I Love My Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater

Our family just bought its second infrared heater - a Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater. We bought it through a local dealer who does warranty work for the entire Southeastern US for a variety of infrared heaters.

I wanted to relate to you our experiences so you could evaluate the possibility of using infrared heaters in your home. I won't claim to be an expert on all models of these heaters, but we have had several years' experience with two different brands and can tell you what we've found.

Why did we get a second one? When our house was built it was constructed with the "energy saving standard" of it's day - "baseboard heating".

In our experience, baseboard heat had the following drawbacks:

1. It didn't really seem that warm anywhere in the house on frigid days.
2. It's heat didn't seem to warm from "floor to ceiling".
3. It seemed awfully expensive on our electric.
4. It dried out our sinuses and gave us headaches in the winter.
5. It was inconvenient getting to the baseboard heat controls.

Why we didn't try wood heat:

1. I have asthma. If you have a typical wood stove, that casts of alot of dust and ash that can cause problems
2. Wood heat seems to dry out my sinuses making it a double whammy for my asthma
3. The wood commonly available here can vary greatly in price and quantity and I didn't have have a pick up truck to get what I needed "on demand".
4. I don't always feel like lugging in wood (especially after having knee surgery).
5. Wood heat from traditional stoves is not always consistent like my Sun Heat 1500. (With new pellet stoves, that can be less of a problem)
6. I frankly didn't have the room for a wood stove... I was using the space for a home office.

It was then I started seeking cheaper, more efficient heating solutions for our home. Upon investigation I started to hear about about infrared heaters. Ultimately that lead us to the Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater for our second purchase.

For our first infrared heater, we'd purchased an Edenpure, Gen 3. It's approximately the same as the Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater. Both serve approximately 1000 square feet. This was before "Bob Villa" began promoting them. I'd heard about these heaters from a friend and then heard an advertisement on "Paul Harvey" that lead me to look at them more closely.

The Edenpure had come to the point after several years of steady use that it needed new elements. Our only "complaint" was that our house is more than 1,000 square feet so while the Edenpure infrared heater did a wonderful job, it didn't quite do ALL the job.

At first we weren't going to get it fixed. Call me "cheap"! We went for one whole winter without the infrared heating unit running. Let's just say it reminded us why we didn't like our baseboard heat system. As winter rolled around again this year, we had those first few cold days. Finally it seemed like an ice storm was heading our way and it was time to see if we could get our Edenpure fixed. That's when we went to the man who runs the regional warranty repair shop.

When we went to the local warranty repair center to refurbish our heater (we essentially got a brand new heater for half the original price that should last us even longer)... we started checking out the Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater to make sure that all the house seemed warm.

Mission Accomplished! Now both heaters warm the whole house the way we like. Each uses about the energy of your standard light bulb as well. But more on that below.

If you ask me "What's the ONE single difference between the Edenpure and the Sun Heat?" I'd have to answer aesthetics.  I believe that as long as both are designed to serve the same number of square feet, the only real difference is their look. I far prefer the wood of the Sun Heat to the metal box of the Edenpure.

Pro's

OK, I'm talking about my latest purchase. I was happy with my Edenpure, so most of these (if not all) apply to the Edenpure Infrared Heater as well.

Unlike my Edenpure with it's metal casing, my Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater has a genuine wood Golden Oak casing that is far more beautiful without sacrificing heating efficiency. The wood is dent and stain resistant with a beautiful finish suitable for the living room.

The infrared heating tubes which form the "innards" of the Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater are rated for 10,000 hours of operation. A Honeywell thermostat at the back of the unit allow it to be easily adjusted.

How long is 10,000 hours? Basically that's 417 days of 24 hour per day use. So this might now work too well if you're stationed in Antarcrtica. But if your home is well insulated and you're running it (effectively) 12 hours per day, 100 days per year then the elements may last 8 years. In practice our first unit wasn't rated for 10,000 hours and we ended up replacing worn elements after fewer years. It's likely we didn't clean the filter on schedule and this enhanced the need for quicker maintenance.

Making no more noise than a very small fan these units provide floor to ceiling heat that doesn't dry out our sinuses. With two units in the home, neither has to run at full power. Even at lower power we find ourselves having to turn them off (depending on the weather outside of course), so we consider them very efficient.

Even with two heaters running on partial power, we still are paying less and getting better results than we did with baseboard heat!

Below are some videos you might find of interest about the Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater.

Another reason we purchased these units is something I've forgotten to mention thus far: safety.

We did have a kerosene heater we could have used originally. We still have it for absolute emergencies when the electricity would be out, but those things can catch on fire and frighten me in some ways.

These stand alone infrared heaters from Edenpure and SunHeat cannot catch fire and are never even hot to the touch. So, upon reflection, safety was also a crucial factor in choosing an alternative home heating method.

Unlike central air and heat (which we couldn't afford to install and didn't want to go into debt to install via an electric company loan) we don't have to heat the whole house with this system so we retain some control of our expenditures.

Con's

As I mentioned above, we may have contributed to our problem with the first heater because we didn't clean the heater filter on a monthly basis.

So our first heater stopped working sooner than I had hoped. It cost us about $170 to completely refurbish the heating elements and "innards" which added to the cost of operation sooner than expected.

As I told you before, the benefits made us willing to pay the cost and buy a brand new one to make sure the house was completely covered.

Being really "cheap" though, I'd hoped it would last forever and never need repair. That was unrealistic!

Ok, how do you care for your Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater?

It's simple.

These units (Sunheat or Edenpure) have a lifetime filter in back. Simply clean the filter monthly or biweekly to keep the dust from building up. You may vacuum it - or rinse it with tap water.

The only word of caution I have is that when we took our unit in for repair, another unit in at the same time was "down"because it was filled with brown resin. What was it? The by-products of cigarette smoke.

I'm no health crusader, but if you do smoke in your home while running a Sunheat 1500 Infrared Heater (or an Edenpure Infrared heater) the smoke will circulate through your unit leaving a residue that could require you perform maintenance earlier and more often.

The way most people save money is to try to find these heaters on sale at a discount through Ebay or Amazon. 

You should be careful because it may be that the discount is due to the model being "refurbished". If it is factory refurbished and contains a 3 year warranty, that's a good deal. I would NOT want to buy one of these units without a full 3 year warranty!

The other method is to find a local dealer who may be able to sell you a "blemished" model. These are units with full factory warranties that have a scrap on the casing that is a slight visual "ding" but which otherwise does not hurt the unit or in most cases its visual appeal.

I've been getting some visitors to this hub based on the keywords "Edenpure Scam" and "Bob Villa Edenpure Scam". So I guess you're wondering if this is a scam?

Frankly, I started using the Edenpure heater thanks to Paul Harvey! Bob Villa was still selling hardwood flooring or something then.

As I've outlined above, I've used Edenpure and Sun Heat infrared heaters and find them completely suitable for my needs. In fact, they work just great!

So why are people searching for information about an "Edenpure Scam"? I think it's because these heaters have been overhyped with the usual direct marketing baloney.

You can't buy one of these heaters rated for 1,000 square feet and warm up a football field. As I've said, we have a 1200 square foot house and are very happy,but we have two of them.

Can these heaters save you money on your heating bill? I think we're spending less overall and getting better heat that we did with baseboard heat. But if it's freezing outside, these infrared heaters will be running all the time unless you turn them off. So you will be using some electricity no matter what the "hype" says.

Also, these heaters like any mechanical equipment require maintenance - usually after a three years depending on how clean you keep the filter, whether people smoke around it, etc.

From what I can tell these heaters have performed exactly as I was told they would and we bought one, had it maintained, and then bought another infrared heater.

I've tried to be very up front and honest about what these heaters can do. Sorry if you've been burned by the hype.

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