…especially the one with the little child touching the front of the unit.
The heat is so low even a baby can touch the front!
What a joke all those pictures are…just silly!
And what really bothers me the most, is their address on “EVER-HARD” road, is the same one for those male enhancement suppliments and “toys”.
Yes, you read that right…Ever Hard Road!
Shame shame on them!
And any of you purchasing one of these after you’ve been well informed and think what I and many others have written here is wrong, misinformed or lying…then you deserve to get scammed!
Like I said….go buy 10 of them and purchase 5 years of extended warranty.
I hope you will come back and post your sob story after you realize how foolish you were.
We need a good laugh every now and then!
Poor people…don’t buy this! You will be making a foolish and costly mistake!
Still Mrs Skeptical!
I am so glad I visited this web site and read all the comments! Thank you for saving me money! It is the old “if it sounds too good to be true, then it is.” I am a widow and heat with oil. I thought this article in my local paper was the answer to my upcoming winter problem. I visited the web site while I was wating for the “next available operator.” After reading the comments, I hung up the phone with a sigh of relief!
We live in Northern Indiana. I purchased 2 of the Eden Pure heaters last winter. Our home is a huge home with cable ceiling heat which I always find very cold. We put one of the heaters in our living room. WOW! It worked great! Not only did it heat the living room, but the kitchen and part of the front hallway!! I am very satisfied with my Eden Pure heaters.
gah, mrs skeptical, you are so irritating.
“Wow, talk about poor verbage and grammer this poster used.
Twice they used incomplete sentences.
Talk about calling the kettle black!
What does it matter that there is mispelled words and inproper verbage used to describe a problem with a product.
This does NOT invalidate what the posters have to say.
I am well educated having over 6 years of college…I’ve never been a great speller and I admit my grammer is often pretty bad…but that doesn’t make me stupid!
Perhaps posters are tired, in a hurry or are not great typers so numerous mistakes are made, but the message comes across loud and clear.”
hypocrite? okay, so misspelled words and improper grammer are just fine when it comes to putting a product DOWN, but when someone gets online to defend it, they had BETTER have a doctorate in english. this isn’t high school, so get off your high horse about the grammar thing. it isn’t important (you said so yourself), and i’m pretty sure my message is still coming across “loud and clear” although you seem to think my grammar is lacking. whatever.
anywhoo, again, we don’t make male enhancement products. our supplement company is patenthealth, we make apatrim and trigosamine. apatrim is a weight loss supplement and trigosamine is for people who suffer from athritis. go ahead, look us up. OR! you could look up our parent company’s website, where it proudly lists the names of EVERY ONE of our companies. here it is: http://www.arthurmiddleton.com/
also, to the people who just keep-on-keepin-on with the everhard road thing, i don’t think you could be any more ignorant. get on mapquest and look up everhard rd in canton. it’s our main street, runs right through the middle of town, and it is MILES long. there are a ton of other businesses, too many to list, but if you go anywhere in canton, it’s almost certain you’re going to have to take everhard at some point in your trip. also located on everhard rd:
our town mall (westfield shoppingtown)
bravo cucina italiano
max & erma’s
panini’s sports bar & grill
progressive dodge chrysler jeep
taco bell
arby’s
subway
key bank
burger king
perkin’s family restaurant
fox & hound pub
holiday inn
tj maxx
burlington coat factory
dsw shoe warehouse
target
kohl’s
petsmart
denny’s
friendly’s
at least 4 gas stations
ambiance (a store that sells adult ‘toys’, lingerie, and male enhancement products - not affiliated with our company. not even close to us, like two miles down the road.)
christie’s cabaret (a strip joint - also not affiliated)
kay jewelers
KFC
NTB (nat’l tire and battery)
roadhouse
red roof inn
bob evan’s
anytime fitness
fuji japanese steakhouse & sushi bar
USA tobacco
rice’s nursery & landscaping
tokyo japanese steakhouse & sushi bar (we like sushi)
the dollar tree
some railroad tracks
a cemetary
lots of woods
lots of homes
my parent’s house
etc.
etc.
etc.
so basically, about the whole everhard rd thing…. in our town, the joke is really old. we get it. our main street is named everhard rd, and there’s a strip club on it. ha ha ha ha ha. we are so over it. i have never heard of a male enhancement product being made in canton, and i have lived here almost my entire life. if it is here, and i’ve just been missing it for the last 20 years, they must have it really well hidden. i do know, however, that it is not made by our company, if it exists at all.
anyway, that is my rant of the day. mrs skeptical, just get over yourself already, you are really exhausting. don’t you have anything better to do?
Any company representative defending a product shoud be done with professionalism.
ESPECIALLY in a public forum such as this.
Never in the manner you have.
“S”….you soooo totally missed it big time!
If you are even a partial representative of this company tells a very poorly run outfit!
Folks…this is someone who works for this company!
Just look at this persons attitude.
They’re fiercly defending their employer, while attacking anyone who questions or comments their product.
“S”, you are only digging a deeper hole and pulling your company down into it.
Your postings prove you’re lacking an education and show what low “caliber” people they employ.
And your taking a lot of time to name and list over 50-60 businesses and companies on EverHard Rd is more than exhausting!
And then you fingerpoint and tell I’m exhausting, then ask
“Don’t you have anything better to do?”
“S”…what is WRONG with you???!!!???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What I am doing here is trying to get others to understand what these heaters really are!
And that this is nothing more than an expensive scam!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don’t have to work because we made wise choices and invested our money instead of buying cheep junk!
We always tried to read the “small print” & kept in mind
“If it sounds too good to be true,
then it usually is”!
So I DO HAVE the luxuary of doing whatever I please when ever I please!
YOU got a problem with that?!
If so then you will always be poor, never have anything because of your attitude!
Instead of using money and time wisely like we did, you spend time yapping about those that have.
The reason I’m posting here is to help others NOT to fall for these type scams.
I want to alert and expose what these “heaters” really are…
Nothing more than a cheep space heater with a “fancy” package.
I’m not the ONLY one here complaining.
Are your superiors aware of how you are spouting off like an idiot, attacking, making a total ars of yourself AND the company here in a public forum?
If so, and they approve of your manner/style of defending them, then this is futher proof what type company they really are!
I will make contact with them, on the outchance they’re unaware of what you’re claiming.
They need to know what is being said here.
And if they agree with your tactics in representing their practices, then shame on them!
If not, I’m sure they will escort you and your mop out the door! I’m sure there’s lots of work right out your front door.
Maybe next year they will have a different angle….the game is this:
How to get you to part with your money!
Anyone remember the “KM” product?
Was a very excensive nasty tasting syrup tauted as a miracle cure all.
Just about any and everyone fell for this, my RN mother included!
There’s many other scams inbetween these and will always be more to come.
As long as they can get between you and your dollar, they will always have a different angle!
People who cannot afford to get scammed are often older and on fixed income.
Someone needs to be an advocate for them and I will do what I can to help them make an educated decision on what they spend their money on.
I would purchase one of these for our motorhome if they had a smaller unit.
I would have it just as a decorative unit and not as a heat source with the idea of saving money.
I would NOT pay for extended warranty, read the small print folks…shipping it for repair plus the cost of the warranty would just about
pay for the cost of a new one!
A poster asked why such publications such as Nat Geo Magazine would allow the advertisment be placed….People! Its all about the almighty dollar!
I’m sure these magazines have certain parameters such as porn or distastful and sleezy ads not allowed…..
what more could a company ask for????
in having advertsiments in such a popluar magazine, validating themselves by association and NOT factual performances!
They wouldn’t place these type ads in magazine such as Consumer Reports!
Like I wrote before….these “fireplaces” are nothing more than a cheep 1500-Watts space heater contained in very cheep mantels.
It doesn’t matter WHO MADE these, Amish or Tawainese…they are still just cheep partical board veneer’d with phoney oak or cherry finish.
They claim all wood…solid wood…yes can claim partical board as this.
Where does it say SOLID OAK?!?
When I pointed this out to my nurse friend (She no dummy, but just misread their ads)
She thought these were solid oak and couldn’t beleive were nothing more than cheep partical boards veneered with oak.
Thats OK…a lot of furniture is made this way unless you pay for better quality.
You usually get what you pay for…but not always!
And if you’re wanting a “fireplace” and cannot afford a real one, or you live in a rental or anyplace a fire place cannot be installed, then I think these would be a great choice!
But don’t expect to save any money on heating. These are NOT anything new and are NOT some new invention of using a 1500 Watts to save money.
This company is planning/betting on the majority of misinformed purchasers who fail to complain or do something about their being taken advantage of.
Thats how they can continue to get away with it and only needs to satisfy the ones who do complain such as BBB…their claims for that is laughable if you knew the real story!
People…read the fine points! And beleive what others have posted here.
Those who defend this company have a vested intrest! in what they claim! $$$$$$$
And if you think they’re just being nice, then you deserve to get scammed!
To those who really are searching and wanting to make a well informed purchase…then may you stay wise, healthy and wealthy!
And I am STILL….
Mrs Skeptical!
personal attacks are also uber professional, mrs skeptical.. i don’t think i ever mentioned anything that would hint at my being anything close to poor, uneducated, or any of the other things you seem to claim are wrong with me. i am defending against your comments, not your personal life. not that any of us need to know how rich and wonderful you are, but if i were like you, i could attack you personally as well. not to mention, you seem to hold RN’s in such high regard… guess what i’m in school for?
also, when someone puts down a company that i am proud to work for, saying things like ’shame on them’ because of our address (of all things), calling our products low quality when it is clearly not true, or making false claims and accusations, i just can’t help but to go on the defensive. someone has to do it. i only wish that our millions of more than happy customers would get on here and defend us as well… but it seems as though the only people who want to write online reviews are those who wish to do nothing but complain. it is your right, granted, but regardless of what alternativeconsumer has to say, we still sell millions of our units, because so many people LOVE them.
oh, and one last thing. the “exhausting” list of places on everhard that i listed were to prove to you, as well as everyone else, that just because that is our address, it doesn’t mean we make sleezy products. that would be like saying that denny’s across the street sells hard liquor and has a dancing pole, because hey! they ARE on EVERHARD road! come on, really?
lastly, please, contact us! you will find that we have a wonderful customer service department, caring employees like myself, and people who really want to understand and serve each and every customer as an individual. ask questions! we are proud to answer them.
that’s all i have for today.
All I care about is having a room look cute and cozy, and being warm and toasty while I sit and read or watch t.v. I can’t get that with a space heater, sorry. Last year I bought a little electric wood stove at Wal-Mart, for about $100.00, and I put it in my upstairs tv room. We used it a lot, and we loved the ambience it gave the room. Unfortunately, the wiring caught on fire. I think the amish are really selling the MANTLE, and that is no scam. They are just hyping up the heater, and I’m sure it is fine, probably better made than my Wal-Mart wood stove, so I would be tempted to buy one. The amish are no worse than anyone else who is trying to sell something. I’m sure the mantles are cute, anyway, and the fireplaces will serve a purpose of making people happy, so it’s not all that bad.
It is nice to see a company that doesn’t filter out the posts made by ranting people. There is plenty of poison emanating out there in the world,if that is what you choose to listen to. Personally I haven’t owned one of these yet. My friend showed me his and I was impressed. My electric kilowatt per hour is $.0549.That is the same as natural gas + or -.
I live in Maine where oil is $3.89 cash. We have no gas in my town. I find it interesting that with the price to heat our homes today we still have the attitude that we should heat the whole house when we don’t go in it for hours. We are a stiffed necked stubborn proud people. $45.00 a month to keep warm in a single room when your house is really cold this winter because you have no money to buy oil or go in debt is reasonable. Is this more expensive than walmart’s? yes. I don’t care. I would rather support the Amish here in America. I think there is something to be said about being an American and supporting our Country’s people. Besides if the Amish are misrepresenting “solid oak” then God will deal with them not ranting people like Mrs destroyer of Character above. I would assume she is a gossiper pratting about. Someone needs to tell her there is a God and He is in control so she rest now for a time till He comes back. Truly yours, John Michael
My coffee pot uses 950 watts, the Heat Surge fancy space heater uses 1500. Electric space heaters convert electrical energy into heat energy, all pretty efficiently. The differences are that some are quieter, built better, run more safely, and/or distribute the heat generated more evenly. For $250-300 you can put a decent space heater with similar results in several rooms. Miracle? I don’t think so. Amish man’s idea? Bull. The units advertised are attractive, and accoding to the comments above, seem to work well. But don’t think you’re saving a bundle of money.
It’s a rainy Sunday morning in central CT and after reading the morning paper I,ve decided to check out claims made by a company named “HEAT SURGE” and it’s “mircle” space heater. Well, while I am dissapointed in the product and it’s promotion, I am enthralled at the response to this website. I mean wow, 229 posts over 9 months. Is this a spirted American debate or what? I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of the responders for your input. It is an open forum like this that makes America the great place that it is.
I looked Heat Surge up under the Better Business Bureau in Canton, OH. There have been a number of complaints, but all of them have been resolved. It seems as though many people have had problems with customer service issues - I know that this company has grown a lot in a very short amount of time so I understand why they may not have been able to keep up with returns/complaints, etc. Go to http://www.bbb.org, enter 44709 for the zip code, click on Check out a Business or Charity and search for Heat Surge in Ohio. You should find all the information you need to make an informed decision there.
I bought an EdenPure heater a year ago. My bill went up, it never shuts off. My home is well insulated. The heater is in a room 12 x 12. It takes 2 hours to feel like, yeah, it’s kind of comfortable in here. I bought it for he safety factor and to be supllimental heat so I would not have to turn my thermostat up AND see the “up to 50%” savings. Yeah, right. I faced the music and what I bought foolishly was a very expensive, bottom of the barrel space heater that needs to be pointed directly at you for you to feel heat. Funny, pointing a hair dryer at yourself will warm you up quicker. I did the complaints and BBB, now I just have to deal.
The pure genius is that you people keep telling us how you “just got done reading the article!” There is no article, it is a paid advertisment made to look like the paper did a story on an Amish Man and his Miracle Idea………suckers
Yes, read Buzz Alexander’s comment posted on 12-28-07 for the straight scoop on electric space heaters.
The Heat Surge is simply a 1500 watt, forced air space heater with two, 40 watt bulbs used to make the fake flames and a particleboard mantel laminated with an oak (or cherry for $40 more) veneer apparently hand-rubbed by Amish men and women with the heaters full on and blazing.
If, after reading(?) the incredibly deceiving (both print and picture), two page ADVERTISEMENT (not article as Greg rightly points out) you are compelled by the word “FREE” to spend more than the $500 the ad claims you will stick in your pocket, I suppose you deserve what you get.
You could have bought a new, 1500 watt space heater from your hardware store for $25 and get exactly the same heating power but backed by a three year warranty not a FULL ONE YEAR as promised by the Heat Surge folks.
Make no mistake - you WILL NOT lower your electric bills. Maybe if you turn off all the heat in your house, tether the unit to your belt with a very long extension cord and tow it with you from room to room, you might save some money. But probably not since the unit would be fake-flaming all the time blowing out a copious 1500 watts.
While warming your rear in the kitchen and brewing your cup of coffee at the same time, you might ponder the fact that your coffee maker is not the miniscule consumer of electricity the ad would have you believe. The rule of thumb for calculating electricity needs in a house is that coffee makers consume 1500 watts of electricity - the same insignificant amount as consumed by the Heat Surging Marvel.
In any event, kudos to that honest, principled Amish genius who, from the headliner on the advertisement, seemed to have come up with this miraculous invention. Makes one wonder how he convinced his horse to drawn his buggy across the ocean to China where on the second page (and in much smaller print) the ad says these wonderful heaters come from. Maybe, instead of the actual heater, this clever religious man invented particleboard laminates - or was it the hand rubbing process. The ad was not clear on this.
Hey, but judging from the comments above, some folks say they are pleased with the heaters and claim the fake fire and solid-wood-particleboard-laminate mantle adds a nice decorative touch to their home. Hurray for such satisfied consumers, but it does give one pause when thinking about what else they spend their money on, not to mention the decor in the rest of their house.
Sorry, it’s hard not to be cynical about such egregious, misleading advertising and the gullibility of people who fall for it.
My neighbor fell for the SunHeat claims last year and was not satisfied with the 1500 watt unit’s performance. This year he fell for the Amish heater’s claims, as did another of my neighbors, an elderly widow on a fixed income. It’s sad to watch these people’s excitement over their purchase of an attractively packaged and overpriced “miracle product” turn to regret over the course of the Winter. As the weather begins to cool in the Fall, the 1500 watt units seem to work great but when the outside temps drop below 40 degrees you find that you can get a warmer sensation by peeing your pants.
If you consider how many BTUs you need to heat a room, the 5000 these units produce is tiny. At best, 5000 might be enough to counterbalance the heat loss of a drafty window. It would be more cost effective to fix the window.
Electric heaters, no matter how you dress them, put out only as much heat as what can be produced by the energy they consume. A 1500 watt space heater from Walmart makes the same amount of heat as the 1500 watt Amish Mantle Fake Flame Fireplace. If you run three 500 watt infrared heat lamps you get the same amount of heat.
Personally, I find it difficult to justify paying an extra $275.00 to wrap a cheap heater in an equally cheap particleboard cabinet. By the way, I’ve seen Amish craftsmanship and this aint it. The cabinet might be assembled by hand but the parts are machine cut and mass produced. Sauder and Ikea “assemble yourself” furnishings are just as good as the Amish Mantle they are wrapping around their fake flame fireplace.
I just ordered two units. I, unlike others, expect my electric bill to go up! .12 cents per hour x24 hours in a day x30 days in a month is approx. $86.40 a month x 2 is $172.80 per month. You don’t buy these expecting to pay less in electricity, you buy them to pay less in propane. Which this winter will run $2.80 per gallon, almost double what it cost last year. I will turn my propane sucking furnace down and will use the heaters for additional heat. I’ll let you know how it goes. I do not want to spend $6,000 on propane this winter. From the posts it seems to be about 50/50 pro and con. Hopefully I will not get the con.
Lots of good comments here on this product. I managed to stop my elderly parents from buying into this. They had read the full page “news article” appearing add in our local paper and were convinced it was genuine. Earlier in the spring a coworker asked me to look at her “heat surge” fireplace which had malfuncioned. Like so many others she could not get through to customer service. The mantle is not solid wood and is not even a good quality veneer. I’m not an electrician or an engineer but the blower is a squirrel cage induction motor, not a turbine. there is nothing “genious” nor revolutionary about this simulated fireplace/heater. In the case of my coworkers heater the problem was bad solder in many spots, re-soldered the whole thing. In Canada similar products are available at many retailers, haven’t looked at the prices but if you buy one locally at least you won’t have to deal with the horrible over-the-phone customer service. “Buy local when you can”.
You just saved me $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. I’ll go to department stores in my area to save the money.
I’m Canadian too. We are very wise. FREE HEALTHCARE, better economy, not losing my home, tackling our deficit while Americans will live in deficits of trillions forever.
PRICELESS!!!!!!
funny story i work for heat source, its a telemarketing site in erie pa that takes on hundreds of customers and sells their products. its only a temporary line group and the whole 48 hour deadline is really true i cant tell you how many times a day people call and i have to sell it for the full price because there code is invalid i cant even get to the order screen without a vailid code but the company puts a new ad in every week with a different code so if u are past the deadline just wait until u see it advertised or if u happen to get me on the phone ill just type in a good code for ya lol……. they are really nice units and supposed to save on your gas bill i would assume the electric bill would raise but it all depends on how u use it
to damien -
americans are not stupid because our country has problems, our POLITICIANS are stupid. They’ve taken the power away from the citizens. there’s not a whole lot we can do about that.
pretty ignorant of you to even bring that up in a forum for space heaters.
Some of you are absolute CHUMPS. $500 for a POS Chinese electric heater and some wood veneer you could’ve gotten from Home Depot’s dumpster and all of it would’ve cost you less than $50.
PT Barnum called it…there’s a sucker (or a hundred) born every minute.
I am surprised by the way the comments have gone here on this product. Either people see it as a scam or they are idiots, right? Scam is in many cases in the eye of the beholder. For those of you that think there are better ways to save money than buying these fireplaces, you are probably better off looking further at your budget and removing some of those monthly expenses you are wasting regularly, eating out, buying unnecessary things, and so forth.
As a financial planner I find that the vast majority of individuals are throwing away 15 to 25 percent of their monthly income on unnecessary things. There is a considerable savings for every individual who is willing tobecome more disciplined. Your budget would be a better place to focus instead of on these fireplaces which for some seem to be a good product.
I find it interesting also that the very thing that is being attacked here is also being advertised here. Did the web site get paid for those advertisements?
Just asking.
The Google ads are contextual ads, meaning they reflect the content of the web page. If people are interested in an advertised product they can click on the ad, or not. We don’t endorse any of the advertised products and we do try to filter out ads that are obviously not in-keeping with our philosophy, though the ads are dynamic and constantly changing. This particular article is not an “attack” but questions the misleading ad campaign and because of its content gets electric heater ads which some folks may find helpful in researching similar products.
how much are they?
Please Note: Alternative Consumer is unable to verify the claims or accuracy of this comment.
I worked for the very company that sells these. They would tell us to lie to the customer by telling them that the wood mantle is made of SOLID wood. It is made with a sheet of plywood and then slapped with a veneer sheet or cherry or oak, which ever you decide you want. As for the heat that these things put out, yes, they do put out the heat. We were put in a conference room for training and the instructor purposely turned the heat down in the room just to prove how well the units heat. The room was an easy 1500 sq ft room and we were sweating within a few seconds. As for the Amish even allowing the photos to be taken of them, I guess even the Amish will put their beliefs aside these days just to make a buck. Most of the ones I have met, get a bit mad at you if they even see you raising a camera or phone in their direction.
I quit working for the company due to the scam artist ploys and lies that we were to do in order to work there. They also sell many other products and the mark up on the items they are selling, they would tell us that we were to do whatever it took, even if the person was on a low fixed income, get them for all you can. The sad part is that the owner of the company has during the busy season, an average of 3,000 Telephone Sales Associates taking calls for his company. Each one is to have a SHIP out Not just SOLD rate, of $40k a month. If you do the math on this, the scam artist lives in the ritziest neighborhood in Canton (Glenmore Estates) where the smallest mansion is worth over $5M.
Believe me, you are paying for the heaters, especially when they are only paying at the most, $20 for a sheet of plywood, and maybe $10 for veneer, and add hardware $5. So, don’t fall for his scam. If anything, find one out of Lowes or somewhere else. If I can keep anyone from throwing their money away for something like this scam artists ploys, (which by the way, his ex-father in law BEN SUAREZ does the same kind of scam only with jewelry and is not even allowed in states like West Virginia, Nevada and I think two others) because you will be the one paying more in electric than you would if you just keep your money or buy one from somewhere else.
We had one customer who called in screaming about how their electric bill went up over $150 extra in a single month. Please think before you make this man any richer than he already is. $40,000 month x 3,000 operators = $1,200,000 a month and all just by scamming folks. The heaters are not worth paying that much money. You are buying the heaters even though his huge one page article says “get two free heaters” when you purchase the solid wood mantles, worth maybe $100 put together. And your total bill when you have bought this scam is $695. Do the math. HE is a scam artist.
“sba”, what a blatant liar you are. first of all, 3,000 agents? are you kidding me? there aren’t even 3,000 people working in the entire operations center and the warehouse combined! the owner has 900-some employees, and that INCLUDES the warehouse AND his new op center in massillon. i’ve seen the payroll. there are no more than 100-150 agents working in our call center at one time. we don’t even have enough seats in the call center for more than that.
also, when i was in sales, i was never forced to lie to customers or meet any kind of “quota”. of course they want your numbers to be decent to prove you’re not slacking off, but numbers are a factor in any office or telephone job you’ll have. if you aren’t making sales, why are they paying you? anyway, as far as your so-called quota goes, are you sure you worked for THIS company? because i have never had to meet any kind of monetary quota, nor have any of my associates.
as far as lying to the customers goes, maybe you aren’t aware that it is illegal to do so in an inbound order receiving call canter. the managers fire agents for that kind of behaviour… they certainly don’t condone it.
i think that, since you’re apparently on a job hunt now, you should put in your resume how you like to take a company that pays you ridiculously well to do basically nothing but read a script and take orders and stab them in the back by lying about their policies in a public forum. like the BBB would actually allow the owners to run a company the way you want everyone to think they do.
i’ll bet you got fired and you’re just bitter about it. who knows, maybe you were fired for lying to our customers? haha. get over it.
Hello: I bought one of these and it is no better than one from Target for $19.99. But it does look better. I tried to return it, but they will not offer me a refund. This is a scam.
SAVE MONEY WITH SIMILAR PRODUCTS
A small efficient European made space heater w/ remote control will save you lots of money and they are available at most hardware and home supply stores. With same of better efficiency and safety you can buy one for significantly less than $100.
With the Amish heater and the EdenPure heating system you are paying for extras which are not needed and add no safety or electrical efficiency. They are making a hugh profit selling these things . . . A full page ad in USA Today isn’t cheap.
As a point of interest, the Amish do not use electricity. They use Propane or wood heaters.
My landlord bought one of these for my studio apartment. Yeah it looks nice, but really, it’s way too large for two rooms. I don’t pay for electricity, so I’m not concerned about that. If he thinks he’s saving money, good luck with that. I’ve seen much smaller electric heaters at Walgreen’s that run about $25 or $30 and they can be moved from room to room, just pick it up and move it!
I feel the need to comment here. I actually purchased 2 of these miracle heaters from the company and I rather enjoy them. I cannot remember all of the details I was given by phone, but I certainly will try to name a few for everyone to get the word out that this product is actually well worth the money.
The BTU’s mentioned above, are true. The sales representative told me that it does in fact run off the same amount of electricity as a coffee maker. Now, which coffee maker, she did not say. But then, not everyone has the same coffee maker, and many people own espresso machines and everything. You just never know.
The mantles themselves were made by the Amish, not the heaters. My sales person told me that the company had struck up some deal with the Amish, and that is how it came about.
Sure, the heater is made from China. -I don’t know for sure, but that is apparently what is being said. Who cares? What about your computers? T.V.’s? I Pod’s? No one seems to have a problem with those…
If anyone here has read the article, and called in, both will tell you that the heater heats an 18X18 room. The sales person told me it does heat a bigger room fairly quickly, and it does!
Now, I’m not choosing sides here, but my heater does have wheels, so it is really easy to move. It looks nice too. The heat is incredible, and I also got an extended warranty for 3 years. if anything should go wrong, I can send it back, free of shipping. It also comes with a 30 money back guarantee. I don’t know about you all, but I don’t know one company that does that.
As for the customer service, I don’t know. I haven’t ever had to call them. I haven’t had any real issues. But the sales person was really helpful, answered all of my questions, and I decided to buy. And I don’t regret it. She also mentioned that I would save on my GAS bills. (Not electric). She gave me a national average of about 20% savings on every person’s bill. She also told me that i could save more, or less… depending.
Now, I just received mine last month, but I really do enjoy it. This is my first GOOD experience with online or phone sales combined, and I look forward to finding their other special deals in the future.
And to “S”… I don’t know if you would have been the one to help me or not, but I do want to thank the company for giving me such a wonderful experience, and you guys really are doing a fantastic job! Keep it up! And I will continue to spread the word about the great experience and awesome products.
I know many people that have these and they love them and i’m getting one as well. I don’t see why everyone ahs to try and point fingers for no reason. To stir up trouble I guess, I don’t know. I love them though, and they do look very good indeed.
Believe what you will, I am sure the positive reviews are bogus or the reviewers adel pated.
5,00 BTUs is 5,000 BTUs if you want to pay $300.00 for it go ahead (Wal-Mart has heaters for under $50.00). A 30,000 BTU gas fireplace is barley adequate to heat half of my sub 1.000sq ft house. How the heck is 1/6th of that gonna do anything AND SAVE $$$$
I am still debating with myself about getting one of these fireplaces.
My first and only concern is:Is there Teflon of any amount in the heating mechanisms? I have 4 parrots,and heated Teflon will kill them.Instantly. I no longer use Teflon for cooking because of the danger to my flp’s.
If anyone knows the answer,I would really appreciate it.BTW:I e-mailed the company with the same question,so it will be interesting to see answers from consumers and sellers as well.
Thank you.
I can’t beleive I got sucked in and bought one of these pieces of junk, I am in the process of trying to get my money back, returning a product to these people is no easy task.
I wish I had found this site first and read all the comments.
I have since found other sites with negative information about these people.
My brother bought a couple Arrowflame units when he saw what I received he could not stop laughing, I feel so angry that I have been made to look so stupid by falling for a con like this.
I just want to start over again and buy either the same as my brother or something very similar.
Be warned do not fall for this scam
WOW!!. I received two last week.. they are so beautiful and very warm in our large size 790 sq family room.. I am so happy with it.. The customer service people are so wonderful and so helpful..I dont believe the comments you wrote about the company is scam.. I tell my friends to buy them, worth it!!. very reasonable price for that mantle with heat surge.. I give that company A+ 100 times.
I’m embarrassed to say I fell for the EdenPure. It’s a nice space heater, but there is nothing special enough about it to justify the price. I consider it a scam. I recommend doing some serious comparison shopping like I should have done.
has anyone thought like me? inexpensive solar panels on the roof of your “mobile home” and batteries and an inverter will power and pay for your heat this winter.
think about it….buy the cheaper solar panels and an inverter, several batteries and wha laah!
you can now run this heater (or another like it) by solar power and leave the darn thing on all night and be warm for free. Beats kerosene, propane, PG&E, wood, pellets,oil heating or nat gas. you can also run the necessary lighting for your home at the same time. don’t believe that it is too expensive as it is not.
no I do not work for a solar company nor am I affiliated with any.
just a guy from the old school that is figuring out how to do it cheap……..
I am thinking of buying one of these, they tell me there is no thermostat on these. So does it just stay on all the time? Is there a thermostat available that can turn it on and off?
I wonder how many times the people at Edenpure has posted “wonderful” reviews here?? I can see them going through the effort to cover all basis in getting rich selling these cheap heaters. Readers beware.
How can these people get away with this, I could understand it if they just give people their money back when they start yelling but this has been a real battle.
I have now purchased an Arrowflame electric fireplace from http://www.tradefires.com and it is fantastic.
I will never do business with these people or any of their subsidiaries again.
Just to let everyone know, we are not EdenPure. We are HeatSurge. If you have a problem with EdenPure, take it to the EdenPure boards as it does not apply here.
The problem that you’re having, Mike, is that you need to just call us and ask for help. It seems to me that a lot of the problems you guys are having would be solved if you would just take advantage of your warranty and our Customer Service department. A warranty comes standard with every unit. So if you’re having an issue, just call us for cryin out loud; we know all the answers and it’s not like we DON’T want to help you. It’s what we’re here for! If you don’t call, you’re not going to get any help. Complaining about your broken unit that’s still under warranty is kind of strange, don’t you think? Especially when we pay for all of the shipping to have it picked up, repaired, and sent back. We’ll even give you a new unit if there’s something wrong with yours that can’t be fixed. Does that sound like a scam? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken to a customer whose brother, sister, or friend has one of our units that has a burned out lightbulb or something after a few months of ownership and they won’t just call us to ask what they should do, yet they get all upset over the unit saying we’re a terrible company or this-that-and-the-other. Nine times out of ten, all it is is a loose bulb that got jostled during shipping. It’s a five second fix. That’s what we have Customer Service for. We’ve hired a ton of people for you guys, just call! There is no wait time!
I’d also like to say that we don’t need to get on here and write false great reviews about our products. Like I said before, the numbers speak for themselves. If we didn’t have a ton of happy customers, repeat customers, and referred customers, do you honestly think that we could afford to take out a full page anouncement in the USA Today, Parade Magazine, or Nat’l Geographic? If we were a scam, would we have been around for this long? Could we afford to hire new people to take care of our customer base that’s growing exponentially? Sales have doubled since last year. Does that make sense if our units were crap?
Come on people, have a little bit of common sense. I urge you to call us with your problems. If we can help you, we will.
Oh, and one last thing. NO, you cannot get a unit like ours for 20 dollars at WalMart. First of all, if you’re so upset about the units being made in China, why would a WalMart unit be any different? Also, the reason you can’t buy a unit at WalMart that will save you money like ours will is because ours is far more efficient than a cheap-o unit. It turns every watt of electricity it uses into heat, aside from a handful for the flame effect. There is no wasted energy like you get with a cheap unit. Plus, those are pretty ugly. If you can afford to have a nice unit, why wouldn’t you? You ALWAYS get what you pay for. If our units weren’t flying out the door, would it make sense to raise the prices on them like we have over the years?
Again, common sense.
I take note a lot of people are suggesting natural gas over the electric heaters. What do they recommend when natural gas is not available in your area? Don’t recommend oil, as I work for a company and the price right now is 3.199 a gallon. Typical use of only 75-100 gallons a month, quite expensive. Compared to average electric in winter of 135.00 a month. The Amish heater is great, also have an Eden pure which works fantastic. Between the 2, they heat my old small farm house.
I can’t believe anyone would fall for this bullshit.
Hand crafted, fine Amish workmanship. LOL!
Barnum was right.
The BBB has investigated this company and reports:
a) Picture of the Amish-The BBB contacted the company after receiving numerous inquiries on the authenticity of the Amish made mantel. Through factory tours, and substantiation submitted by the company, we have learned the Amish made mantel represented in the ad is crafted and assembled by local craftsman from Holmes and Geauga counties in Ohio. The BBB considers this matter resolved.
Note that they don’t say the local craftsmen were Amish. Also, look at the company picture on GoogleEarth, and you’ll notice no room for the hourses and buggies prominent in the ad. It’s right on I77.
I realize that Amish is more generic than specific, but I don’t think that the picture of the building in the ad is accurate. I would doubt if the gentleman in the front wearing buttons on his shirt is Amish. I also doubt if the majority of the workers in the plant are Amish. They sure as heck don’t take the finished product down I77 in a buggy.
I think the whole ad is fraudulent. The heaters are overpriced, under explained as to how they actually work, and the shipping is unnecessary, since a better cheaper heater is available locally. I resent them bringing a peace loving people, who just want to be left alone into the advertising campaign.
Listen people if Americans were not so lazy they would go out get free heat from all of the downed wood that is laying in our forest and national parks. Heck take a look at what hurrican katrina took out in the south. Stop complaining about saving money and get up off of the couch and work a little like our great grandparents did and save that way. Or continue to support China and buy these heaters, someday you might not have any say of what heat if any you are getting
I heard about this product and was really wanting to purchase one, but after reading the way “s” is making a big deal over a misspelled word, I’m not sure if i want to give my money away. This is an open option on what one thinks about this product and one indiviual gets upset because of a misspelled word, OMG, what is really going on. Needless to say, I don’t think that my famliy and I will be investing in this product.
Just seems to me this is whole page was a waste of any normal persons time to read. It has turned into personal bashing instead of product reviews for some warped individuals. Buy it if you want it, shut the hell up if you dont. Either way might I suggest counseling for your attitudes. I have a headache from reading all this! Get a life! Thank you to the reviewers that give normal opinions, whatever they might be.
I order one of these fireplaces with the cherry mantle thinking it was a good buy. The next day I saw all the comments on this page and decided to cancel my order. The way it sounds like this is a true scam.
Again, I saw an ad for these free heaters with the purchase of an Amish built mantel for 298.00 plus shipping. I can assure everyone out there if you will do your homework and a defined search of products you can find a more affordable one of these. May I say again that if you’re into savings try a real wood fire place, there is nothing comparable to the warmth of the heat and the enjoyment of the savings.
This company doesn’t have free heaters, but their space heater is wall-mounted, uses only 400 watts to heat a 10 x 12 ft room. It does not get hot enough to burn and heats by convection. 400 watts/hour in the southeast area costs only 3-1/2 cents. What a bargain!
I recieved my heat surge fireplace today. It was more than I expected it to be. It is really nice. I would reconmmened it to anyone.
I ordered one and then looked on line to see about their product and found more negatives then positives. I cancelled my order and I am hoping that they will indeed cancel as I do not want 453.00 to come out of my visa. they even offered me a discount on my order if I was to reconsider I did not and here’s hoping that they did indeed cancel it.
Keep warm, be informed and stay safe from predators.
DT
We ordered ours yesterday. If you read the add then you should not feel scammed. It says Amish Mantle and free heater. It does not say the heater is made by the Amish just the mantle…. DUH. Hope it heats my basement apt, nicely. The ceramic heaters were not powerful enough… Several friends have recommended them. Like the idea of portability… Just wishing they were taller I think….
I too, was considering this heater, but after checking with BBB, decided not to order it.
We know many people that have at least one of the fireplaces in their homes or offices, many of them have two. These people have had them for quite some time and recommended them to us. We live where we have 6 months of cold weather usually and use propane which is outrageous. We have just purchased our fireplace and so far love it. I agree everyone needs to read the advertisements. The heaters are free but you do have to buy the mantle, or else pay for the heater. And it does say that only the mantle is made by the Amish. Certain colonies will use electricity when necessary as well have their picture taken. More power to them for getting in on the marketing.
First of all any electric heater is about 98% efficient. So any claim to be more efficient than other electric forms is either false or minimal at best. Also the joinery used in the construction is certainty not Amish. Seen in the ads, the small oval holes in the ends of boards are “pocket joints” a technique to join wood and not Amish and not hand made.
we have bought 2 of the Heat Surge with the “Amish” Fireplaces. The oak fireplace was bought in 2007 and received damaged. Called them and UPS picked up the stove and I received my replacement in a few weeks. We bought the cherry fireplace this year. We love both of them. We are ordering our 3rd fireplace for our daughter’s apt while she is attending collage. My parents have bought 2 fireplaces also. Our families are 100% satisfied with the appearance, the heat quality and really have not noticed an increase in our electric bill. Our house was designed for total electric heat. We purchased 2 sets of propane gas logs years ago(1 upstairs and 1 downstairs)and propane has doubled in price since we started using it. We are TOTALLY satisfied with the results of the Heat Surge and the Amish fireplaces.
Finally got my refund but it was an uphill struggle.
I feel a little better now I guess they are not so bad after all, I suppose nobody likes returning money but all has turned out good in the end.
They certainly have some neat tricks to get people to pay for extras.
I guess extended warranties are not refundable or shipping, none of which I was told when I made my purchase.
When I made my purchase from http://www.tradefires.com It was like a breath of fresh air I spoke to someone who took the time to answer all my questions and not read a script to me at 200mph then ask if I would like to make a purchase after every sentence.
I orderd one of these with the cherry mantle. I could’nt wait to get it however i was wondering about the reviews, after reading more negative than postive I also canceled my order. When I tried to cancel they wanted me not to cancel so they offered me a free remote that they were earlier charging me $12.88. I just hope they cancled. I will be calling them again to double check. They asked me why I was cancleing I told them some lame story about money and they said they would hold my order for as long as I needed. They tried really hard for me not to cancel. Whats up with that!!!
I saw this ad on the TV and called to check it out. I asked how many square feet does this fireplace heat? I was told 400 square feet. I like a frieplace too. But,I had purchased 2 oil filled heater units about 3 years ago and still using them. Last year was a mild winter in Indiana and I NEVER EVEN FIRED THE GAS FURNACE. We heat 1573 square feet with these 2 units and use 3 ceiling fans. Talk about a CHEAP utility bill. For what it costs for these Amish Fireplaces, I don,t see any benifit from purchasing these. In order to heat my entire home I would have to purchase 4 of these. NO BARGIN HERE.
gah, you people are so freakin stupid. READ THE AD! it’s not a “scam” or a “ripoff” if you’re a halfway intelligent person who asks the right questions and reads everything. do you honestly think that they would be giving away something entirely free with no purchase necessary? give me a break. it’s people like the ones on this forum that make me lose all hope for the world. come ON, people.
i’ve heard the heaters work for people in trailers, small homes, apartments, and the like. it says right in the ad that it’s not supposed to heat your whole house, its supposed to HELP your furnace. duh.
if this is a scam, then every sale that’s every said FREE (with purchase) is a scam. come on, it’s the oldest marketing trick in the book. if you feel scammed, ripped off, etc, it’s because you’re freakin stupid.
With Buzz’s post towards the top of the thread stating “If you pay 10 cents per kwh, then a 1500 watt heater will cost you 15 cents per hour. period” - if pipes freezing wasn’t an issue, you could zone heat with any 1500W space heater(s) the rooms you spend most of your time. Sounds like you could really save some money as compared to heating with gas/oil/heat pump type system.
For example, 5 hours in the TV or living room after you got home from work, would cost $.75 per night to heat? $5.25 per week, $21.00 /month? Do I have this right? Geez..why didn’t I think of this last year when those $300 heating bills were rolling in.
I purchased one Heat Surge with the “Amish” Fireplaces. I have had it a week and I am very well pleased with it. I live in a old trailer that is not very well insulated and it keeps it comfortable. I will post back when i get my next power bill. So far it is my only source of heat. So far i average running it 6-8 hours in a 24 hour period and that is mostly at night before i go to bed. I turn it off when i leave for work.
probably not correct in my previous post and most likely misinterpreted Buzz’s comments. Question is more likely how many “kilo-watt hours” of electricity does a 1500W space heater “use in 1 hour of operation”. Take that x .10/kwh and there you have how much that space heater will cost you to use for 1 hour.
Heat Surge’s “s” in his Oct. 18 comments makes a lot of good points. However, I do have a question reagarding “There is no wasted energy like you get with a cheap unit.” Since in every electric heater all the electric energy that is put in is converted into heat, how is energy wasted in a cheap uni? Where does it go?
I have been fully entertained reading everyones comments…..I have’nt laughed this much in a long time.
I find it so unrealistic the number of Americans that can not read. If you were to actually read that ad, word for word you would see that it says, ‘You just can’t find custom made Amish mantles like this in the national chain stores. That makes the solid oak mantle a real steal for just two hundred ninety-eight dollars since the entire cost of the miracle heater is free.’ Isn’t that amazing, right there in black and white it says how much one mantle is. And yes it is WRITTEN out, that means that you have to process what you are reading. Now for those of you who have read and do know what the deal is, i would like to personally thank you. Because you make our lives here at heat surge so very easy. Yes we know that sometimes you just don’t have 347$ for oak or 387$ for cherry (including shipping of course) or that 36$ for the extended warranty or the 18$ for the remote, but we want you to be able to save this winter. And yes you will really save, ask our hundreds of thousands of happy customers. The ones that ordered 2 last year and are calling back this year to order 2 more. Now we also understand that Americans are highly uneducated and will see the word free, and think that it’s totally free. But let me please ask you this, when is the last time you honestly got something free? That cell phone? Nope. You had to extend your contract for another 2 years. So please please please stop and think, stop and read, stop and pay attention.
Now please let me address a few other issues. One, we are trained to tell you all the information that you need when you call in about that FREE heater. Not only could we lose our jobs, which are typically important. But our company could also be in a lot of legal trouble. Yet again, companies like to stay in business to make money. Two, we run ads in national papers, like New York Times, USA Today, Parade, National Geographic. Oh and this year we also started running TV ads. Now would you please be so kind as to tell me how a company that advertises in nationally known news papers, for two years in a row might i add, would manage to stay in business if we were a scam?
And yes we do understand that our customer service kinda sucks and is hard to get a hold of. But we have customers to assist, and they really appreciate the time that we take to make sure they are happy with their purchase. So if you are unhappy as it has been said many time, please give us a call. We would love to hear from you.
Our sales staff is highly trained, but sometimes you don’t get our main call center because yes, we get more calls then our 150 agents can handle. So you might on occasion get someone that has not has the training that the rest of us has had. But please rest assured that our customer service understands and will make sure that whatever you were told is what you are receiving. But as for our in-house staff, we too are capable of making a mistake. We all are human as well, if you want a machine call another company. Yet again, our calls are recorded, so if you call and say sally jo quoted you this price and she in fact did, we will give it to you. But if you go back, waste everyones time and she did not, we might be a little upset. And we will inform you that we did not tell you such a price, thank you for your time and concern and send you on your merry way.
So lets sum this all up.
- We are not a scam, just a company who is trying to do business in a sucky economy.
- We are willing to help in any way possible, and we will.
- Please read your newspaper and make everyones life a little bit easier.
- Do not think we are idiots, we are at work, making money to pay our bills.
I would like to thank you for your time. You may continue to bash our company and say what you will about our advertising. But please do not think that we have any respect for anything that you say.
‘Paulie’, I applaud you. Of course, these people will never take anything you’ve said into consideration, but it was a damn good try, anyway.
Oh, BTW, where has Mrs. Skeptical been? Has she found somewhere else to spend all of her free time? Like, maybe, somewhere to spend all of her husband’s hard-earned money? Maybe she bought a HeatSurge and loves it, and that’s why she hasn’t come back to whine. I wonder… : )
I live near massive Amish communities where in fact, a vast majority are Mennonite so while they appear to be Amish, they in fact are more liberal. At the same time, a vast majority of the Amish living near these central small towns use a LOT of modern conveniences just the same. Leaf blowers, flashlights, bulldozers etc and they absolutely love to shop at Walmart.
In Amish homes however, about the only electric appliance you will find will be battery powered radios although the kids get to have Rumspringa which often means having electricity, cable, internet etc. wired into only one room of the house until they choose to join the Ordnung or leave the simple life behind and join the modern world of technology and convenience.
Regardless of those facts, their carpentry skills tend to be pretty much top notch and utilize old world construction which generally means a more solid build and pride in craftsmanship-they really take their time.
The savings they talk about is based on heating the room you’re in while the rest of the house goes unheated. Going from the sitting room to your bedroom?
The heater rolls on in with you, that’s how they’re generating these numbers. Basically a good ceramic space heater that costs 30 bucks will do the exact same thing. This unit however just offers about twice the output of the typical space heater and is a bit of an art piece with the wood mantle framing and fire effect.
It’s a “designer” product. Worth the price if you want the look/effect and have half a brain and only heat the room your in and seal it off from the rest of the house.
We heat our house with our fireplace. And every room gets really warm except our children’s bedroom. I like this heater. It is safe and warms their room through the night. We don’t need to turn our thermostat up and run our oil furnace and heat the entire house. It is good for supplemental heat in one room as we use ours.
This may not be the product for everyone. I wouldn’t use it as my only heat source.
my fireplace heater works. it heats the flames light but the sound of the logs burning and crackling won’t work. can’t figure out how to fix that part can any of ya’ll
Sometime a while back in Parade magazine, there was an ad for a common set of “rabbit ears” antenna for your TV set. It looked like a miniature satelite dish and the ad was worded like it gets free cable service “using proven RF technology”. (free local channels in the air) It also stated in the ad that “you are NOT getting cable channels because you are NOT paying for premium channels” unquote. What they were selling was a common TV antenna and touting it like it was a satellite receiver. Everything they said in the ad was true but also suggestive, AND everything they said would also apply to a coat hanger wire as well! This ad for the “Amish” heater is no different, you can buy a inexpensive 1500 watt ceramic heater that will do the same thing. Just a new twist to an old product.
I lived in Amish country (PA). This is a scam, exploitation, and in general a very bad idea. I feel sorry for true Amish who are being misrepresented by this idiotic company. Don’t fall for it. Buy a kerosene space heater from Sears. This company makes me sick.
I was thinking about buying one of these yesterday. The deal breaker for me is the abysmal customer service that many of you have experienced. There’s a lot of components in an electric fireplace that can potentially break, and although I might get lucky with some great service, it’s not worth the hassle/gamble right now.
According to the Heat Surge website, these things are made of “real wood”. Of course, plywood & probably particle board are also real wood. They responded to my ebay inquiry for the Cherry one that “The Mantle is Solid Poplar stained cherry”. I’d imagine that it’s the same deal for the Oak (real Oak would be more expensive than Poplar). HEY, POPLAR IS OK (kind of soft, but it’ll do)! So why don’t the ads and website just say “Solid Poplar with a Cherry or Oak stain finish”? (Hmm, would a Cherry stain justify the higher price?) I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that the mantle is NOT particle board with veneer. If any of you have pictures that show particle board, etc. with veneer, please share so we can end this speculation.
As far as heat output: I know a watt is a watt, so I wouldn’t expect any miracles there. I admit it, I just wanted something like this for decorative effect.
I wonder if any of the “happy customers” are paid happy customers. Way too many complaints compared to “happy customer.” Just a thought.
I don’t know much about the Heat Surge heaters and fireplace mantels, but at the top it says chime in about either the Heat Surge or the EdenPure. Well, my grandparents bought an EdenPure last year because my grandfather is a big Paul Harvey fan and what Paul advocates is the best(per my grandpa). Anyways, my grandpa got his EdenPure and a month later when the whole family was there for our Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner that thing about ran us all outta the house. They had it sitting where the old wood burning stove used to sit and you could still feel the heat 3 rooms away, we even had a couple doors proped open. Everyone was making comments about how we bet that was going to cost alot on the electric bill. Well, grandpa finally proved something to us all when getting ready to turn it on for this winter. He showed us that by using it last year and heating their whole house with it his electric bill only rose $20 a month. Now that may seem high to some, but compared to the 80 a rick for wood and using anywhere from 2 to 3 rick a month…….well total that’s a $20 increase on electric compared to $160 to 240 for wood monthly. To me that’s a no brainer.
Another friend of the family got 2 of the EdenPures last year and he also proved by showing his electric bills that his rates only increased by about $28 a month.
So now I am doing research on these electric heaters…both the EdenPure and the Heat Surge. I’m leaning towards EdenPure mostly because I know people with them, but am also checking into Heat Surge because my mother is taken by the ads. I don’t know which I’ll pick for sure but I can say this, if I can only raise my electric by $150 for the next 6 months of cold weather verses paying $1500 for propane then I think the smart move is to go with the cheaper option.
My worry is where I live that pipes freeze easily so am really worried that there wouldn’t be enough heat under the house to keep the pipes from freezing up. Again that’s why I’m researching these products though, I don’t want to jump into any purchase uneducated.
And so you know the bickering instead of just point blank opinions from those who have these products doesn’t help those of us who are honestly trying to research the pros and cons of these products.
Now I am not putting this company down at all. But this type of item has been around for years. It is just a space heater with a squirrel cage fan. Teo 40 watt bulbs and a rod that turns to make a flam look.
The bulbs do nothing at all just add looks. Do not believe this take them out turn on the heat and it will still work. The bulbs are just reg type bulbs not anything special at all.
I have one made buy this company. I got it for looks only but the heat will heat my room up nice.
http://www.dimplex.com/index.shtml
Got it at wal mart for only 149.95. They even make a stove that looks like a wood stove for about 75.00.
All units have the same coil heater 1500watts. No bigger units unless your go 220 volts.
I say shop around there all the same. Unless it is from the 1960 they were a heater with a log kit.
Forgot this link 1960 stereo fireplace with heat.
http://www.goantiques.com/detail,console-radio-electric,1248288.html
Also before you buy one of there units check Google shopping out. Walmart will have there in stock soon so keep a eye on them.
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=electric%20fireplace&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf
I am going to purchase one of these in spite of the bad comments left here. I have priced these electric firelpaces all over the net and in the stores. These are comparable to what I have seen in price. I WANT a heater with a fireplace effect for our upstairs bedroom which remains chillier than the rest of our home. I don’t think I would ever try to heat my home with these type of heaters entirely. That is crazy. I will let you know if I like it after I receive it…. and what my experience is with this purchase.
I bought one of these on the advise of a friend. It cost 340 with shipping and warrenty. I love fireplaces, so this makes a nice romantic addition to my bed room. It doesn’t heat the house but I am a warm person usually so this gives off adaquate heat for me. if you are the type of person that wears thermals in the house year round, this is probably not for you. It does say in the add that the mantle is amish made. who cares who made it if you look at other companies the mantle (not made by the amish) are about 100 dollars more. if you are buying electric heaters to save big on gas or electric buy a wood burner and find some trees .
I like my Heat Surge despite the schlocky promotion/advertising. Is it a rip-off? No. Is it an excellent value? Not outstanding, but it’s an “O.K.” value, if you have not the patience, inclination, or wherewithal to comparison shop, which is discouraged by their 48-hour gimmick. Their claim of special craftsmanship and advanced technology is patently specious; nevertheless, it’s kinda cute if you don’t mind a phony fireplace and it does heat. Before purchasing, follow Troy’s extremely helpful hints in both posts of 10/30 and 10/31/08. THANK YOU, TROY — they were great website links.
Thanks for all the comments.. i will try cleaning up my chimney and see about burning wood this winter. Have not used the fireplace in over 5 years..
THIS IS A SCAM PLAIN AND SIMPLE. ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN CAN UNDERSTAND THIS. THE WEBSITE SHOWS 3 VERSIONS OF THE HEATER OAK $298 CHERRY $338 AND A HEATER WITH NO MANTEL FOR $249 THE COMMERCIAL CLAIMS THAT YOU JUST PAY FOR THE AMISH MANTEL AND YOU GET THE HEATER FOR FREE. WELL LET’S DO THE MATH. IF THE MANTELLESS HEATER IS $249 THAN THE OAK HEATER SHOULD BE $49 AND THE CHERRY HEATER SHOULD BE $89. WOULD SOMEONE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT PLEASE INVESTIGATE THESE SCUMBAGS AND STOP THEM FROM RIPPING OFF THE POOR STUPID PEOPLE THAT WILL BELIEVE ANYTHING.
I got two of these before the special deal with getting the heater free when you buy the mantel. In 2006 I purchased a home and the first winter my natural gas bill was $400 PER MONTH because my home is relatively large and the furnace is old and inefficient. Last winter was somewhat colder than 2006 and my natural gas bill was $40-$70 per month. I used these to supplement the heat in my living room, 2 large bedrooms and a hallway. I simply placed one in the hallway between the two bedrooms and one in the living room. At bedtime, I moved them into the bedrooms and stayed plenty warm. I had tried other heaters and was going to replace the furnace last year. I keep my fireplaces set to keep the temp in the rooms about 70 during the day and 66 at night. My electric bill is about $80 during the summer with the central air and now it is about $85-$90 in the winter, instead of about $125.
Are there savings with these heaters? That is up to you and how you use them. The ceramic heaters cannot be left on while I am not home, these can. The “milkhouse” heater I have works in the master bathroom. I turn it on when I get up to take a shower in the morning and turn it off the rest of the day. Energy efficiency is up to you and how you use them. For me, they are highly efficient, economical and attractive. Since those are the reasons I purchased them, I am satisfied. I will be getting two more this year so I can simply not use my furnace at all. Since I am in SW Missouri where the temperatures are not below zero, I can make this work for me!
Here is one more link for this item. They sell them on ebay. They are by this company
Scratch and Dent models are new units that may have minor cosmetic blemishes.
http://stores.ebay.com/amishcarpentryshop
Also done some more looking into to this company they seem to make a few other items. http://www.uni-syn.com/index.html
Like I said before all these electric fireplaces are the same. Just shop around before you buy one. Think of this as a nice nice piece of furniture. It heats but also makes a room look so much nicer in the long run.
Also if you are going to heat with a unit like fig out how much it will cost to run.
This link can help you out. But this unit also has two 40watt light bulbs 80watts so it is using about 1580watts to run on high.
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html
Has anyone heard of the Comfort Zone Heater and what can you tell me about this heater if you purchased one. I need to know before I buy one. Thanks.
As a customer service employee of HeatSurge, I was very interested in the comments made on this site. Were they true? I, in good faith, needed to prove this for myself. In good conscience I could not try to get someone to keep an order that I myself did not feel was a good investment. I purchased one of the HeatSurge units myself and have actually been quite pleased with it. As the announcement says the unit is designed for zone heating. In the evenings my family spends most of their time in the kitchen/living room. We place this unit in the living room and turn down the thermostat and the heater keeps both the kitchen and living room quite comfortable. This whole ad campaign is NOT a scam.
As I said earlier, I work in the customer service department. We do everything in our power to keep our customers happy because we want their repeat business. Please keep in mind that with any product there may be problems but we do offer a 1 year warranty free of charge and an extended warranty for a small fee. With either of these warranties you can return your unit if anything goes wrong with them. Please make sure you have ALL of your facts correct before degrading something you know nothing about.
I was just about to order one of these heating units, but decided to check it out on the web. I was only interested in the heater itself to put inside of my existing fireplace for heating one room which is allways cold. I also have my grandchildren over often and do not want a HOT space heater. After all these negative postings I will not be ordering heat surge. Does anyone know a particular fireplace insert that does not get hot and has fake flames? Thanks for any help!!
Jan there insert if it fits your old fire place would work fine. But there are many brands out there local ace hardware should have some walmart and even kmart.
About this company there stuff is like any other unit out there there insert is just that a box metal with fake logs and flames. A coil heater and fan two light bulbs. Not much there to go wrong with at all. 6 foot cord for power and a remote to turn it on. All use the same amout of electric.
One thing you need to know the size of the old fireplace in your home. They come in different sizes for the right fit.
Do a search for electric fireplace inserts
All the fireplace units do get hot to warm. Some blow out the top part others the bottom. I have never got burned by one did like any heater they get warm. Since they are just a space heater or spot heater.
If you want one of there go to the ebay link I posted it is cheaper and free shipping. If you want a insert go to there main site.
Just unwrapped my oak finished mantel/heater…Looks Great, Works great…Bought with intention of zonal use in the evenings so i can turn down heat pump thermostat and be toastie in the living room. The mantel is “all wood”, with some being an oak veneered plywood…I have seen many high end furniture, costing hundreds/thousands, that is simply a QUALITY veneer over a substrate, usually Particleboard, at least this is plywood. The TOP PIECE of the mantel IS SOLID OAK Boards though. There just isn’t the volume of trees anymore to build completely of solid wood and be cost effective…This can be construed as a “green” approach. Making the most of a diminishing resource. Just think of how many fewer units could be built if it were completely solid. Would be nice but really. construction is solid though, nice edges/corners, the trim pieces are also solid and applied with tight joints…A nice little unit that has as much ambiance as function…a Solid B+ and I would consider myself a bit of a stickler for details… Earlier this summer i bought some new living room furniture. End tables and coffee tables were of a familiar brand WHITE CLAD “solid” oak furnitre, which is considered an upper end brand. When i got it home and was moving it around i discoverd the same thing…Oak veneered plywood on some panels. Didn’t even question it at store, IT Said “solid”. What i was told when i called back is Very few people these days could actually afford SOLID Oak…
As far a warranty/customer service, My unit came with return call tags and a RMA form. I also got a brochure with some accessories: A corner shelf insert and a Drawer clad base/ over the mantel mirror combo…Am actually considering the latter. I was quited skeptical after reading all the negative posts, and actually thought about getting on the return/refund band wagon, but am glad i didn’t so far. So are my dogs that have been camped right in front if it since i turned it on! And to top it off ordered 10/29 received 11/6.
Bottom line is not everyone can be pleased all of the time…Some of these negative comments or returns are from people who didn’t even take their units out of the box, They just got on the negative nelly band wagon. Remember bad word always travels faster than good word. And ten good words will go un-noticed if there is one bad word to be had…Funny how that works. If there aren’t as many postive comments it’s is probably because those people are too busy enjoying their new heater rather than wasting a bunch of time pissing and moaning on the computer. Funny how complaining to absolutely no one in particular is vindicating for some.
ADDRESSED TO Paulie 10-26-08 and anyone else who works for HeatSurge. You are not going to win customers by insulting people who comment on this page! Your unit is NO different then other eletrical units on the market for less price. Granted, other units may not have the nice “flame” effect, however if someone is just looking for an eletrical heater to “zone heat”, there are several that cost between $50 to $100, with the SAME BTU’s as yours/Heatsurge. Consumers…PLEASE do not take my word for it, just go to the store and look for yourself. Plus, if you purchase it at a STORE (versus ordering it) you can return it easily and not pay shipping charges! ALL, yes ALL, eletrical heaters will produce the same BTU’s for their given power consumption….meaning, all 1000watt heaters produce the same BTU’s; and all 1500watt heaters produce the same BTU’s. PLEASE look at the wattage and BTU ratings befor you buy, and then compare cost!!! We are all trying to do the same thing here…SAVE MONEY!!! Good luck to everyone!
I helped an elderly lady purchase one of these. When the product arrived, we couldn’t believe how poorly it was made. Both the heating unit and the “Amish-made” (which I don’t believe for a moment) frame were damaged before arrival. Also, the $35 extra remote control didn’t not arrive.
In my opinion, DO NOT waste your money on this product. There are heaters in stores with better craftsmanship than this for a much lower cost. I highly doubt any Amish folks are involved in producing this product; as, the Amish do take much more pride in their craftsmanship.
I have a $20 heater at home which kicks out more heat than this thing; and, doesn’t really negatively impact the electricity bill.
In conclusion, stear very clear of this offer. We have since returned the product and have yet to get a refund (after over a month of returning the product and paying by credit card).
Oh, BTW, where has Mrs. Skeptical been? Has she found somewhere else to spend all of her free time? Like, maybe, somewhere to spend all of her husband’s hard-earned money? Maybe she bought a HeatSurge and loves it, and that’s why she hasn’t come back to whine. I wonder… : )
What is wrong with you “S” ?!
Jealousy drips from your every word!
We’ve been in the Florida Keys for 2 months enjoying life!
Why are you worried about OUR money?
We BOTH earned every dime we have, invested wisely and didn’t fall for cheap crap sold in “come on ads” and scams.
We didn’t overspend and were frugal.
Now we’re enjoying our hard earned money!
AND we’ve shared it with others and have helped many here in our community as well!
Your just jealous because you live in a dump and are forced to taking low paying job.
Had you educated yourself, not overspent and maxed out your credit limits, you could also have the same.
Instead you’re jealous and angry.
I feel sorry for low minded people like you!
Honey…do you need some money, perhaps for counceling…I’ll send you some if you need it!
Just ask.
People. If you need a heater, go buy one at WalMart for less than $20…don’t fall for this scam!
Nothing is free! Sorry, but its true!
O, BTW…they’re selling these same heaters at Big Lots…$289, are much larger and nicer!
No shipping either! Can return to the store if a problem or doesn’t work!
Unlike HeatScam! You’ll have to pay extra for warantee, then shipping both ways for repair!
They’re also an electrical hazard!
Google search this, fire hazards, the cord over heats!
Just don’t buy it! Unless you just want a decorative/fake fireplace.
But isn’t half as nice as the real thing!
I LOVE our new fireplace insert!
Will keep all 4,000 sq ft toasty warm!
I’m still Mrs Skeptical!
Hello: I purchased the heat surge– was told I could cancel up to 10 days,as order would not be shipped,charged until then.. I called back after 2 days to cancel at this time. Was told it was shipped yesterday. Asked to speak to mamager after being told I could not cancel until it was delivered, refused and returned. The manager was not pleased but could not have been nicer under circumstances. I asked her to have UPS turn order around, and cancel amount on my credit card. She said that was being done as we spoke. It took only about 2 min. to phone in to customer service. Sorry others have not had their problems resolved so quickly—at least I hope they are resolved.
Just be careful! The craftsmanship was beautiful, but it did not meet the expectations for heat. The problem is returning it for a refund. It cost Heat Surge $49.00 to send to you which you do not get back if you want a refund. Second, it will cost double that to send it back to Heat Surge. Imainge that, $150.00 investment on a $250.00 unit. So much for the free heater as advertised.
BEWARE, BEWARE, if it sounds to good to be true, it definitely is.
People, think twice, read reports! Its so not worth it! Honestly!
I canceled my 3 orders after my freind alerted me to the problems with their over heating, fire hazzards and no savings other than a cheep 1,500 watt heater can get the same at Home Depot for $25 or so.
And guess what!?!?
They charged me $55 per unit, thats $115 to cancel 3 units! Totally unfair!
I’m taking this matter up with my credit card co…they said this scam goes around everytime it gets cold.
They prey on the people who’are on fixed incomes, looking for savings.
How sad!
Rudy in Eagles Creek
Whew! My husband and I just purchased one of these Heat Surge fireplaces. Our bedroom is always freezing compared to the rest of the house! I started to have second thoughts after we bought it so I decided to do alittle research…It scared the crap out of me!! I kept seeing scam scam scam! Then the more I read the more I calmed down. Yes they do make it sound like its fully Amish. Yes the heating console is from china. But as far as all the other complaints…My house is already electric heat, the heater itself is very safe. No scary gases and it cool to the touch no matter how long its been on. I have four cats and they tend to be into everything so that feature was very important. The cost was perfect for us and the waranty was saticfactory. We have a one bedroom apartment so this was just fine for us^-^. Buy according to your needs and you will be fine…as far as saving on your bill….well it hasnt arrived yet so I’ll let you know when it gets here.
This sounds suspiciously razor-and-blades (or printer-toner cartridge). I wonder what the blades are in this case?
Ok i just hopped on this site and was amazed at the people who think they know what they are talking about. Too those people who belive that heating with gas is so much cheaper, as you compare Btu to cost, you do know that you have to use electricity to power the blower in a furnace and i didn’t see that placed in your statement. Also yes you can buy space heaters for cheaper but usually they are not forced air or they don’t look nice as a center piece. One more tid-bit i have looked for a cheaper fireplace (fireless) and i can find them for the same price but not with the mantle or not even half the size. My whole (Parents, brothers, sisters) family owns at least one and everyone likes them for there look and their purpose. p.s. for those people who say “if you had half a brain…” well half or even a little is better than none at all.
If you have a large area to heat, I don’t think any of these space heaters will do much for you. We have a ‘great room’ concept, and while I love the idea of an electric fireplace to cheer things up, I don’t think it will warm things up. In an effort to reduce our carbon footprint however (& save a few bucks,) we have made a rather large investment in a high efficiency air source heat pump to the tune of about $3600.00 after rebates. The electric company gives us a great rate for cooling & heating on this thing (it heats your home efficiently until the temperature outside reaches 25 degrees, then your regular fossfil fuel furnace kicks in). Our central air unit had ‘died’ and needing replacing, so for an extra 1300.00 we have low cost heating and lower cost a/c in the summer. If we didn’t get the great rate from the utility company, it definately would cost more to heat with electric heat versus natural gas, especially in MN where we reside.
Just putting in my two cents, may eventually get an electric fireplace, but I know it’s for the ambiance of it, definately not for the heating capabilities it may provide.
I bought 2 of these before the cold season and haven’t really used them yet since the temperatures haven’t realled dropped a lot. I intend on using them for the really cold nights where the furnace is going all night. So far I like the look and the quality. They are very soothing if not romantic to look at. I have one in my master bedroom and one in my family room. I’m disappointed to hear that they were supposedly a scam but I believe they have their purpose. For those who like the look, instant heat, and potential $$ savings, I still think it may be worth getting one. However, if all you are looking for is a space heater then just bye a space heater….thats all.
By the way, I did receive my remote controls, however, as they stated on the phone they would take longer to arrive because they were backordered. I only paid 23.00 for each remote control. The heaters themselves arrived in lesss than 2 weeks in good working order. The only negative for me is the noise…not so terribly loud but not exactly quite either. But then again it could serve its purpose too….to provide wall between me and our 4 screaming kids.
Thank you Buzz Alexander for the conversion formula. Here’s Buzz sharing from personal experience:
“I worked at an electric company for 25 year answering questions about “new” “miracle” electric heaters. they all say they are the most efficient electric heaters in the world. well they are. that’s because every electric heater in the world converts a kilo-watt hour of electricity into 3413 BTUs. period. can’t do better or worse. a 1500 watt heater is a 1500 watt heater. you can buy them for $12 or wrap a mantel around them, call them a miracle, install cool looking fake flames and charge $400. 1500 watts= 1.5 kilo-watts. 1.5 x 3413= 5119 BTU produced by a 1500 watt heater. all 1500 watt heaters. the cost depends on your local rate of electricity, not a national average. If you pay 10 cents per kwh, then a 1500 wat heater will cost you 15 cents per hour. period.”
Jan, And all the people out there that are not happy. Because I did the same thing bought this and the next day turned around and canceled my order on this and found I better place here’ is the web site http://www.furnitureblue.com/furniture/victoria-stove-electric-fireplace.html
I’m sure all of you would be more happy with this one it’s on back order intell 12/15 tho they do have a bill me later no payments intell 90 days thats what I did so I can be on the list when they do come in… this shows the full fire affect and can set the setting in that and also has the remote that makes the crackle and spark sound…
check it out and in mail me back on here..You will be much happier with this one. I know I was before even getting it. talkeed with the lady on the phone over 2 hrs about this..
I have a ceramic electic heater, with no maintenance costs, costs about $15 at Walmart, around 5000 BTU, 1500 watts an hour, times an 8 cent rate = 12 cents an hour = 2.88 a day = 86.40 a month for just one heater. I use them for extra heat in the bathroom, office, kitchen, bedroom when it’s below 32 outside. I can heat my whole house for $100 a month with my heat pump if the temperature is below 32. “Pegina” has it right!
Correction, sorry, I can heat my whole house for $100 a month with my heat pump if the temperature is ABOVE 32.
UPDATE I HAD CANCELED THIS FIRE PLACE THE NEXT DAY AND THEY STILL SENT THE DARN FIREPLACE OUT AND UPS CAME TO MY HOUSE TODAY AND I TOLD HIM I DON’T WANT IT PLEASE SEND THIS BACK WHICH HE DID AND AFTER HE LEFT I CALLED THIS PLACE AND YELLED AT THEM FOR LIEING TO ME ABOUT THEM TELLING ME THAT THEY DID NOT SENT IT OUT AND WAS GOING TO REFUND MY MONEY AND THEY NVER DID THAT EITHER.SO MY CREDIT CARD IS GOING AFTER THEM TO GET MY REFUND. SCAMMERS BIG TIME …BEWARE AND DON’T TAKE THERE BULLSH!T FOR REAL
i was sure these were a scam and im sure that a true amish would not be involed in this scam but there are others wainting to take your money.
I went with a compact Dimplex/Electralog stove so I wouldn’t have to rearrange my living room to accommodate a full size fireplace mantel. Some of the stove models are available on Amazon with free super saver shipping.
Dimplex has been around a long time. Take a look at the Amazon reviews—overwhelmingly positive. They make both the stoves and higher-end mantels. The unit is VERY QUIET, and does what it’s supposed to do as a space heater.
They also make several shapes and sizes of fireplace inserts for those who want to put an electric fireplace in an existing hearth.
You can take a look on youtube (search “dimplex”, etc.) to see how the fire hologram will look.
The Victoria stove (and mantel models), by Classic Flame that Tara mentioned (11/16) looks good, too. Google around, there are several places that have it available now for less (and with free shipping).
If you want a mantle style and want to keep costs down, check out the Home Depot Charmglow 23 in. Oak finish (it’s actually 31 inches wide). It goes for $259 which includes shipping. Home Depot is known to sell their electric fireplaces at a deep discount starting around January if you can wait.
A quick Google search will show there are many choices for electric fireplaces from companies that have been around a long time and have strong customer service ratings—no need to get tangled up with these yahoos.
I love my Heat Surge that I bought from the website. If you register for the newsletter on the website, you get special offers with much lower prices. The Energy Commission will give you a free Heat Surge if you buy the Amish made mantle. So I only paid for the mantle. I live 25 miles from Holmes County in Ohio where the Amish live that make these mantles. The oak is not veneer. My father is a wood craftsman and they oak mantles are not veneer. This is no scam. I have had many emails from Heat Surge answering my questions before I bought it. They even called me to answer one question. The Amish do allow their pictures to be taken in some orders. There are many different order of Amish and they are ruled by their church. They do use gasoline powered tools. I only use my Heat Surge on cold nights. I don’t turn down my thermostat because the Heat Surge warms my family room and kitchen and the hall. My thermostat doesn’t go up when I have the Heat Surge on, so the furnace doesnt come on. Yes, all electric heaters are basically the same. It depends on what type you want. The Eden Heater is also made near here and it is sold by The Suarez Company. It is not a good heater.It is rated the lowest by Consumer Reports. The Suarez company is a large marketing company. Remember the coal from the Titanic being sold on TV? That was SUarez Marketing.
As for having to pay the shipping to send your Heat Surge back, why shouldn’t you have to pay to send it back. If the heater works fine, and you decide you don’t want it, that is your problem to pay the shipping. I bought my son a Sony Cybershot from the Sony website. I wanted to exchange it for a better model. I had to pay the shipping to send back the camera to Sony, Sony wasn’t going to pay for my change of mind.
If you buy a dress at the Mall and you don’t want it, does the store you bought it at come to your house to get the dress? No you use your gas to take it back.
Your electric bill will go up if you are using the Heat Surge 24/7 to heat a room. Any heater that is electric will cause the bill to increase.
I love the Heat Surge and now you can get the Hearth or the bookcases that go beside it made by the Amish.
Here is the Heat Surge website. Sign up for the
special offers on the top right of the site before you buy the Heat Surge. They have sratch and dent heater at great prices and you cant see anymark on the heaters. You can also buy a second Heat Surge afetr you get your first one at a good price too.
The ads depicting these amish folks assembling this space heater are demeaning & disrespectful to the amish. If they watched TV i’m sure they would have filed suit long ago. I for one am going to make some calls to get these despicable ads off the air. As for all of the “i love the heat surge” comments, they have obviously been posted by people who have either been paid by or who work for this company.
I can’t help notice how many of these posts were put here by people with a direct interest in the HeatSurge company. I’m sure there are some real posts by people who are happy with the product, but most of the ‘I just got two heaters and just love them’ posts seem fake to me.
When you read them, look for common descriptions, similar words and phrases and similar arguements that try to justify buying a $30 electric heater for hundreds of dollars.
To me, most of the posts prasing the product are as clever as their advertising campaign. Posts seem to have a common, “I bought it, I love it, it’s not perfect, but I don’t care.” theme.
Just my opinion and observation.
The Amish don’t even allow for their photos to be taken, let alone appear is a t.v. commercial. Probably unaware that their likeliness is being used to sell this particle board piece of junk. The phoniness of the whole deal is a little humorous.
I am not sure if the fireplaces are good product or not as I do not own one. I do have the EdenPure heater and so far it is doing what it is supposed to do. I might have found a better deal price-wise had I shopped around, but I did not do that so if I have been taken for a ride I have no one to blame but myself.
As for advertising hype, a lot of companies do this. Everyone wants you to buy theirs so they will say theirs is best, that’s just the way it is in business. In the end, you are the one who decides whether to purchase or not.
That said, I do have a problem with companies that do not stand behind the products they sell. Customers should not have to pay to ship a defective unit back or to have a replacement shipped. If it is just a case of buyer’s remorse, however, the customer should pay all shipping costs involved in receiving the product and in returning it.
If I cancel an order and receive it anyway, I should not be liable for the shipping costs, but if I cancel an order after it has already shipped, that’s buyer’s remorse and I would expect to pay all shipping charges since I did ask the company to send me the product.
We all want to get what we pay for but in the event something goes wrong, good customer service is essential. Even products with a good solid reputation sometimes have defective units, but when that happens the company needs to act in an honorable manner and accept the return, with no monetary loss to the customer.
I have visited review forums on many different products and in nearly all reviews where the product is a disappointment, when good customer service is offered the reviews tend to be factual and far less bitter.
I can understand why some reviewers here are on the attack, however, if customer service is in fact non-existent. On the other hand, I understand the company needing to recover the costs of shipping and return shipping if it has not been shown that the unit is defective but is simply a case of buyer’s remorse. The way I see it, the company should not have to pay for my mistake any more than I should have to pay for theirs.
Intended to read one or two comments just to get a feel for the product. I got drawn into reading from top to bottom wondering why so many folks are so miserable that they need to spend time sharing their misery with others. This site should be called the, “Whinery.”
Seems to me that there’s quite a few shills for this company posting here.
I can’t believe anyone fell for this ad but then again, enough people voted for Bush to get the idiot elected twice.
I also came on to get some feedback and read the whole site. I am thinking about buying one. If they give me a good deal, I still might. Although, the local hardware store has a similar one in white for about $150, so I will probably just go there instead. I also live in a basement apartment and have electric heat so there probably won’t be much difference there. Either the fireplace heater or the baseboard… Both use electricity. As far as the bashing goes, this is supposed to be a feedback page. There is alot of bashing about spelling and grammar. Wow! No need to comment on this post because I’ve read the whole thing and have no reason to come back. But for the sake of the people who are looking for honest feedback, please keep it too the actual comments about the heater.
It’s just amazing how gullible (ignorant?) Americans can be! Ads like this make a great case for mandatory high school courses in basic money sense, if not common sense. No, better make that junior high courses. Along the way, they’ll also learn the difference between mantel (topping a fireplace) and mantle (a cloak or cape). On the bright side, if everyone with a computer would check sites like this one before they rush to buy, they’d save themselves a lot of trouble and money. Not to mention the sheer entertainment value of reading so many diverse comments!
We have two of these at my work. One is in the entrance because it gets really cold from the door continually opening. The other is in a corner office that gets quite chilly. We’ve had them for a year and they are really great. They throw off a nice heat and make a big difference. I actually just bought two of them for my home! Hope I’m as happy with them!
whats funny? google heatsurge and click on the 2nd listing for official site and they want close to 700.00 for it with all bells and wistles and no shipping charge. then click on the save 250.00 on amish made and the price drops dramaticly but then they want shipping 50.00. honestly of course its not worth it. buy it for looks i guess. reality, the amish or whoever are prob getting 25 to 40 bucks a pop per mantle and the fancy heater about the same if not less. somebody has to pay for all the overhead and ads.
I don’t know if the Amish actually have anything to do with this but I do know some in IL, IN, OH and MO use electricity, phones, computers, and even drive cars. Those that do are still members of the community in good standing. Modern technology has reached the Amish and they are using it.
I started with two fireplaces. I heat my home with them (unless temps outside dip into low 20’s). I bought a 3rd one to put in my swim spa pool house. I can’t say enough good things about them. They’re realistic. They’re well crafted. They’re economical. And they’re warm!
I AM SORRY I DIDN’T GET TWO OAK MANTLES THE FIRST ORDER, I ORDERED MY SECOND A.S.A.P.
THE QUIETNESS, LAZY SOOTHING,SLEEPY FEELING I GET IN THE EVENING HOUR AS I LIE DOWN TO SLEEP. THE WARMTH, THE GLOW, THE FLAME SETTINGS: QUIET-QUICK-EASY-MY FAMILY LOVES IT. I AM SO GLAD TO RID OF THE UGLY RADIATOR TYPE HEATERS WE HAVE USED, WHICH KEPT A SMALL ROOM WARM WITH A HIGH ELECTRIC BILL.IT DEPENDS ON WHERE IN THE HOME YOU PLACE THE MANTLE, AS I HAVE READ FROM OTHERS, KEEPS BATH, HALLWAY, TWO BEDROOMS ROASTY TOASTY COMFY ! THANKS FOR THE BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF FURNITURE ! THE WARMTH ! AND THANKFUL THAT THE FURNACE ONLY COMES ON THREE TIMES LATE NIGHT-= SAVE MONEY ! : )BE SAFE BE SMART,DO COVER ANY WINDOWS LETTING IN COLD AIR. BLOCK UP UNDERHOUSE VENTS FOR WINTER.CLOSE ATTIC VENTS.PLACE THROW RUGS WHERE NEEDED. FEEL THE BONE SOOTHING WARMTH AS YOU WATCH THE FLICKER AND GLOW FROM THE WONDERFUL HEAT SURGE AMISH HEATER. CAN’T BE BEAT . LOVE IT. GREW UP IN OHIO I DID. : ) IT’S ALL GOOD.
You can buy the same products at Lowe’s, and if you deceide that you don’t like it, you can return it. Why deal with an overseas company with boiler room tactics?
Hhmmmm….sure is a lot of ranting on this forum, I mean Whinery. I live about 40 miles out of Holmes County in Ohio. My wife and I like to drive to the country side and go to “Amish Country” to eat and pick up hand-made products…stuff like that. The first time that I ever went out there (I’m not from Ohio), I was actually quite shocked to see how many large Amish Businesses there really are out there. The Amish woman at the small store I went to used an electric cash register and the gentleman dressed in full Amish attire was on a cell phone when he crawled out of his horse drawn carriage. After about a year of visiting a few of the same places….I actually did build up the courage to ask an Amish guy, named Aaron, about the use of electronics in the community. After he laughed, he informed me that it depends on which sect you’re with. His sect allowed him the use of electronics as long as it didn’t interfere with prayer or church. Basically he used his laptop just for work, not video games. And why not, we are in the information age right? I will ask him about photographs the next time I see him. My opinion on that?…someone earlier in this thread was talking about graven images. Of course, he must know that graven images were around long before photography. That being said, do you think the Amish don’t allow their kids to draw?….I bet they do. And I’ll bet you that they don’t yell at their children for drawing pictures of mommy and daddy. Even though they could be considered “graven” images. I was raised Catholic, so I guess that affords me a one way ticket to hell because there are statues in my church. No, we don’t worship statues, they serve as a reminder……..hold up, just like photographs. remember this?:”You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” all artist are damned I guess. I know I am off topic with this post, but it seems that the people who are yelling “scam” and “fraud”, AND using the Amish religion as the backbone of their argument……well, I guess they don’t know jack about the Amish community. oh yeah, you can google it all day long, and I’m sure everything that google has online is true. why wouldn’t it be, I mean if it’s in print, it must be true (sarcasm here). ok, I’m done. hugs and kisses
If you really want to find out EXACTLY how much this thing is costing you, I suggest you get a great device called Kill-a-Watt. Its a meter that plugs into a wall outlet, then you plug whatever appliance you want to test. Using a very simple calculation you find out exactly how much any electic (120v) appliance is costing you per hour, per day, per month.
If you own the Eden pure already, plug it in and find out the costs, compare it to another cheap electric heater. Then compare it to a coffee maker!
Make sure you compare apples to apples. You must make sure the things you are comparing are on for an equal amount of time, on similar settings etc.
I bought my KillaWatt on Ebay for about 20 bucks. I also tested it against a really good electric meter and it was dead-on so I know it works well. I’ve tested the output of everything in my house: lightbulbs, computer left on, frig, different electric heaters I have.
This thing is fun and cool - stop guessing and find out for sure.
I’m a science teacher and I can tell you that from everything I’ve read, this heater seems like a very expensive version of a regular $50 home depot heater. Measuring watts, amps and volts don’t lie. There is no “magic” heat, that is a lie they are telling you. If you like the looks of it, awesome, but unless they are changing the laws of physics, don’t be conned into their ad. You must always ask yourself “is this too good to be true?” Most of the time it is. They imply that the machine uses a “special soft heat” or something like that I can’t remember, but when I heard it it definitely seemed like an blanant lie, but don’t let me deter you, spend $20 bucks and measure it for yourself.
If you do measure it, make sure you leave the meter running for at least 24 hours because heaters cycle on and off. If you are testing it against another heater, try to have as many of the variables the same (about the same outside temps, etc). Good luck
To Carol from Nov 23: Maybe you should go back to junior high for a refresher course. Perhaps then you would learn that one definition of “mantle” is “a covering of any kind”. In this context it is most definitely not “mantel”, which refers only to the shelf above a fireplace, and not a “fireplace topper” as you assert. Before you accuse others of being stupid and/or ignorant, check your facts first to be certain that it’s not yourself to whom you should be reffering…
That being said, yes this is obviously just a normal electric space heater dolled up inside a nice looking cabinet. What’s wrong with that? Those of you expecting to save a fortune will be disappointed. Those who, like me, use it wisely just to heat up a small area and turn the heat down in the rest of the house will likely be more than satisfied.
Dammit! Misspelled “referring”! I got pwned by myself!
It’s a pos plain and simple. The joinery on it is crap, if I am going to pay for Amish craftsmenship I want dovetail joints not schlockly screws holding veneer covered particle board.
The only solid wood on the whole dam thing is the top board…(mantle)…..im a delivery man i deliver three to six a day i pick up about 1/2 of them within a month because they stopped working i have picked up several that were sent with no heater in them and picked up quite a few where the fire did not flicker…..most people say they like them cause they do not want to admit they have been scammed same as eden pure i deliver alot of those and pick them back up shortly…..they are taking advantage of people during hard times in my eyes….most of the people getting these are hard working good people trying to save a buck and they are just getting scammed
remember those ads for amazing x-ray glasses they used to sell in the backs of comic books…them was a scam also
First, I’m just posting to convey what I know about electical heaters and purchasing things online or from television adverts.
Next, I don’t own a Heatsurge, and won’t be paying $300 to $600 for the same amount of heat coming out of the $15 ceramic heater I bought 5 years ago from Big Lots! - which fits quite safely under an endtable where its utilitarian appearance doesn’t irritate me. (It wouldn’t anyway - all I have to do is feel warm toesies and I immediately feel appreciation for it.)
I became curious after seeing the TV advert which uses words like “miracle” and “breakthrough” and “amazing” a lot and shows short video vignettes of purportedly Amish craftsmen and women working on units that appear to be running in at least the faux-fire mode in a rural location that doesn’t seem to show any other signs of having been affected by the Rural Electrification Act decades back, only to be shipped somewhere in the back of an Amish horse-drawn buggy.
The Heatsurge looks like an inexpensive knock-off of units which were installed in some mobile home brands as a heating upgrade about 20 years ago. I say inexpensive because those units were 220-volt powered and were capable of heating most of the “trailer home” they were installed in.
Several people have mentioned that all 1500 watt heaters produce the same amount of heat, which is basically true. A watt represents an amount of electrical energy, and “X” watts will produce “X” British Thermal Units (BTUs, a measure of heat energy) when applied to a standard resistance element.
Let me add this: Better-quality heaters distribute the heat more evenly, sending it across and out into the room rather than simply letting it rise and warm the ceiling while the room and person remain chilly at foot and chair level.
Most of the heaters you can buy today use ceramic elements - they look like the radiator of a car and do basically the same thing, dissipate heat. Electricity flows through the element, which gets hot, and a fan of some sort blows air through to transfer the heat from the element and thus heat the room the air blows into. (All heaters work this way, regardless of size or type.)
The big difference is in fan quality and air direction - some heaters oscillate (swivel back and forth) and some have grilles you can adjust to direct heat where you choose. Many inexpensive heaters use el-cheapo fans that make a lot of noise, better ones use fans similar in quality to those found in your computer or audio system.
If you have natural gas heating and clock your thermostat WAY back so your heater virtually never runs, you’ll probably just break even dollar-wise running any portable electric heater to heat the rooms you occupy - because electricity is more expensive than natural gas. You’ll at least end up with cold rooms, and you may not save money after all because of poor insulation - it may take as much money to keep the whole house relatively warm as it does to keep a few rooms toasty and the rest cold.
(Someone mentioned something about the electricity required to spin the furnace fan. Most of them are 1/2 to 3/4 horsepower motors depending on furnace size, and they use between 500 and 900 watts intermittantly - only when the furnace comes on - so it isn’t a huge cost factor.)
You’ll have to do the math yourself for other situations like oil heating and propane heating.
But, you can easily figure the cost of running a space heater by multiplying your electricity cost per kilowatt hour (shown on your bill) by 1.5, and then by the amount of hours your space heater runs. Or, if you run it on the “low” setting, usually 750 watts, multiply your cost by 0.75 and then by the amount of hours it runs.(You can find out how much your space heater uses by looking on the box it came in or on the bottom or back of it - there is usually a label that gives the requirements.)
Next, someone mentioned warm cords on heaters. On most this is normal - there is a lot of energy flowing through the wires and some heat is produced. The cord should never become too hot to unplug with a bare hand. (NEVER just yank on the wire - this will damage the insulation and cause a short, immediately or eventually…)
(Also, there was some quibble about the use of the word “turbine” being applied to a common “squirrel cage fan.” They are similar technically; my understanding is that a turbine is propelled by moving air to turn a shaft, while a fan is turned by a shaft to propel air. “Squirrel cage fans” are a design that saves space, but they are not necessarily more silent.)
One other thing I’d like mention is this: In many older homes, wall outlets can be overheated by space heaters. Some were never wired to supply the amount of power required. And outlets wear out with use. If a wall outlet won’t firmly hold the plug, don’t use it for a space heater - the loose connection can produce enough heat to start a fire. (Some plugs have folded-metal blades you can expand with a pocket knife to make the blades “fatter,” but even so it’s not a good idea to use a worn-out outlet for space heaters.)
And yes, you will blow the breaker if you run a vacuum cleaner plugged into the same outlet an operating space heater is plugged into. Vacuum cleaners draw a large amount of power. Either don’t vacuum, or unplug the heater while you do.
Back to the Heatsurge.
I’m not going to get into whether the Amish should be allowing their “name” to be used in association with a product, but from what I’ve read here and elsewhere it doesn’t seem like a reliable product or good value when compared to similar products.
And it seems like it’s not really “Amish craftsmanship” being delivered, merely Amish assembly of heaters manufactured in China into Amish-assembled precut housings of varying quality and condition upon delivery.
Several have remarked that the woodwork itself doesn’t resemble Amish craftsmanship, that it doesn’t look hand-made using Amish techniques as the adverts imply it is.
Others have mentioned problems with remotes, with irritating noises which frighten pets, with damaged goods, with faux-fire failures, and long periods on hold or being hung-up upon when calling for support.
(Interestingly, there are a lot of positive comments about “having bought 2 after seeing a relative’s or friend’s” - which is what the Heatsurge website advises - and my grammar checker tells me there are probably 3 different people writing under the nickname “S” defending company product and policy here.)
The bottom line is this: You don’t AUTOMATICALLY get what you pay for. Usually you get something close to what you pay for, sometimes you get more…
But sometimes you get far less. It usually happens when you’re shopping remotely - from TV adverts or online, where there is no “touchy-feely” relationship with the physical product you’re buying. (X-Ray Glasses, Ant Farms, Sea Horse Colonies, the Brooklyn Bridge, et cetera…)
On something this heavy and expensive, it makes sense to shop in your local area where you can actually look at what you’re paying for - that way, if it’s not what you expect, you don’t have to suffer shipping costs as well as trying to deal with call center operators who are well-versed in deflecting returns.
This is something you’re going to have to look at and live with, so you want to see it and touch it before you cart it home or pay to have it delivered.
So, shop local. When you do the chances of being fooled or mislead are much lower.
Your “neighborhood” merchant will appreciate it and unless you’re dealing with an idiot, you’ll get much better service.
And if it’s inconvenient or painful for you to get out and do the legwork yourself, ask a friend or relative you trust. If you can’t do that, contact your local Social Security office - they’ll have contact information for “shopping helpers” you can get to help you with the legwork.
I’m not “down” on online shopping or TV shopping - but in some cases it’s just not a good fit and a 70-lb electric fireplace is one of those cases.
Hope this helps.
Ciao 4 Now,
Ray
Denver, Colorado
I am amazed that so many people bought this product THEN hopped on line to research it within a day or two of the purchase?!? To borrow an Amish-appropriate phrase, you put the cart before the horse. The next time you get the urge to pull the trigger on what is obviously an impulse buy, you might want to take a few deep breaths and let the urge pass - then take some time to investigate BEFORE making what amounts to a large purchase in most households these days. People were buying these two and three at a time THEN deciding it would be a good idea to check up on this product? I find it difficult to muster up any sympathy for the people having refund issues that are cancelling their order based solely on message board posts they read one or two days after they placed their order. And there are DOZENS of you on here!?! A fool and his money are soon parted, so they say……..
I just purchased a heat surge, $377 + 3 year warranty for $36…..let it run constantly and it did not heat the small room I had it in and, as others have mentioned, the rest of the house was very cold because I thought I could lower my thermostat. I can’t see how it saves on electricity if there is no thermostat control and it runs all the time never shutting off. I am returning it today and want to tell you that while they do have a 30 day return policy, they do not pay for return shipping which, from NJ is about $51 and there is no return label on the invoice…..very disappointed
i cannot beleive they are STILL advertising this on tv. they even say “not available in stores”. I’d love to know why ive seen this in like 8 stores….
Seriously, do people expect amish people to build a million of these things? Amish towns are generally fairly small, and i dont think theyd sign any contracts to build anything for any companies… I dont even think there are amish people involved.
i have a shed that was amish made (they deleivered it personally. beleive me if that guy wasnt amish he sure put on one hell of an act). He wasnt living in an amish community, but was raised amish and left the town, bought his own piece of land and builds sheds for a living using a minimalist approach.
Even though the amish use some technology, they definately do not know anything about BTUs or anything like that. this is a load of horsecrap and i feel bad for the people who fell for this.
If you are looking to save money this is not the trick. It will increase your electricity bill. However there is a warm comforting glow about this heat. And if you just want to heat a small area without turning up the thermo this unit might work for you. There is an oscillating space heater with FAR technology with the same that is only $89 on ebay that burns a constant 400 watts (can be cranked to double) that will give you a sense of what this unit can do for you I fell in love with the silent glowing heat that takes no oxygen out of the air and does not dry the air and that is good for my over winting of tropical plants. I use the space heater in my office and I love it. NO SAVINGS though. If you are looking for savings get a ventless ng log set for your fireplace….I have both. the ventless sucks the oxygen our of the room and dries the air and is noisy so I depend more on the far technology and keep the rest of my house at a frosty 50 degrees so in that sense it can save a buck.
First of all, I swear ive seen the Amish man in the commercial around my town. I think they just picked him up cause he had an Amish look about him. Second, im interested in the savings so i was looking for one of these heat surge heaters that they allegedly stick in the Amish wood box… without the box. Can i just get a heat wave ugly heater without the box? The answer is I cannot find it online.
Dan–
This site is about THE HEATER. You need to quit being so defensive about Amish comments. The Amish people are adults, can take care of themselves (have been doing so for 3 or more centuries), and in reality don’t give a damn about what the rest of society says about them.
I agree with Gloria. We just purchased one of the heaters and were very disappointed. It didn’t even put a dent in heating a small room we put it in and ran for over 4 hours. We will be returning it. So it will probably cost us over $100 to learn our lesson, between not getting reimbursed for the original shipping and then however much it will cost us to ship it back.
I bought a quartz light electric heater for around 40 dollars sure beats the same thing that looks like a fire that cost you suckers 350 bucks.
I don’t even know what to say. You bought something without doing your research first, so if this is a scam then is it not your own fault for loosing money on it? I’m so disappointed in many of the people on this site for “crying” about something they haven’t even tryed yet because other people, that they don’t even know told them it was not a good product.
first, no jokes about the name, it’s real. spare me that one. thanks.
second, we live in a solar community that uses some biomass fuels when needed, so this product and all others like it (whether they cost $20 or $400) are nothing more than A JOKE here.
i still wanted to get something attractive yet functional for a friend, so i got one of these things for them. poor worksmanship and quit working after 2 weeks. they came back to us and asked what we could do about customer service, so we gave it a shot. 4 months later, still no satisfaction. is it truly an amish thing? we dunno, we don’t care. is there deception in their ads? lots. does their stuff suck? yes. did we buy another gift for our friend? yes.
damn, we love living off the grid!
sucks for the rest of you though. some people just don’t get “it”.
I had to use my 3 year warranty today. The heater stopped working. But I do feel I was somewhat responsible since I ignored the direction to pull it 1 foot away from the wall.
On the phone they were incredibly gracious and are sending me an updated model with free return shipping of the broken unit. I use mine to heat only one room - the thermostat is in another area - and I love the cheerlful, glowing flames.
wow, some great comments from those in the know- while I wouldn’t pay for an electric space heater to begin with, I can see why people would fall for this offer. Even a careful curious reader like myself missed the separate cost of the mantle (written out in words, instead of numbers, so you’d miss it); FREE is what got me to read the ad, of course (then you wonder how they could stay in business). When I saw that the 48-hour deadline doesn’t really apply, then I was sure it wasn’t worth it.
It’s interesting indeed to see the kinds of comments justifying the product to distract users from the real issue - a dead giveaway - whether it’s about the Amish using electricity, or buying it for the love of the wife or daughter, or because the person is old and lives in a mobile home (as a previous poster noted). Then there’s accusing the typically elderly person being targeted that it’s their fault they didn’t read the fine print. Such comments show that at least these forums are working to some extent.
I’ve seen this kind of tactic on other forums when the perpetrator is in the wrong, so instead he/she goes on the attack or on unrelated topics.
For all I know it may not a total scam, in the sense that some will get one that work and look good enough for them, but it sounds like a rip-off with misleading or false advertising. (at least they’re honest about the heater being made in China, or maybe that’s just legal cover, though ‘genius’ makes me think some Chinese person wrote the copy)
Sadly, as one of their own staff says, it’s been a year since the first comments and they’re still selling the product, at a time when Americans are worried about their finances and can’t afford to be taken advantage of.
With the high price of oil, I decided to look into getting a space heater. On the ads, they say that these Heat Surge portable heaters will save you a lot of money on your energy bills. Well, I just got my first electric bill since using it and it was DOUBLE what I normally pay. It was not like used it 24/7 either. I only used it on average 4-5 hours per day and turned it off overnight. Secondly, I was disappointed that it did not really heat my whole living room which is relatively small. At times, I could only feel noticeable warmth if I stood a few feet away from the heater. Sure I probably used a little less oil. But with the price of oil very low right now, I think that I will take my chances with heat oil which is more efficient and will heat my WHOLE home. My two cents: Not worth the investment.
IT LOOKS LIKE EVERYONE EXPECTS THE ELECTRIC BILL NOT TO GO UP. YOU ARE USING ELECTRIC SO PAY FOR IT. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GAS/OIL HAS TO BE GREATER THAN ELECTRIC.
We’ve set up a Web site to share the facts about our company at http://heatsurge.wordpress.com
Let us know if you have comments or questions.
Unbelievable…how can a company make a defective product, promise to return payment and just blatantly lie to all it’s customers.
I have learned to check blog sites before making purchases outside of stores. I have been scammed by misleading commercials, but never again. If return policies are shady and it’s hard to contact the business reps, forget it. It’s a gigantic, blazing red flag.
Sorry you’ve been scammed, I hate those people, it;s sick!!!
Since HeatSurge says it uses about the same energy as “your coffee maker” and it is a fact of physics that a BTU is a BTU is a BTU. I now just turn on my coffee maker for supplemental heat.
COST: FREE.
Several things about the ads that are disturbing to me. First, the Amish do not allow themselves to be photographed. Second, they do not wear “English” clothing, e.g. short-sleeved polo shirts. Third, most Amish would remove their hats when indoors. Finally, tying Amish into a product that uses electricity is the ultimate oxymoron. Makes you wonder why the company’s owner or distribution is permitted to continue such obviously false advertising.
This is unbelievable what some of you people are ranting about. Half of the comments do not make any sense. My elderly mother uses a Heatsurge and it is very beautiful. I understand that a 1500w heater is a 1500w heater but the Heatsurge is a nice piece of furniture as well so yes you can simply buy a 1500w heater for cheaper but if you want a piece that will look good in your home decor the Heatsurge is a great choice…..
The website that Chris left has some great facts that some of you need to refer too
I just saw the ad on tv, and some things caught my eye. Ultimately I wound up on this website. I can’t believe this discussion is going on over a year. I had a problem with this company misrepresenting the Amish also. Like I said, something caught my eye while watching the ad. Through the wonders of TIVO, I was able to go through the ad frame by frame, and I found what I thought I saw. Woodworkers will know what I’m talking about. I found a frame of wood cut and stacked all the same size. This wood was fiberboard with a veneer. This wood also had pocket screw holes machined into them. They were implying that these were hand made from solid hardwoods by the Amish. At best they were prefabricated in a factory, and assembled by someone (maybe the Amish). I know there are people that want to throw away their money no matter what anyone tells them. Thats all I’ll say here. Before you go though look at the following that I copied from their website. They even tell you not to believe the stuff they say.
From heatsurgetv web site. Terms and Conditions.
Heat Surge LLC does not warrant or represent that your use of materials displayed on the website will not infringe upon the rights of third parties not affiliated with Heat Surge LLC.
Although Heat Surge LLC uses reasonable efforts to include accurate and up to date information in the website, Heat Surge LLC makes no warranties or representations as to the accuracy of this information. Heat Surge LLC assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content of this website.
Your use of and browsing within this website are at your own risk. Neither Heat Surge LLC nor any other party involved in creating, producing, or delivering the website is liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect, or punitive damages resulting from or connected with your access to or use of this website. Without limiting the foregoing, all contents of the website are provided “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.
Thanks to all you wise people who used reason and good common sense to help someone like me make a decision against this unit. Altho it looks good and the “fireplace” aesthetic would be pleasing, in the end it’s a matter of spending either $400 or so for fake flames or $75 or so for the little extra heat you need, the electric bill will really tell the tale.
I was really going back and forth for weeks over the HeatSurge and the EdenPure — you have all helped me tremendously, thanks.
Hi,
I’m an actual Amish guy who is currently making these mantles with pride and we Amish find that if we can save the planet a little at a time by making people a beautiful heating product that uses old fashioned coal-fired electricity, itself a modern marvel which we Amish are just now finding out about, why then shouldn’t we?
The nice people from the Heat Surge marketing company showed us how to use hand planes to smooth the particleboard lumber and how to check the cabinets by using levels and old school measuring sticks to put these together in our studio shops.
Ok, ok. I just have a beard like an Amish guy and I know nothing of wood or cabinetry. I’m an out of work actor who needs the cash. Sorry. It beats working the drive through @ Wendy’s
Ansel the Amish-looking guy
would like know about the crrner bookcase
prices and shipping charge
I just saw the TV infommercial on the Heat Surge fireless ‘fireplace’ for the first time.
Okay, so let’s say you are in a room in your house and you’re cold. The first thing you do is 10 knee bends, or sit-ups, or push-ups — or 10 of whatever you are physically capable of. That’ll warm you up. If twenty minutes later you’re cold again, do 10 more. Repeat as needed. How cost-effective and environmentally-friendly is that, you get warmed up and no extra electricity, oil, or gas is consumed?
Plus, if you do that regularly, you’ll probably lose a few pounds of fat, get healthier, sleep better, and end up feeling cold less and less — without adjusting your furnace’s thermostat or buying a Heat Surge.
Secondly, if you are in a room in your house and you’re cold, do you have slippers on? How about a sweater and/or sweat pants? How about a blanket?
Yeah, I understand, when you are cold, the first thing you think is turn the heat up, or get a space heater. Regardless of your age, why not first adopt a calisthenic approach to increased warmth, augmented by personal insulation (sweater, etc.), then take it from there.
As for flickering ‘ambiance’ — jar candles.
OK, So here’s the thing:
I have seen the commercials many times. I never thought it was a “scam” persay, but I always thought it was basically an “As seen on TV” item. Its not a scam because they dont take your money and not deliver a product.
Now, I must say that I would NEVER have purchased one of these. I still “probably” wont. That being said, you see a lot of satisfied people on this thread. Why?
Well first off, do you care about aesthetics? Its a pretty impressive, solid unit, and is made from real wood, yatta yatta. Nice heater though, period.
Do you care about functionality?
Its true that almost ANY electric heater will do the same job. Some might be cheap and break down after little use, or something like that. But this is a good heater. Lasts a while from what it sounds like, and hell the chinese know their stuff.
After doing some research, if you want to find an eye-pleasing, portable (thats big too!), electric heater, your going to be shelling out between $250 and $2500 (type portable electric fireplace on google and check out what you find under “shopping”, just for example).
This unit is hand-made (supposidly i guess), nice wood/finish, and a good electric unit, and its on par with what the unit should cost.
Whether it saves you money is irrelevent- it varies far too much place to place and depends on if you use central, want zone heating, etc… But if your looking for more warmth in your living room, like a fire where you read in the loft, etc…, I think this is a SOLID product and people should not be bashing the product, let alone the amish! Thats a low blow to people who do nothing but stay out of your way big shot, so suck up and think again.
Overall, I think its a great deal. And if I ever did decide to stop using central to heat the entire house, I would probably consider this before any others.
-2cents
shahin
These things are about as far from fine amish craftsmanship I’ve ever seen, the cabinet was total junk. I’ll bet their making a fortune off these things. The cabinet was like $20 worth of partical board.
1000 watts of electricity equals 3410 BTU any way you use the electricity. My wife bought a 1500 watt heater for her work place at Wal-mart for about $14.00. Fine Chinese craftsmanship. A bit noisy. EXACTLY the same efficiency as the “Amish & Eden Pure” heaters. This company should be ashamed of using the Amish to sell their overpriced 14 dollar heaters. No conscience I guess.
I’m glad I read this Blog. I’ll be cutting and splitting my own “Real” firewood instead of being duped by this obvious scam.
Actually - if you scroll through all these comments, you’ll find that there are not near as many negatives as you might think. Most of the people that have posted negatively, either have never tried or will ever try the product, or ordered and then sent the product back after reading these posts. I am not one to buy these “as seen on TV” people, however My Great Uncle purchased one and was very please with it. My Mother in Law purchased two & was pleased. To date, we know at least 15 different people that have tried this product & love it.
I’ve also seen the posts that say all the “good” comments must be from employees of Heat Surge. Well I live no where near Ohio, I’ve heard from many people that love the product and we just ordered one.
I agree with other posts in saying that it all depends on what purpose you’re buying the product for. You can’t expect it to heat your entire house and if you have an all electric house, then you might see a great increase in your electric bill. For those of us that use propane or oil to heat our house, it could be a great substitute.
What I find interesting about the commercial is Amish making electrical devices, wearing hats indoors, no safety glasses, lights on the ceiling, putting together parts that were manufactured by machine. What, they outsource all of their work now except final assembly? No safety glasses would be a huge OSHA violation. So many things wrong with that picture I can’t believe the Amish really have ANYTHING to do with it. Since they don’t watch tv, how would they know they are being used?
I bought the Eden Pure Electric Heater my first winter in New England. It is the same or almost the same heater without the “mantle”. It lasted 2 winters with only occasional use, and by the third winter all it does is cycle on and off every 10 seconds giving little if any heat. I can’t imagine the electric bill if I were to try and use it for heating. It cost about $300.00 originally. This winter I purchased 2 small Patton heaters to use around the house. Turns out the Patton I bought for $25.00 to heat my upstairs bathroom the same winter I bought the Eden Pure still works like a charm! Just a comment from one who has tried one out for more than a few months.
We purchased an Arrowflame electric fireplace insert (logs)
We were satisfied with it for about a year then the switch broke last week. Will not “click” and allow the remote to work. The email address we had for them doesn’t work and no phone #. Does anyone have any information on Arrowflame or if a new switch could be installed.
Unhappy in the south.
This makes no sense at all. On top of the fact that this IS NOT designed by Amish people, wouldn’t an Amish person denounce the use of the internet and TV to sell this stuff? It’s just ever so false advertising-tastic.
So glad I live in Hawaii.
Clear up a misconception about the Amish (I live in Berks county, PA, with an abundance of Amish)…
There are, as with any religion, different degrees of adherence. As a general rule, they don’t use modern conveniences, in their lives, their homes. No electric, phone, tv, computer, no cars.
But, in their business, that’s another matter. Kerosene lamps at home, electric lamps in the barn, along with the telephone and computer.
They drive buggies on the road, but they hire drivers with vans when they need to travel a fair distance. There are folks, non-Amish, who make a living driving them about.
As far as alcohol and tobacco, or mini-golf, nothing says they can’t enjoy such things.
And, interestingly, children, teens, are not required to constrain themselves, they are free to … explore, until and unless, they accept, on their own, the Amish religion. Also interesting, after experiencing the “modern” world, most opt to be Amish.
As far as photographs go… generally, they don’t allow it, but some do… and, of course, the ads could feature actors… “I’m not Amish, but I play one on TV”
I knew the hype surrounding this heater right away. The commercial made me chuckle.
Who ever mentioned it before is %100 correct, electric heat is what it is. This unit is no more efficient than any other electric heater.
I highly doubt that a single Amish have ever touched one of these. The company is just trying to use the name to associate their crap with some mention of quality. No confirmation on this (just my guess). Amish are like any religious group and they are not unified so they will not be contacting this company with their lawyers insisting that they remove all mention of the Amish from their product.
The TV commercial mentions “THE coveted UL listing” like this is some type of prestige award. My wife’s hair drier is UL listed, so is my toaster oven, wait a second all electrical appliances are……
The Amish will only allow 2 per customer? Ok now you have already said that the Amish are only making the mantle. So what do they have to do with shipping and placing orders?
I could go on about the entire Ad but I’ll stop now. The entire commercial I saw certainly seems like crap to me. When I hear a duck quack I do not go looking for a rooster. If it smells like crap it probably is etc etc etc…
A good friend of mine wanted a simulated fireplace similar to one of these. He went to the hardware store and grabbed one. If there is a problem with it he has to drive 1/4 of a mile to find customer service. Look around at your local retailers people, someone is bound to have something very similar.
My $0.02
Well, Just curious so I read all the comments. Sounds like a regular space heater with nice looks. If you can use it fine. I do not buy the gas heat cheaper comments, I have gas heat and I live in Texas. It is not cheap! My conclusion, If you have a real fireplace use that to supplement.
I have had my eden pure about 3 years now and it is alot cheaper to use then a regular 1500 watt electric heater and i used about 75 gallon less fuel oil than i have the past years so say what u like about this unit but i love the extra cash i saved by using it and my house is warm not just one room dont put it near a thermostat and let it set on 70 degrees and u will see a big savings i have
jeff sw pa
For those of you who can’t spell or never learned the importance of punctuation or grammar, please don’t post on here. Your writing makes you look like an idiot.
You people do understand that it’s an electric heater with a blower unit, don’t you? That means YES your electric bill will GO UP! Duh…
Good scams are hard to pull off. So give this company some credit. But a scam cannot work without suckers. The Amish people in this ad should be truely ashamed of themselves. Then again, why should they be different than the rest of us, including me.
Well I purchased one yesterday…. wish I had read this site first. We live in Texas so it does not get all that cold here anyway. We have an all electric home. I use my fireplace quit a bit in the winter. The problem is the fireplace is near the thermostat
… so my daughters room gets real cold. We were using a cheap heater in her room anyway… so I guess the cost will be about the same.
Can anyone tell me if thier unit has quit after the power went out? The blower and flame still works but no heat is emitted. I have had it one year and one day… so the warranty is void. If you buy one of these please get the additional warranty. On a possitive note it has saved me $200 a month on propane. My propane bill runs about $800 per month during the winter (mind you a new house with extra insulation). If any one can tell me how to fix this problem I would appreciate it.
Went to buy a Eden pure and the hardware store had sold them out.
Their claim to “Soft heat,” may be a valid claim.
My home furnace is an old ineffecient unit. Bringing the temp in my home up to 72degrees, and shutting the unit off, in 2 hours the temp in the house drops 15-20 degrees.
After installing a motor speed controller and running the fan at half speed and resetting the temp switch in the furnace, causing it to cycle on and off using about half the gas per hour and running for twice as long on a cycle and then bringing the temp up to 72 and then turning the unit off, it takes about 10 hours to drop the same as when run at full speed and BTU value.
It could be that at low fan speed and low temp the walls absorb the heat before it can escape through the ceiling?
Just a guess.
The different types of wall material may help to explain why everyone is getting such different results? Some may absorb and hold heat better than others?
So are you reeeallllly that gullible to believe a company that will try to sell you a heater for $350, when you can buy a simple “milk can” style one at any Home Depot for $50 - actually is using real Amish people in their advertisements????? Give me a break, hire anyone, put them in the right clothing, and give them a fake beard - instant Amish.
I am getting ready to contact the consumer e-mail for the company. We have our SECOND fireplace…the heater went out in less than 3 months. The company was slow, but eventually replaced it. This one is about a year old and the “flame” quit. My husband has had a stroke and I can’t find the paperwork on it. He had talked 2 others into purchasing! I guess I will just give it a try and see what happens.
Judy
Yeah I think this is such a scam!!!! If you want an electric heater and a fire place, Go to Wal-Mart and buy 2 things an Electric heater for $20.00 and a Yule log dvd or video and call it a day. People it says MADE IN CHINA, so do the 2 things i told u to get at Wal-Mart, but wayyyyyyyy cheaper.
AMISH FIREPLACE: Sounds great only $0.08 per hour to run. Each unit $298.00 each, remotes $19.95, shipping & handling $98.00,. Everything totaled $730.00 for two. So far, so good. Went out side & found two large boxes on front porch, one box had a hole in the side. I called Heat Surge to report the box damage, I was told to check the unit, and I did – looked OK. Removed from box & set up, NO REMOTE, checked other box NO REMOTE. I once again called HEAT SURE, & told them, “they would send them out”, also no paper work in first box. – BOTH BOXES HAD STAPLES PULLED & TAPED SHUT, when received. (Paperwork was found down inside box with second unite.)
Turn unite on, gave off some heat. Turned it on high, a little more heat also dimmed my light, tuned off house lights. After running on high for an hour it, DID NOT HEAT THE FAMILY ROOM.
The fireplace was a lot smaller than pictured. If you wanted something that almost looks like fire & puts off some heat, & small, this would work for you. The wood may be Amish (Small plate on back, at bottom.); the fireplace metal has MADE IN CHINA stamped on the back.
30- DAY SATISFACTION GUARANTEE
Now the return: I called & asked about return. They do not send return postage & shipping stickers. I was told I had to pay for shipping & would be reimbursed. Each heater was 66 lbs & cast $112.78 shipping & $10.68 to be pick up from house.
I started receiving paper work for the heaters, so I called one more time. Told the repetitive they were shipped backed. Then I asked about the refund.
THIS IS WHEN IT GOT WORSE. I was told that a refund would be issued but shipping & handling; both ways would not be covered. THIS IS $221.46 TOTAL. I then asked to talk to her supervisor. I was then told by her supervisor that,” it is company policy not to refund & reimburse shipping & handling”. I then told her that I was told I would be reimbursed & refunded. With this she said she would check her computer. “It stated I was aware that I would not be refunded or reimbursed. Now think do I or anyone have $221.46 to through in the trash, or would I have kept the heaters & try to sell them. Was also told the person I talked to was standing there & never told me that. I asked to talk to her supervisor.
I now asked to talk to her supervisor. Once again told it was company policy not to reimburse & refund. After more than a half hour on the phone I was able to get the original shipping & handling, along with half my return shipping refunded. Which now leaves me $61.73 in the red?
I will now have all policies in writing, take names, & from now on tape conversation.
BOTTOM LINE I DO NOT RECOMMEND THE AMISH “HEAT SURGE”FIREPLACES
In regards to Chris Poughs post above: We’ve set up a Web site to share the facts about our company at http://heatsurge.wordpress.com
Let us know if you have comments or questions.
barb Dec 11, 2008
All I can say is GOOD LUCK with that. It is another web site that is obviously not maintained, has about 6-7 select Customer Comments. Need to contact them, GOOD LUCK. I have been calling their 1-800 number since 9am EST. It is now 11am EST. I just get the recording, it rings about 20 times and then you get a click. I have completely opened up my heater to try and fix the motor so I get moving flame, thats what you need to see, the insides. It is an absolute JOKE. The Heater Component probably costs them about $7-$9 per unit (if that), at the most. The motor that turns the rod that turns the Mylar Strips that make the Flames, I bet that is a $3 part. It is the size of maybe 3 1/2 Dollars glued back to back. The Mantle is pressboard with Oak Veneers.
All in all, it is just a very very cheap piece that shouldbe walked away from. At $99 it may be worth it just for the asthetics. For $300, it is a crime.
I am trying to buy the $3 motor. I’ll pay, but I cannot even talk to anyone. Been trying for 1 month. Send them EMAILS? Sure that gets you NADA!
I have seen several posts in this site about training new Customer Service people and enhancing their Customer Service dept, BULL.
This is simply a SCAM. No two ways about it folks. Please folks, go buy a nice Spoace Heater from Walmart and get a downloaded Fireplace Screen Saver for your computer or LCD TV, you’ll be much happier. And you will still have most of your $300
People are gullible, pure and simple. The Amsish do not use electricity, but all the adds show them in a workroom with electric lights. People see the word “free” and jump all over it. $285+ for an electric heater?! Ha, ha, ha! You can get a betetr one for half the price, no mantel though. The public, or s portion of it, is really stupid and buy these “free” items, just like they go crazy for a sale that is 50% off - after the original price was inflated 50%. Suckers.
“THE coveted UL listing”. What an amazing award! Too bad every electric appliance sold in the US is UL listed. That claim right there shows the lengths this company will go to to sucker people. LOL! Did you also know that WalMart and the local butcher sells steaks with the coveted “USDA” stamp on it too?!! WOW! There is no end to people’s stupidity…
Nice catch on the “coveted UL listing.” If a product doesn’t have the the sticker it is probably made in China and illegally imported into the U.S. — (see cheapo Chinese Christmas lights) and may very well burn down your house. Marketing speak is a beautiful thing.
I am Shamus the Amish. This is a scam and my people have nothing to do with it. Those aren’t Amish on the commercial and we would never associate our good name with such a junk product. I borrowed my good friend’s computer to spread the word to you good but naive people. If you ever see horse doodie pie being sold on tv it is most likely us but not a space heater.
Started to buy one for the look. Thanks to this site, I’m not buying…
As someone ells said, just look at the Better Business site and locate the company. They have an F rating, the lowest possible rating. That should tell you enough. To all those “Amazing” posts, if it was that good why did you even bother checking out other peoples reviews on the product. I have never bothered to look up a product I was happy with, either you realized you were duped and didn’t want to admit it to yourself so, to make you feel better you posted a positive comment, trying to justify your poor purchase to YOURSELF more than to us lol. OR your one of the 4 people who have already admitted to being an employee, using different names to promote your company’s product..
Oh and btw, I have also never seen a company that had to have its employee’s log onto every single website with negative feedback to defend it.
So many ppl hate your product your scared to loose your job? Putting in those free hours off the clock to defend your jobs>
I am concerned after reading your posts. I was planning to purchase an Eden Pure or a Comfort Zone heater to use in Texas. The reason they appealed to me was they both state they do not dry out the air. I am sitting here coughing as I write. I begin having sinus problems every year as soon as I have to switch over to heat for a cold day. (I keep my thermostat set on 70* year round.) Does anyone have any comments to make concerning the air quality with either EDEN PURE or COMFORT ZONE heaters? I don’t mind the price tag if it keeps me from going into pneumonia every winter from the dry air. I have a wood buring fireplace that I do not use for the same reason.
I am reading all this bashing of the Amish and how they aren’t allowed to do this or that and the other. I have not bought one of these heaters YET and still have every intention of buying one in the near future. I see a lot of positive for a little negative and am not going to let a few sour apples ruin the barrel. As for the heater commercials it is clearly stated that the Amish make the COVERS you are given the heater in return for purchasing the AMISH MADE cover so the dispute about amish and electricity should never been brought up to begin with. As far as i know the only thing having to do with the Amish was the cover.
Let’s see if they allow this comment without flagging the “TRUTH!”
This Heat Surge Fireplace does not throw out enough heat to heat up a bathroom. Even at the highest settings, the heat only dissipates, and goes no further that two feet in front of the actual vents.
Bottom line, “DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS PIECE OF JUNK!”
The advertising is a blatant lie, and anybody who says other than what I have said, probably works for the LLC who owns the rights to this “RIP OFF!”
“BUYER BEWARE!!!!!”
I very much agree with what Gary said above. I too purchased this item with the intention of saving money on the heating of my apartment home, and having a fire place look to warm up the living area. However, and even in my small apartment, this unit does not throw off enough heat to make it comfortably warm, nor worth the price. I get better heating circulation with my $50 space heater.
So I tried it in my smaller bedroom, and still, and even with the fan on high too, the heat only stays around the top part of the mantle, and the fan is not powerful enough to blow the heat much further to heat up any size room.
And I too quote, “BUYER BEWARE OF THE AD FOR THIS ITEM!”
As for the Amish reference, I would hope that they hire an attorney to take their name off of this scam, as they are receiving a bad rap for gross misrepresentation.
“DISSATISFIED IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA!!!!!”
For you people say it is not a scam, you can do
the same thing by buying a oil filled electric radiator for a lot less! 1 watt equals 3.41 BTU
you can’t change that! In Detroit area electricity is roughly 3 times more expensive than natural gas.
Let me begin by saying I dont work for the company that makes these heaters, nor am i associated with them in any way whatsoever. My comment here is, because of having read the above, something that i feel just needs to be stated.
I have read all the above comments, with a primary conclusion: Nearly everyone that calls the heating unit a scam, doesnt have one, nor have they purchased one and were unhappy with it. I find that these are the people that you may actually want to be leary of. Here in Maine, we would say that these people are “talking out of their ass”, since they are making comments - degrading comments such as “SCAM” on something they have never owned, tried or probably even put their hands on. How, I have to wonder, are they able to make a snap judgement on something and expect people to buy into what they have to say, when they, themselves, have no idea what the heck they are even talking about. Read the comments above for yourself - in almost every case where the person claims “SCAM”, they make no effort to establish that they have ever trie the unit or even been within 20 feet of one.
As for the Unit itself, while I have not purchased one myself, primarily because i have a 15,400 sq. ft home in extreme Northern Maine, and the Unit would do little to heat this place, I have to agree with one of the comments about the marketing of the item; that being, it is the job of an advertsing agency to get people to want to buy things that they dont need - to make snow look so good that an eskimo would want to buy it, but that has very little to do with the manufacturer of a given product…that is simply advertising as it has always been. As to the heating unit, yes, it would seem that the advertsing was done as a play on words whereas the actual heating unit part of the product is not made by the Amish, and that the advertising suggests (but actually never says) that the “unit” is all made by the Amish. In reality, the TV commercials are selling the wood frame of the unit, which is claimed to be made by the Amish, and very well may be. It doesnt actually say that the heating unit portion is made by the Amish - it states that the heating unit is free if you buy the frame. A simple play on words as is done with nearly all advertising.
As for the guy above that “claims” to be Amish and was using his friends computer to make his comment, I would question the truth of that comment as well. The guy seems to be savey enough to find this website and make a comment, which I personally find pretty remarkable for someone that has never used a computer, if allegedly forbidden to use a computer, and therefore would probably not have made the comment in the first place.
To me, the comments on this particular website are pretty worthless. People claiming “SCAM” that admit they have not, and will buy the unit, Amish that are forbidden to use a computer seem to know how to use one pretty darn well, and other things makes it very difficult to disect what is the truth and what is a lie on this website. Just some things to think about.
F rating with the BBB. Enough said.
It’s the most overpriced space heater on the planet. Congratulations if you bought one. You’re officially a sucker.
You people that fall for this crap are just plain dumb. Nothing but cheap China crap.
There’s basically two types of companies: (1) a company that provides a novel solution to some issue and stands behind their product or service because their reputation is on the line. This type of company generally cares what they are putting out there and wants a satisfied customer in order to get repeat business; and (2) a company that peddles any gimmicky thing it can and is PURELY profit driven. It doesn’t matter if you’re happy with the purchase because there’s more suckers out there.
Does one actually need to try this product to know which group these guys fall into? Their advertising method gives it away, and if you’re still not convinced, the poor customer service reports and BBB ratings do.
Would it surprise anyone if they just had a big factory full of illegal aliens slapping these things together? It shouldn’t. Thanks to all those who spoke up about their ordeals with this company.
Richard Will, and any others who doubt my posts about this being a ‘SCAM!” I “DID” purchase one of these units, and still have it, waiting to be returned for the simple fact, and truth that they do not live up to their claims. Doubt me as you may, bottom line, they are a “SCAM!”
The fan needs to be more powerful, and there needs to be more heat generated, not only from the top, but the bottom so that the heat circulates better to maybe heat up a small 10′x10′ room with the doors closed.
I’m taking my complaint to the media in Northern California to alert all who may be interested in purchasing one of these :SCAM” furnaces, and to attempt to not have to pay the enormous amount of return shipping that they stick you with.
“THIS IS A SCAM!” Somebody is making some quick cash, and will no doubt be closing their doors shortly with everybody’s money.
I spent almost $700 on two of the Heat Surge Electric Fireplaces and I have to agree with Gary and Steve M. when I say that these things are a rip off. Just like Gary said, “they couldn’t heat up a bathroom. But since I didn’t return it in 30 days, I’m stuck with them. I live in California where it’s not that cold and it doesn’t even heat my bedroom. It probably does even less in the cold parts of the country. I don’t care who made it or where it came from, this is a terrible product that does not do what the ad says it will. False Advertisment.