You’ve seen the ads where the hard-working Amish folk are handcrafting miracle space heaters and no doubt scoffed at their absurdity and marveled at their Photoshop skills- but do the darn things work? Consumer Reports investigates in this video.
The ads claim that the “roll-n-glo” heaters slash heating costs. However, heating a room with electricity (and “flames” provided by two 40watt bulbs) costs twice as much as gas. The only way you’ll save money is if you turn the heat way down in the rest of the house. “If you’re looking for a heating miracle, keep looking, many other heaters will heat small spaces for a lot less money,” says Consumer Reports Bob Markovich.
The Amish Heater [Consumer Reports]
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But…but…but the Amish never lie!
@LuluStarPony: Just like the Vulcans and Minbari, eh?
Rule #1 of being a Consumerist:
If you see the ad so much that you can probably recite the whole thing by heart, it’s most likely a scam.
@TheSpatulaOfLove: Don’t attack the ShamWOW
@Jage: you beat me to it!
@TheSpatulaOfLove: Apply directly to forehead!
@TheSpatulaOfLove: You’re gunna love my nuts!
@MrPibbistheGreatestSodaEver:
OMG! That exclamation is an on-going joke at my house between my husband and my son! “You’re gonna luv my nuts!” He he he!!!
Um, sure. If you compair it to Gas. But I saw these things selling over the summer. When Oil was WAY up there. So if you look at it from Oils High or close to its high, you would save money.
These are just electric heaters made to look pretty, thats it.
@SonicMan: which is why at the end they say to get a cheaper more effective space electric heater with a temperature gauge.
@SonicMan:
Just so you know, when they say gas, they’re not talking about gasoline. They’re talking about natural gas. A lot of people confuse the two. The price of natural gas is not directly determined by the price of crude oil, although it is somewhat influenced by it because the two are interchangeable in some industrial heating systems.
I’m not convinced that you can save any money this way. Heating with electricity is WAY more expensive than natural gas. Consider this: a significant portion of electricity in the U.S. is generated with natural gas — maybe 15-20%. Assume your power comes from a combined cycle plant (which are the most thermally efficient); about 60% of the energy is turned into electricity. Your electric heater is about 98% efficient, but let’s just leave it at 60%. A condensing natural gas furnace, on the other hand, is as much as 92% efficient (I’m going from memory here; might be a little off). And we’re not even considering electrical line losses, cost of plant maintenance, etc, which make electric heaters just plain more expensive.
What would be a much wiser thing to do is if you have a forced air heating system (most modern homes or modernized older homes do) is to close off unused rooms and shut the vents to those rooms off (or greatly reduce the air flow) from your heating system. Now you’re using the cheaper fuel and not heating unused rooms so much. In my parents’ house, this results in a couple of lightly-used rooms being about 55 degrees in the winter and keeps the heating bills down. Plus you don’t have to spend several hundred dollars on one of these “Amish” heating things.
@chris_d: I assumed in speaking of oil prices he was considering those who use heating oil rather than natural gas (or electricity).
@chris_d: We do save money by heating partially with electric space heaters – we heat with oil and have an old and single-zone heating system where the main thermostat is in a room on the bottom floor we never use! So we keep the house at 55, which keeps the upstairs uncomfortably warm at 70, and for the rest of the house we either use small portable space heaters when we’re actually in the room, or a sweater. Using this method we’ve decreased heating costs (adjusted for price differentials) by about 20% this winter. I wouldn’t use i as a whole-house solution, though.
The Amish people in those ads looked like people they pulled off the street and put Amish styled facial hair on. I didn’t know the Amish were into designer jeans and sweat shirts. Didn’t most of them used to shun being photographed also or has that kind of died off?
@bohemian: I do not think they are really worried about a Photograph stealnig there soul.
@SonicMan:
Cute, but bohemian is right. Most Amish will avoid being photographed. If you look, you will notice that most photographs of adult Amish are from a distance or from behind.
Most believe it violates the commandment about graven images.
@SunnyLea: And they DO believe it takes part of one’s soul….
@SunnyLea: Though it does vary strongly from church to church, as do many of the practices.
@Bearded Rapper: WOw. You seriously got bitch-slapped.
@bohemian: yeah the Amish on the commercial are the most laid back Amish in the world, if they are true Amish.
@bohemian: A lot depends on the particular bishop, and there are some Amish sects that are pretty liberal about modern technology — but I don’t really know about jeans and sweatshirts, even if they were purchased secondhand.
@CumaeanSibyl: Missouri Amish use electricity and power equipment, but only for work. Some do own cars in order to travel.
It’s just up to their particular group how much they partake in modern conveniences.
@MrEvil:
I had Amish neighbors for a while in MO, and they didn’t use it. It does depend on the church. They would have people to drive them places they couldn’t go in the buggy, but none of them owned a car.
They make awesome neighbors. They’re overall very nice people.
@MrEvil: Are you sure you aren’t referring to Mennonites? I’m originally from Missouri and there was a large Mennonite population in our area. They dress quite similarly to Amish so it would be easy to confuse them, but they are different from one another.
@bohemian: I have seen Amish drive cars, wear sneakers and use iPhones.
@N.RobertMoses: So basically…everything but pay taxes? They’re ALWAYS on Amtrak…leaches.
huh?
@bohemian: Rent The Devil’s Playground.
@bohemian: Amish tend to make allowances within their individual communities on what kind of technology they accept, but overall they shy away from technology the most. Mennonites are similar, but generally they accept technology more than the Amish. If you see someone who looks Amish on TV, or driving a car, or in a grocery store, etc., they’re likely not Amish but actually Mennonite. But that’s not always the case. Yay central Pennsylvania!
Consumerist people, I know you’re owned by Consumer Reports and stuff, but please, keep the Consumer Reports plugs to a minimum please. I know it’s a slow news day, but still.
@Bearded Rapper: Id rather see consumer reports plugs than tons of other advertising… atleast this goes in line with what that consumerist is here for. Ofcourse, you are welcome to buy this blog, pay its staff, and not plug anything.
@Bearded Rapper:
Umm dude, if Consumer Reports shelled out good money for Consumerist, I think they can plug themselves all they want. It’s not like Consumer Reports is out there plugging Ford, or GE or whatever, their mission is pretty much in-line with Consumerist.
@Bearded Rapper: Keep it coming- without Consumer Reports who know what would have happened to our beloved Consumerist?! I think they’re a great combo!
@Bearded Rapper: i like the posts. keeps me from looking up the best small cars of 2009. the “as seen on tv” article was awesome.
Consumerist: please don’t overcompensate and post less CR stuff than you might otherwise.
@Bearded Rapper: Wait. You’re complaining about Consumer Reports on a site called Consumerist? Consumer Reports that are of an interest to the consumers that read Consumerist?
I could keep abusing my italics tag, but I think maybe my point has been made.
@Bearded Rapper: I really like the inclusion of CR content.
@xtc46: My sentiments exactly. I’d rather have The Consumerist be beholden to Consumer Reports, instead of have the Consumerist gone forever.
@Bearded Rapper: You must be silly to think that some how consumer reports is bad.
I mean you would rather what? a for profit company own a consumerist site where we can go for information and bitching about lack of consumer rights?
yes brilliant.
/s
@Bearded Rapper: I like the content. I welcome more CR inclusion.
@Bearded Rapper: Apparently many Consumerist posters prefer rants and baseless opinion over CR research-based conclusions.
@Bearded Rapper: CR Posts are good in my book. Keep them coming.
@Bearded Rapper: Just adding myself to the chorus — I’ve been enjoying the CR material. Especially this article, because you know we’ve all been wondering about these Amish “Miracle” heaters.
@SunnyLea: LOL. this. As long as the stories are fun, and applicable, I don’t mind if they’re included either.
@Bearded Rapper: Going in with everyone else and saying the same thing as andrewwied for the most part.
“I like the content. I welcome more CR inclusion.”
I would add that this includes this particular article and the one about tv products. I love knowing if this stuff that is peddled late at night actually works.
@Tmoney02: Chiming in on that note: I love seeing the stuff from commercials being reviewed. I’m curious about a lot of weird little things, but it isn’t like I’d buy them just to see if they work, y’know?
@Bearded Rapper:
I appreciate these CR reviews of products hawked on TV. I say keep ‘em coming as long as they are informative and interesting.
@Bearded Rapper: So you’re mad that you’re getting CR bits for free when you’d otherwise have to pay for them? You don’t understand Consumer Reports…
@Bearded Rapper: Check out the “Consumer Reports” tag — Consumerist has been posting CR stuff since its inception, and quite frequently too. It makes perfect sense.
@Bearded Rapper:
boo this man…boo him
@zacwax: Some people are more interested in the “Business is ALWAYS right, blame the victim, blame the victim, blame the victim” approach, apparently.
@Bearded Rapper: Why? Consumerist gets more material, CR gets popularity. The # of postings has gone WAY up since being bought out. You don’t have to read everything you know.
@Bearded Rapper: If you don’t like reading them… Don’t click on them.
I [and most of the other readers, judging by the comments] are very happy getting consumer products reviewed… on a consumer website.
@Bearded Rapper: back when I used to work at Mervyns I actually had a subscription to the Consumer Reports magazine; it helped me identify which As Seen on TV articles were pieces of junk.
I for one enjoy these sorts of things, although not necessarily in video form (I’d much rather skim the article and get to the gist of it), especially when they address ASTV products.
Also, the Amish.
@Bearded Rapper:
I welcome the content, as I generally find Consumer Reports a trustworthy source and I’m happy to have increased access to their content. I was opposed to the incorporation of advertising on Consumerist, perhaps too much so, but this is just fine by me. My 2 cents.
I also appreciate that this video post was summarized in the text – 9 times out of 10, I really don’t want to watch a video for this or that reason (work, listening to music, on my Blackberry, whatever), and I really appreciate just simply being able to read text.
/luddite?
@Bearded Rapper: I like it. It keeps the site from being entirely based on stories about people who got 5 nuggets instead of 6 or didn’t receive a sale price and got grief from a sales clerk.
Even if this was cheaper than other methods of heating a home, you’d have to amortize in the cost of the unit over the time of use (until it fails, etc).
If people were just buying these to heat their homes inexpensively, they’d be making a poor choice as a $30-50 space heater from Home Depot (or anywhere) would instantly lower the heating cost. Again, all assuming that the electric heat is less expensive for the user than gas/oil/fission/etc.
So the only reason to buy this thing is for looks, in which case the only question that need be answered by CR is “will this burn my house down?”
Which is to say nothing of how sleazy those commercials seem — always made me think they had those Amish people enslaved somehow.
“‘Tis a fine barn but ’tis no pool, English.”
@ScottRose: “D’oh-eth”
@ScottRose: “Again, all assuming that the electric heat is less expensive for the user than gas/oil/fission/etc.” – I’m pretty certain absolutely no-one in the whole world has direct fission-based heating. I certainly hope not.
(Of course, people do have fission heating via electricity, and in Russia, via municipal steam heating)
haha! My mom called me all excited because she thought she discovered the best way for me to save money heating my house in the North East. She (who lives in FL) was talking about these Amish heaters.
@popomaticjeff: Ugh… Your mom shouldn’t be allowed to own a TV.
You might want to ask her if she’s sending any big checks to African royalty.
@Bearded Rapper: BOO to you. Now we know if that thing works or not. Please go off to a distant corner.
I don’t understand how you can heat space. If space is mostly a vacuum, then there’s no way to heat space because there’s nothing there. If you blow hot air into space, then you’re not really heating space. You’re pumping hot air into space. At which point, the hot air isn’t going to stay hot for very long. It’s in space.
Sounds like the scammy tip of a very scammy iceberg.
@rfjson: “If we put a thermometer in darkest space, with absolutely nothing around, it would first have to cool off. This might take a very very long time. Once it cooled off, it would read 2.7 Kelvin. This is because of the ’3 degree microwave background radiation.’ No matter where you go, you cannot escape it — it is always there.”
[imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov]
Also see: [en.wikipedia.org]
@asplodzor: If you could reach absolute zero (which you couldn’t), wouldn’t that be like stopping time?
You would have to be a retarded box turtle to fall for the amateurishly photoshopped ads that are flogging these things.
But they ARE a metaphor for a lot of what passes for business acumen these days.The recipe goes like this :
Take trusted imagery from some well known symbol or group (like the Amish or a venerable brand name),source the internals from China,where people work for slave wages because…they are slaves,then write a technically truthful ,but deceptive , advertisement and sell it like all hell until an even cheaper knockoff kills the market and then blithely go out of business a lot richer than you went in.
Have I missed a step ? All we need now is to have Billy Mays start hawking these things.
@Snarkysnake: buuut ii liiiikkee aaammmiisssh spaaace heeaaterssss. thheeyy maaake myy sheeeelll toooaassstyyyy.
@Snarkysnake: I wouldn’t say that the Chinese work for “slave wages” as the very notion of that statement is an oxymoron.
The dollar to the Chinese equivalent exchange is high we scoff at them living on say 20 dollars a year (American) as impossible, but to them its a good earning.
Some would argue that America has just as much slave labor between prison workers and illegal immigrants.
@Skankingmike:
Prison workers in America have been convicted in an open court of law.They enjoy the presumption of innocence until convicted by a jury that their attorney helps pick. The Chinese enjoy no such protection. Work in prison is a privelege,it occupies time in a constructive manner as opposed to being sodomized 18 hours a day. I know lots of prisoners (I’m a bail bondsman). They say that it keeps you from going insane with inactivity.
Immigrants wages are not being held down by men with guns and military tactics.They could go legal, get a SSN and be covered by minimum wage laws and worker protection acts. Most choose not to. Their loss.
@Snarkysnake: I suspect many of them would go legal if they could afford to and had access to the system. I know someone who immigrated legally, and it was a multi-year process that required hiring a lawyer at considerable expense. U.S. immigration laws are some of the most complicated in the world, and the INS is hopelessly understaffed and underfunded. At one point they lost his paperwork and told him the only way he could continue the process was to file a FOIA request for his own records.
My theory is politicians don’t see any political benefit in making an agency run correctly that only deals with people who cannot vote.
@Snarkysnake: 1 out of every 31 Americans is incarcerated or on probation.
[www.reuters.com]
/ Just sayin’
@jstonemo: Do you mean we need more prisoners? If so, see my comment here: [consumerist.com] . If you mean that we need more prisoners to be working on civil projects, I agree.
@asplodzor: Why not employ unemployed people in those civil projects instead, so the money goes back to the community instead of into the pockets of the prisons?
@Skankingmike: How many chain gangs do you see nowadays? We need more prison workers. They could do those jobs that most Americans don’t want to do.
@jstonemo:
I’ve heard that there aren’t enough jobs for Americans to do, whether they want to or not. Just a rumor tho.
@ScottRose: Considering the nation’s official unemployment count (which counts between ½ and ¾ of all actually unemployed people) is 7.6% and rising, I would say that that’s no longer a rumor.
@Snarkysnake: The sad, and frustrating, thing is that there are still enough suckers out there that someone’s making tons of money on this crap. Whoever came up with this scam will rake in a ton of money in a few months, even if by next season everyone will figure out that at best, his product is a vastly overpriced space heater, and it’ll stop selling like hotcakes. But meantime, whoever put this deal together got himself a nice fat bank account to tide him over till he figures out his next barely-legal scam.
The saddest thing of all, of course, is that it’s not me. Damn those pesky ethics, always getting in the way of my making a fortune with sketchy schemes.
@Snarkysnake: Don’t forget the fact that they like to take advantage of stereotypes. If something is made by Amish, it MUST be high quality!
At least this one isn’t limited to America, as every other book in China about moving up in the business world is supposedly written by a Jew.
I saw the tv ads and pretty much figured that the Amish were building the WOOD part to surround some Chinese made electric heater…
@econobiker: Yep. I think they’ve even amended the ads somewhat in an attempt to make this more clear. The heater itself is Chinese-made. The wood mantels are (supposedly) made by the Amish. But since Americans associate Amish-made products with quality, and Chinese products with shoddiness, they’ve shrewdly marketed the entire unit as being “Amish-made.”
@SybilDisobedience:
The NY Times wrote a long article on them last month.
[www.nytimes.com]
@SybilDisobedience:
Yeah, agreed. Also, I can’t see the Amish putting together an electric heater to begin with, so even if they didn’t make it clear… well, it’s kinda clear.
@Bearded Rapper: What is your major malfunction? This content is great, it serves to inform the CONSUMERS who read the CONSUMERist.
Next needs to be the shamwow!
can you get CR to do a report on the shamwow?
Have you ever seen an Amish person using an electric space heater? The entire concept is unbelievable from the start!
If it involved a miracle ventless technology for burning manure, then I’d at least think it might be plausible and do further research.
What do you bet the mantle isn’t made by true amish people anyway?
@mbz32190: The mantle looks unsubstantial for the price.
But this vs EdenPure, for the worst priced electric space heater award with gee-whiz technology that’s been shilled excessively…
@jedo1507r: Notice they say wood finish in the ads…i.e. particle board would a layer of wood thinner than a Trojan.
@ComcastRedwoodFlyer: Yup, a polishing rag would rip it. It rivals the particle board desk that people throw out on the curb, after a while.
These ads pander to the typical person who has an early ’90s 25-inch console TV with a set of Obama plates on top of the set, in their living room.
@mbz32190:
I don’t even think it’s made by false Amish people.
There would really be no added value in having the factory workers dress in fake beards and hats.
@Bearded Rapper: You’re new here, huh?
Why hasn’t someone stated the obvious:
These people are selling a 1500 watt electric heater for $350 or more. You can buy a plain ceramic heater with fan and adjustable thermostat for $30 at Home Depot.
Also the ad boasts that the heater puts out about 5,000 BTUs. Awesome. That’s less heat energy than you get coming through a window on a sunny day.
@bishophicks: Of course, for those that don’t know, 1500 watts/51xx BTUs is the maximum you can get from ANY 120 volt plug in heater, no matter if it’s an “Amish” heater or that $10 POS from Wal-Mart.
@catnapped: And there’s no trick to making an efficient electric heater. An ordinary light bulb converts about 90% of the power it consumes as heat. Electric heaters are very close to 100% efficient.
This would be useless for me in any case, even if it did save money. No way am I going to spend $350 on a space heater unless it works without power in an ice storm!
Don’t be surprised if someone who works over there (or is just paid to astroturf) comes over and “educates” us about the vast benefits of this wonderful device.
Thanks for this Consumerist, and Consumer Reports.
I have been wondering about these heaters.
@AlmiraFazoo: Wondering like “how is it that a society that has more or less shun modern technology is so good at making an electric heater?”
One of the vendors that was trying to get our contract for baggage handling had one of these in their lobby…. I’d lie if I said that it didn’t influence our decision to reject their offer!
It’s an idiot beacon at its finest..
The two most energy efficient ways to electrically heat a room in my opinion are:
1) Oil Filled Radiator heaters. They’re cheap, and once they heat up, they stay hot for a while.
2) Mica Thermic heaters. They cost a little more initially, but they heat up much faster than an oil filled heater. You end up staying consistently warmer with a mica thermic for about the same energy usage as an oil filled.
@zacwax:
@Bearded Rapper: Booooooooo
The best way to heat up a room is to host a party. Well the cheapest way is to host a Monopoly board game party. That way, the guests are obliged to hang around for ever while keeping your place nice and warm. Drinks and food costs not included in expense report.
The wood part is particle board. You can see it in the unfinished screw holes on the shot where they show stacked up pieces of finished wood waiting to be assembled.
I really like Consumer Reports. they have always proven themselves to be a reliable, impartial, trustworthy source of information. I like them even better now that they’ve joined with Consumerist, and welcome their content.
By the way wasn’t Vanilla Ice a ‘Bearded Rapper’? Hmmm.
Who needs one of these when you have a snuggie?
I got to enjoy the 1/2 hour version and noted so many crafty statements and inconsistencies, it was fantastic.
1) Your heating costs will go down (no mention of electricty costs going up)
2) Your energy costs will do down (disclaimer on bottom: based on climate and usage) <—- MY FAVORITE!!!
3) Kid warming her hands in front of the flames in the middle (the flames are a picture, the heat comes from the grill near the top)
4) “Our competitors use cheap pressboard, but we use a genuine wood mantle” (and points to the TOPMOST piece of wood).
I love these commercials.