Cool surge scam
The morning paper had another of those full-page ads. You know, the ones that look like newspaper articles but have “advertisement” in tiny print somewhere on the page. According to the Cool Surge website:
The Cool Surge eco-friendly air cooler is a work of engineering genius from the China coast so advanced that no windows, vents or freon are required. It is as easy to use as a baby’s vaporizer and even includes the four hour extra cooling power of the glacier ice blocks. It uses the same electricity as a 60 watt light bulb, yet it blasts out ice cooled air. The hi-efficiency motor cools the air around the unit up to ten degrees so you’ll instantly feel cool and refreshed. The 3 cooling levels and auto shut off function put all the comfort controls right at your finger tips. It’s so impressive that it even comes with a full year Money Back Guarantee.
A 60-watt ventless air conditioner? Yeah, right. It’s a fan that blows air over “glacier ice blocks” which you have to freeze in your freezer. The freezer uses all the electricity, not the fan. And since the whole system (fan + refrigerator) is ventless, it makes your house WARMER, not cooler. That is, the fan blows cool air in your face, while your refrigerator makes the kitchen warmer. On average, the house gets warmer.
See also: Cool Surge update: May 8, 2009
June 26th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Yes, just use a small tabletop fan behind a bowl of ice cubes and you will achieve the same effect. Read the add carefully, “blasts out ice cooled air”, not “ice cold” air. Also don’t fall for cars running on water. Please reference the laws of thermodynamics and have an interesting day.
July 1st, 2008 at 5:10 am
Thank you for having this information available. We were thinking of trying to find the “COOL SURGE” to order for a relative in New York that does not have air-conditioning. She is elderly and this would have been great it it had been true. She cannot use the other kind that has to have a vent due to landlord’s restrictions.
Again, thank you,
Jean Bowick
July 1st, 2008 at 6:21 am
dan seriously u got to be the dumbest blogger ive ever heard of
u really are saying that cause of the freezer, it will make your house warmer do u unplug it
throughout the day ? u freeze ice correct?for everything u put in it, does it increase your volts?
just to let u know they have group homes for people that ride the short bus
how much hotter u made your kitchen and the electricity rate that went up make sense? no
u need to call dell and tell them u lost your receipt to your pc and need a refund cause u apparently dont know how to use one
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
You forgot to mention that not only is this nothing more than a glorified fan - that they want almost $300 for the cheap piece of plastic crap!! If you want one of these - go to WalMart - get a box window fan and dump a bag of ice in a bowl in front of it. SAME THING!!
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Thermal dynamics is like forces, for every force there is an equal and oposite reaction force:
When you put water in your freezer the heat is extracted from the water and it then freezes. The heat is deposited in the kitchen and then is extracted by your a/c etc.
When I was a boy I saw an ad on the back of a Superman comic that read ” for sale exray glasses, put them on and just imagine you can see through things”
Buy the cool surge and imagine you getting cooler !
July 5th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Did you post that comment from fred yourself? There can’t be anyone out there that seriously impaired, and I know what a sense of humor you have…
…the alternative is scary.
July 5th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
No. That was not my attempt at humor.
Fred posted from North Canton, Ohio, according to a reverse IP lookup. I don’t know what I said to set him off. He was probably just sitting there with his laptop, enjoying the frosty comfort of his Cool Surge, when suddenly he felt the urge to tell me, a total stranger, what an idiot I was. Most people would just click away. Maybe he ran out of glacier ice blocks.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Hey Mitch -
When I was a boy, a friend and I decided to buy 100 towels for .99 cents out of the back of a comic book. We sent off our .99 and a two months later, we received 100 towels, just like they promised.
However, the towels were old worn out dish rags, cut 1″x1″, and had a small stamped word on each of them that simply read, “towel”.
July 8th, 2008 at 10:08 am
“Fred posted from North Canton, Ohio, according to a reverse IP lookup”
The Cool Surge is sold by Universal Techtronics based in Canton, Ohio. Hmm, I wonder what position Fred has with Universal Techtronics.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5620,700241362,00.html
July 8th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
In the comment above from Jean Bowick she mentions an elderly relative who is disallowed by her landlord from having a window a/c unit.
She may want to check into this a little further. Many elderly people die from the heat and fans do not always provide enough relief.
Additionally many elderly people are on medications that distort their perception of just how hot it really is.
The landlord may not legally disallow an air conditioner.
If I were the landlord, I would hate to have the death of a tenant on my hands.
Good luck Jean, hope you are reading this.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I saw the ad for the cool surge. I’m aware of the concept of ice in a bowl in front of a fan. It works great, but ice cubes melt too fast. Plus, that’s not always feazable(?). Kids & pets can knock it over. And space in a room may not allow it. If you know of any other fan out there that has an area to attach or hold decsent-sized ice blocks, without blocking the air flow, please let me know.
As to the freezer pushing out more hot air & making the kitchen hotter… remember, the idea is to set your central air at a little higher temp, so that you’re not unnecesarily keeping unused rooms at the same cool temperature as the one area being used by your fan with ice (whether it be a Cool Surge or some other set up). I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else doesn’t come up with something similar. A cheper price would be nice though.
Hope this helps.
July 20th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
If you read the ad closely it says that the unit creates air only “up to 10 degrees cooler, around the unit”.
So if its 100 degrees in the room you get to enjoy a nice and cool 90 degree breeze, but you must be near the unit.
This is a just a cleverly worded scam.
If you can’t by something at a local store, beware!!!!!!
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
This is a total rip off. The more you use it the hotter your house will get. You will be using energy [far more than just the 60watts] to cool the ice, but the freezer uses much more energy and dumps the heat into your house, than you will remove by the ice melting. Everything in the ad is misleading. Go ahead and buy one, you might come end up coming out better when the class action suit if filed against this fraudulent ad.
July 27th, 2008 at 11:21 am
It is a scam.
http://www.coolsurge.com/index.cfm
dose not show how it work.
It keeps saying “a work of engineering genius..”, “advanced….”, “only 60w…”, but not how it actually works.
These guys are con-artist and should be punished.
July 28th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
There is a “As Shown on TV” store at our mall, and I try to go every time I see something on TV that I am urged to buy - NOW!
About Cooling - We get above 110 degrees Fareinheit here and the 1st thing is insulation R-29 or better. Shade trees. In the late afternoon there comes a moment when the cool house turns hot…like a switch is thrown and that is the time to hose off the outside of the walls on the west and south sides and the roof.
I have a mobile cooler that has a neat collapsible exhaust hose so it vents to the hot outside. The dryer vents, why not have the fridge vent?
July 28th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Good idea. A lot of kitchens have vents about the stove that go outside. It seems that it would be easy enough to vent the fridge to the same duct.
I’ve thought about venting my computers to the outside. With a valve so I can use them for heat in the winter.
July 29th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Read the Canton, OH Better Biz Bureau report on TechTronics … not very good
http://search.canton.bbb.org/nis2/newsearch2.asp?ID=1&strBCode=02820000&ComID=0282000020005318
July 29th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Thanks, RT! I remember seeing the Amish Fireplace ad, but didn’t realize it was the same company.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:35 am
I can see one use for this type of unit.
…mike
August 13th, 2008 at 8:31 am
When I was growing up, before A/C in homes, my mom would soak a towel and drape it partially over a stationary fan and connect it with wooden clothes pins (old, I am, yes) that created a marvelous cool breeze in a room.
Currently it is in the low 90’s here and I have two rabbits who could die easily in the heat. I have a misting hose above their yard that brings down the temperature by 10 degrees according to the paperwork. The bunnies don’t do the heat stroke pant while they sit under the cooling mist. When it gets to the upper 90’s and over 100, I box up the bunnies and put them inside in air conditioning, always being a Lert to power outages.
August 21st, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Well, my dad bought one of these units w/o me knowing, but after hearing all these posts, I feel like returning it. Know one has yet post any info about how it performed in action or if they felt the air hotter in the kitchen or notice of any electricity bill going down, which probably none of those would ever happen. Maybe the only good use for this is that it is portable. But I wouldn’t bet on this making your eletricity bill lower or saving any money. If it did, it would probably take years to pay itself off. But sence it sounds like the refrigerator would produce more heat and use more energy, you be the judge. Portability seems like the only positive thing about it. I would agree though the price is way to high.
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:59 pm
My boyfriend got sucked into the ad, and I had a feeling it was a scam. Sure enough…IT’S A SCAM! First off, it took a month and half to actually receive it. Second….its a Swamp cooler!…that’s all it is. Another thing…the cooler comes with a remote..which we didn’t get in our package. We call for it, and they said it’s an extra charge for the remote, the cooler was already $300.00! This thing doesn’t work!!! It seriously makes the house hotter than what it was in the first place. I am dying with it on. It makes the house very humid and hot. I had to finally tell my boyfriend it’s going off and windows are opening. 10 min. later, I was a lot cooler than with the cooler on. Your first sign of a scam should be the fact that it has a non-refundable policy. We cant even take the stupid thing back.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I just got my Cool Surge. They sent an upgraded version that also has a heater installed for the winter time. Honestly it is a pain to freeze the ice packs in order to get the cool breeze. Also.. who cares how hot the Kitchen is? Im a 20 year old college student.. not spending much time in the kitchen. The thing sits in my room and i woke up not sweating for once. The company is really fishy but i suppose I got lucky. I like it and if one room in the house doesnt get good air flow, like my room, then this product deffinitely takes the edge off.
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
it’s people like Fred that make me lose my faith in humanity little by little each day…..
being the loving and caring person my mom is, she actually bought TWO of these, thinking it would help with the summer heat.
how dare this POS company take advantage of naive minds. they should explain on their website how exactly the cool surge works and even throw in a brief article about the laws of thermodynamics so potential consumers get the whole view before making a decision.
i’m going to be even more pissed since i’m reading posts and reports that it’s hard to get a refund for these pieces of….
I wish the executives of this company infinite years of misfortune yet I feel sorry for the exploited sweat shop workers in China having to work so hard to make such a crappy product for so little a wage.
As for the other Kevin that posted (8/22) I hope you take a thermodynamics course or refresh on it if you have taken it already. There is no such thing as free lunch!
August 30th, 2008 at 9:19 am
We did order this and received it. The output was more like a fan than like any type of cooling device.
Worst, we had to pay almost half the price of the thing itself to return it(from calif to ohio)…they won’t pay for return shipping…
also…they include a $50.00 gas card…and if you return the item, they say they will charge the $50.00 to your credit card account…
Regardless of how it works, it doesn’t work and worse they have really poor business practices
August 31st, 2008 at 9:56 am
Thanks all. I almost fell for this scam but now before buying anything I always look for responses from people on the web. It really helps everyone when people speak out about being taken advantage of.
September 7th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
9-9-08; we, too, thought we were buying ‘more’ than a swamp cooler. But it’s just a glorified, expensive humidifier. Your ad is very misleading - and should be classified as false advertising. Ours was to ‘cool’ a 10 x 15 SF office space. Big joke. I hate to think what it’s going to cost to return it. AND - now you’re going to ADD the $50 gas gift card - or should I say, give us a full refund minus the $50. Poor customer relations to say the least - and then to tell us to put a BAG OF ICE into the container. Our local newspaper will hear about this!
September 18th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Hi, I found your blog on this new directory of WordPress Blogs at blackhatbootcamp.com/listofwordpressblogs. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, i duno. Anyways, I just clicked it and here I am. Your blog looks good. Have a nice day. James.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I read with great interest the brilliant idea posted by MoniB above to offset the increased heat produced by the freezer by relying upon the central air conditioner. The logic, therefore, is to purchase this unit not to actually make things cooler, but in essence to localize the cooling effect of the existing air conditioner unit (turn up the thermostat, make most of home hotter, use ice-cooling unit to make one room 10 degrees cooler). Ignoring for the moment the fact that raising the thermostat for the house and adding cooling in a single room are directly counter to one another…why not simply close the vents to the rooms you are not in, raising their temperature while lowering the temperature in the room you are in, and skip the ice, fan, and thermodynamic calculations in the first place?
This is the same company that makes the “Amish” HEAT SURGE “miracle” space heaters, whose ads are so over-the-top absurd I thought they were from “The Onion” parody magazine. Skipping the whole “Amish” controversy for a moment, a heater that draws 1500 watts will put out the amazing heat energy per second of…1500 watts. That’s the Law of Conservation of Energy, and there’s only one exception to it: Einstein’s Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy, part of the Theory of Special Relativity, aka e-mc^2. But the last time I checked, the Amish weren’t licensed by the NRC to build little living-room nuclear reactors.
April 4th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Considero que es una buena forma de ahorrar dinero sobre todo en estos tiempos, ademas de mejorar la calidad del aire fresco que recibimos. ayudamos en el ahorro de energia en las horas picos de consumo,no necesitamos tener toda la casa recibiendo a/c, cuando estamos por ejemplo en una habitacion. Creo que es algo practico y original.
April 4th, 2009 at 10:36 am
You are absolutely right that it’s cheaper to cool just the room you’re in, as opposed to cooling the whole house.
My objection to the ad is that it suggests that you can cool a room for the cost of running a fan, which is not true.
May 3rd, 2009 at 3:21 am
Daytona Beach News-Journal had the full page ad today. Thought I would check here first…I’m glad that I did. You’d be better off to put a bag of ice in your lap than buying this piece of shit.
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:49 am
I agree — the Los Angeles Daily Breeze had the full page ad today. Thought I would check here first…I’m glad that I did. You’d be better off to put a bag of ice in your lap than buying this piece of shit.
May 3rd, 2009 at 8:30 am
Full page ad also in AZ Republic today — thought I’d check out the dissent before sending any $, and I am glad I did. This company is spending lots of ad money in major markets today — Daytona, Los Angeles, Phoenix, to name three. I’m sad it doesn’t deliver as promised — I already have a swamp cooler and it is great until June. Then, my AC takes over. Too bad that Cool Surge is too good to be true.
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
I’m glad I looked up this scam on the web. The add says get your free unit then you have to buy one for 299 and get the second one free and pay an extra 95 for shipping. Lots of people are going to get scammed thingking they will pay less for electricity. I’m going to find out how I can report this to the attorney general. F them.
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 am
Thanks to this site you are exposing this scam especially as so many people are now hurting financially. The major gripe I have is with the newspapers that allow these scams to exist by not insisting that their advertiser be accountable for honesty and good business practices and be liable for dishonest practices. Is this the price of free speech?
May 4th, 2009 at 5:10 am
Yes, this company is in North Canton OH and the owner has been in hot water for other bad business practices. Mr Suarez buys merchandise from China and then shamelessly advertises it to be so great, yet never explainig fully what the material is or the workings completely. I had an Eden Pure (heat surge) from this company and was not satisfied with it. They did not respond to any emails or the many letters I wrote to them. BUYER BEWARE!! btw the so-called Amish workers in their Eden Pure ads are not even Amish!!
May 4th, 2009 at 5:48 am
Thanks to technology and the people who have exposed this scam, I will not be giving my hard earned money to these bastards.
I am CA, they just ran a full page ad on the sunday newspaper. And their offer is two units for $299 plus $50 shipping per unit.
I called their customer service line and the girl on the other end of the phone read the scrip that is ont he newspaper. So when I asked her if this was a swamp cooler, she freaked and hung up .
That prompted me to do a littlle more research and I am glad I did.
Thank you!
\
May 4th, 2009 at 5:56 am
I sent a link to this board to the VP of Advertising at the Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) just now. So many people are gullible and don’t have the resources to check out this type of scam before they buy.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Please, please, please, do not be fooled by this scam. This company is here to rip you off period. BUYER BEWARE do your research!
May 5th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Full page ad in the Bradenton Herald, Sarasota Florida. My inlaws got to the phone before I got to them to let them know that this is a scam. Great use of wordsmithing. “…ice cooled air…” . God does not take to kindly to lying and stealing. They will loose in the end.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
The full page ad was in the Citrus County Chronicle in Inverness, FL. today. Certainly hope the locals have the ability to check this site out first! Thanks everyone for you imput, it saved me a bunch of money!
May 7th, 2009 at 10:30 am
When I saw the ad claiming a penny an hour to pperate, I knew there had to be more to the story. And the ad layout and composition was -so- much like the Amish fireplace I was sure it would be the same outfit. And it was. The ad ran in the L.A. Times, and they should be ashamed; while they need the ad money, there’s supposed to be an element of honesty is what they publish. This is a swamp cooler; it makes the air more damp while evaporation cools it a little.
But anyone expecting this to act like a real air conditioner (where the heat is moved outside) will be very disappointed.
Even if they are selling two of them for $ 400 total (+ $ 95 shipping for the free one) it’s a total ripoff. You could probably buy a REAL A/C and run it for the whole summer for less money.
May 11th, 2009 at 7:12 am
When my parents called to tell me about the ad, and asked that I call the local zone number for them, I knew it sounded like a scam… Thanks for your blog.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Thanks everyone, especially Dan for saving me money!
Fred you are a disgrace!
May 11th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I very much would like for these people to suffer for taking advantage of the uneducated. They make it sound so wonderful that you almost start to believe that their heater is some sort of miracle. Some type of miraculous contraption. What a load of crap. A lady that works for me daughter in law bought the heater. She was so impressed about how toasty warm her “magic” heater was. How toasty it was to set by. I tried to tell her that she could by the same thing at Walmart for $20. But there was no convincing her. Maybe their plant could burn down, but they would just collect a big insurace check and be even bigger when they rebuild. We can only try to educate people and hope that there will be retribution to be paid by all dishonest people.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:05 am
The Daily Comercial paper in Leesburg today ran the full page add on these cool surge coolers. I was a little suspisious so went to their web site and got the message that it is shut down for repairs or something to that effect. Nothing was said in the add as to the removal of humidity which a regular AC does because this unit does not remove the humidity. It increases it.
May 13th, 2009 at 4:47 am
Yep they going after the smaller towns this year. Just got the Ad in todays paper, googled it and here I am, thanks it looked interesting since I live in the desert. By the way a real evaporative(swamp) cooler lets to humidified air out.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:51 am
[...] http://www.regruntled.com/2008/06/26/cool-surge-scam/ [...]
May 15th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
My sister lives in FL. and has 2 of these units in her FL. room which is not a/c. They keep the room comfortable - granted not as cool as the house with a/c, but you can sit out there on a 90+ day and still be cool. I thought they worked good.
May 17th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Thanks for all the comments. They really helped me to decide that this product was not for me. I’m ashamed that this product is even advertised in my local newspaper.
May 17th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Thanks Everybody. I Thought this sounded too good to be true.
May 18th, 2009 at 5:12 am
Thank you everybody
I was about to buy this product, now I know its a scam.
Time to go back to the old A/C
May 18th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
If you believe the coolsurge works I have a bridge for sale too!
lol
May 19th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I live in Philadelphia, and they have the ad in the paper today. . Philadelphia is a large city!!!! Anywho, I would say, if you can deal with taking the packs in and out of the freezer to put into the unit (your freezer is running anyway!!!), and desire to lower your total cooling bill, then this might be an option. I know someone who purchsed the heatsurge (amish fireplace) and it has lowered his heating bill (gas) and did not increase his electric bill. This may be an option for people without air conditioner needing to cool a smallish space. Don’t down a product before testing it out for yourself. You can lead someone away from a product that may actually work for him/her. If a bowl of ice in front of a fan works, then this is a more advance/cleaner version of that. It may not pay for itself in one summer, but it may in a few. .. . It looks interesting, not that i am going to buy it for myself. I may……. but not too sure right now. I would like to hear from more people that have ACTUALLY purchased the product!!!
May 19th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Your freezer is not “running anyway”. Your freezer is controlled by a thermostat and turns on and off during the day. The more glacier ice blocks you put in and take out, the more often your freezer runs and the more electricity you use.
I’m all for experimentation, but the burden of proof is not on the consumer to buy products and test them to find out if they live up to the advertising. In this case, a little high school physics and some common sense is all you need to see that the advertising is misleading. You call tell just from the words in the ad; you don’t need to waste your time and money on the actual product.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Ahhhh…the wonders of that amazing Chinese technology,let’s hope the blocks don’t have lead paint!
May 21st, 2009 at 10:27 am
Take some of those cold blue ice packs and lay them on the table. Wow, you feel cool — unless you are more than a few inches from the packs. Tell me again in 15 minutes how cool you are. I can assure you, this won’t replace your A/C — not even if you are huddled in a closet. If you say, “Hey, the fan make a larger area cooler,” I’ll respond, “Yea. And the packs will cool off much faster.” Look at this thing as an IQ test. You buy it, you fail. If you don’t buy it, you pass.
May 25th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Thanks for all the warning posts! Especially the ones from the thermodynamic nerds!..Isnt the internet great! I was so desperate to save some money this summer that i took the ad and ran,but my uncle said, wait!…check some reviews first!
Well here i am, and im not going to bother with this crap box..
kudos from NyC, 666!May 28th, 2009 at 8:50 am
thanks a mil to all of you - I had heard bad things about the Amish fireplaces and did not realize these are the same people touting cool surge….thanks again for the warnings…
May 28th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I teach college English. We very much enjoy the Universal Media Syndicate ads for looking at the writing style and the methods that are used to try to fool consumers. Indeed, yes, these are the people who write the ads for the “Amish” Heat Surge fireplaces and the gilded $2 bills and goodness knows what else. I can’t repeat what one of my students (who works for UPS loading trucks) had to say about the “idiots” who ordered the fireplaces. Someone said that these businesses are run by people who take advantage of the uneducated. That is nothing new under the sun and it’s one of the reasons I give my students for paying attention to reading and critical thinking skills. Being able to look thing up on the Web and look into products before we buy is a wonderful thing.
May 28th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
By the way, fireplace ads offer “mantles.” One of my students actually called the company and asked whether these “mantles” were capes or descendants of the baseball great (since the spelling of the fireplace accessory is mantel.)
May 31st, 2009 at 1:49 am
This “Cool Surge” was advertised in a two-page
spread in the May 31 “Parade” Sunday
newspaper supplement.
I said to my husband, “I’ll bet this is another
scam from those people who sell that
cheap ‘Amish’ heater.” And it is.
Thank goodness for sites like this to inform
people about scams!
And shame on a national publication for
running the Cool Surge ad. They don’t care
about their readers, obviously. Another case
of “anything for a buck.”
May 31st, 2009 at 3:16 am
Even after reading this blog I am still wondering if this product might work for us? We have a retail business with a seperately enclosed front lobby. This lobby uses the same AC unit as the back and the lobby is too warm. We have to turn the overall AC unit down way too much in order to attempt to make the lobby cool enough for our front desk staff. I was thinking this would work because we can place it near the front desk and it might cool the employees down. We have a refridgerator in back and I am not concerned at all about the overall energy savings, increased kitchen heat or money/power savings at all. I am simply looking for a way to cool down the front lobby employees who do have a legitimate complaint (I have sat up there plenty of times). Any thoughts from anyone on this situation? (Note: our business is in Orlando Florida and it does get very hot and humid of course AND the lobby does get a bunch of foot traffic with the doors being opened and closed)
May 31st, 2009 at 7:01 am
I am so thankful for the responses for those who did buy one. At the same time I am sorry for those who were scammed with a glorified fan/humidifier. I noticed the little snippets like 1o degrees cooler in the area of the fan,which was a red flag for me.I was discussing with the wife about purchasing one. There was a buy one get one free offer ,of course pay for the S/H. We decided to see if there were any reviews and here I am. You all just saved me 400+ dollars.Like the saying goes “if it sounds to good to be true.it usually is”……………………….
May 31st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
EddieG, have you tried adjusting your vents, partially closing vents in the cooler areas of your business and opening wide the vents in the Lobby? How about adding more vents to the lobby (way cheaper in the long run than higher monthly energy bills)? Though I hate to see you waste money on electricity, from what you say this thing might do what you want. But before giving $300 to a company that is at best misleading, I’d try buying some quart sized zip-lock bags and filling them with ice. Put those in front of a fan in your lobby and, when the ice melts, replace with another bag of ice. Try that for a couple of days. If your lobby staff and guests are happy (and you think the “glacier blocks” would be more convenient than the zip lock bags), then go for it.
May 31st, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Spend less on a REAL portable air conditioner. Costco and others have portable AC units that vent through a window for $300 to $450.
June 1st, 2009 at 8:57 am
Glad I found this thread; my mom saw this in the Sunday rag & asked me about it - glacier blocks immediatley translated into fan over ice; thanks for saving her $300, kids!
jellotube said: …However, the towels were old worn out dish rags, cut 1″x1″, and had a small stamped word on each of them that simply read, “towel”.
And thus the origin of the phrase, Vanna, I’d like to buy a towel.
June 1st, 2009 at 8:19 pm
my grandmother had one of these types of units back in the days, it worked fine. i dunno if it cost 300 though, i’ll have to ask.
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:19 am
just read your blog and cancelled our order, damn that was close!! Thanks
June 4th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Yes these are being offered by the same people who market the “Heat Surge” but the Heat Surge really work. And those are Amish in those ads. “New Order” Amish who don’t mind having their picture taken. This product might be bogus but the fireplaces are not.
June 5th, 2009 at 5:50 am
Hey,
Chinc’s have to eat to, so buy one, buy four one for each room.
June 5th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I recieved an email add about the Cool Surge…wanted to find out more about it ’cause I just didn’t think the add rang true, so thanks for all the info. Too bad it’s not as advertised and an apparent waste of good money.
I purchased one of the Fireplace Heaters last fall as a “scratch and dent” sale, got the mantle for free, and didn’t get charged shipping. Couldn’t find anything scratched or dented and it worked extremely well for me. I live in high desert country in a relatively small house that has an old gas furnace. Hate the furnace so thought I’d try the fireplace. I didn’t pay any more for electricity than I would have for the gas, so feel I did OK. I did use a small fan to help circulate the heat a little more.
Sometimes what works for one, doesn’t mean it will work for everyone else. Pays to research, though.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:57 am
I was just about to purchase one of these, but decided to check to see if there were any positive or negative product reviews. Glad I checked!!
I bought the Heat Surge fireplace last winter and I absolutely LOVE it! It worked great & didn’t cost me any additional money on my heat bill. In fact, I ran my furnace less.
So when I saw the ad about the Cool Surge, I figured it would be a good product - but it sounds like it’s just an expensive glorified fan. Thanks for the info.
June 9th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Yes, and then they sell your mailing info and phone number to marketing companies! I’m in marketing, I’ve seen the list for sale. It actually prompted to come to this website. There was no description and I wanted to know what Cool surge was. Thought it was a company and not a product.
So now, you’ll get more offers for more crap in your mailbox.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
People, Instead of buying this piece of crap, just get an ice cooler or beer cooler which I’m sure every home has one whether it’s styrofoam or hard plastic or resin and fill it with ice and water. Place a thin window fan over it and it will blow the cool air. Some home appliance stores and hardware store have these units for sale for just around 29.99 and the cooler is framed for the fan. Note the precaution of water does not mix with electricity, so you cannot fill it too high. Last year I saw them at National Wholesale Liquidators I think. I’m not saying that this is the best thing to do, but do this instead of buying a piece of garbage like cool surge.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Hey there everybody. I just saw the add about the cool surge and thought wow that would be great if it works ! So like many of you I decided to check out these blogs first and boy am I glad I did! If these guys were honest they would slap a $30.00 price tag on these things and then they might be worth it! Thanks to all of you for saving me some big bucks!
June 20th, 2009 at 10:51 am
the newspaper ad says the second one is free, only pay for the shipping. Go to the website, click on “don’t have a claim code” and click “order”, the shipping is $49 plus a $8.94 “buy safe” fee scam. Then go back to http://www.coolsurge.com and type in the claim number. The shipping for two is not double but jumps to $147 plus a bogus $17.88 “buy safe” fee.
I would recommend buying a fan and attach a bent hanger on top while keeping the hook intact. Buy a few blue freezer ice packs, free them and place a ice pack inside a plastic market bag and hook it to your hanger and run your fan. After a while when the ice pack gets warm, exchange it with another you already have frozen ready in the freezer and get the same “cooling” effect.
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:36 am
I have a suggestion for those of you looking for a little cooler air, but who can’t add a portable A/C. I solved this problem in my hot office by getting a water cooled fan that I bought at Lowe’s. Worked great! You have to obviously have it blow pretty much right at you since it won’t cool a large size room, but the point is that it cooled me down without adding heat and not drawing more energy than a fan. I don’t think Lowe’s is carrying it any longer, but here is an example for you: http://www.air-n-water.com/product/ka70.htm?channel=nextag&mr:referralID=af0552fc-5f52-11de-a563-000423bb4e95
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:04 am
Call the company and ask them for copies of the test results that support their claims. You will be told that they are “proprietary.” That should tell you all you need to know - to run away from this product as fast as you can. Heck, the breeze you’ll create will cool you off more than this piece of garbage.
June 26th, 2009 at 3:41 am
How about everyone call these clowns 3 - 4 times a day for a few weeks…act all sincere, but ask good questions that keep the agents on the line. let’s take down these rat bastards by jamming the lines with hundreds of daily calls!
June 27th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
If they can afford to run full page and in our case two full page adds, a lot of people are falling for their scam. I personally can’t imagine buying anything that would put more humidity in the house. We practically need gills to breathe now. As easy to use as a baby evaporiser? I don’t want my babies evaporating. lol Seriously a good dehumidifier would make more sense and good blinds. Stay cool folks don’t let the heat addle your thinking. The cool surge is definately a rip-off. Even in arid areas where swamp coolers are effective this product is way over priced.
June 28th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
This kind of aircondition from china was cool. People will like the product because of its new features which are advanced that no windows, vents or freon are required. Not just like the other products. Freon has a bad effect in our health so its good that cool surge doesn’t required freon.
July 5th, 2009 at 4:28 am
Ouch,
boy am i stupid. I ordered 1st and read all your comments a week later. I called my credit card company today 7-5-09 and of course they told me to call the company to cancel the order. although they are not open today!!!!! The credit card company said they allready charged the first payment of $140.00. I will call first thing monday morning, but I feel like they will not credit my account. Any ideas. Master card said they can put a restriction on my account but then I can’t use the card. All I want is NOT to receive the item and get a credit of $140.00.
thanx,PhyllisJuly 6th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Ok…After reading through all of these comments, I am a bit apprehensive in ordering one of these units. Currently, I am running 3 A/C units in my house…and for the most part, my house stays very cool…around 68 degrees. Luckily for me, the weather in NY has not changed much since April, so the use of my A/C has been minimal. Last year, I ordered one of the Heat Surge Fireplace units and LOVED it!! It did exactly as it was advertised to do. I ran the unit alone for one month and my electric bill barely budged from the month prior. I was able to shut off one complete zone in my house because of the Heat Surge, saving me THOUSANDS in oil expense to heat my house. When I got the email regarding the “New” Cool Surge unit, I was very interested, as you would expect. How could a company that did right by me with the fireplace, do me wrong with the air conditioner?!
I hate to say this, but if everyone could stop with the “bashing” of one another and just stick to the facts, then maybe we could get a bit more insight to this product.
I’m not sure how the “ice pack” effect could raise the heat in your house?! I do not think placing room temperature ice packs into the freezer is going to make the freezer run so long that it heats your kitchen. I dunno…
Anyway…any additional VALID information regarding the Cool Surge, sould be very appreciated and helpful!
July 6th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Re heating the house: anything you do, generates heat. Second Law of Thermodynamics. Freezing and unfreezing an ice pack generates heat. Your A/C generates heat. Your A/C may generate 3 units of heat outside while it removes 2 units of heat inside, but on balance it still generates 1 unit of heat.
The combination of Cool Surge + refrigerator generates heat. It doesn’t dump the heat outside, so the heat remains inside the house. You may be to cool your living room while heating up your kitchen, but on balance the house gets warmer.
July 12th, 2009 at 5:16 am
[...] Dan at Regruntled.com says, the net effect will be to warm your house, given the laws of thermodynamics. In the lengthy [...]
July 13th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Don’t buy - I didn’t and Consumer Reports gave this thing a don’t buy as well. It’s nothing more than putting a couple of ice packs in your fridge./freezer, which is the greatest energy hog in a house, than putting them in this thing and letting the air blow over them. Sounds like a sham all the way. You know - one of those things thatif it sounds too good to bo true it normally is too good to be true..
July 14th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Dan, it’s true that freezer works harder to keep re-freezing the ice packs, thus generating extra heat within the house, but what about the evaporative cooling? It also, pull (or pushes) air through a ‘wet curtain’, i.e. a swamp cooler. Of course, this only works if humidity is LOW. Average humidity where I live is less than 20%, often less than 10%…. so in the desert you should get better results than a fan and an ice pack. If your humidity is above 50%, you will not likely feel any ‘evaporative’ cooling at all just the heat generated by the freezer working harder to freeze and re-freeze the ice packs in the machine. Consumer Reports has a great article on it now.
July 14th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Yes, an evaporative cooler is a win-win if you live in a very dry climate and want to humidify the indoor air anyway. But Cool Surge has to be judged by their ads:
- they never indicate that the device is an evaporative cooler
- they never indicate that the device will work better in some climates than others
- they advertise in high-humidity areas where the evaporation is counter-productive
July 16th, 2009 at 2:11 am
Humidity plus elevated temperature equals heat.
July 31st, 2009 at 6:44 am
Hey everyone, This thing really works. I would suggest you buy one for every room in your house and then after that check out there ad for the amazing car that runs on water Buy one get one free. Stop bashing a company that is only trying to help you save money. RIGHT…..Wrong….
October 10th, 2009 at 5:09 am
You have the vent this thing outdoors for condenser heat or you are simply spinning your wheels.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
ANYbody, that orders a Cool Surge, or Heat Surge (that doesn’t happen to be a gullable senior citizen with dementia)….is a completely stupid and naive idiot. That deserves what they got. It’s morons like that, that make this world go round. And fuels all the evil in it…which starts the process allll ooover again. Thanks, much appreciated.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
And this is the main reaosn I love http://www.regruntled.com. Incredible posts.