It’s winter, it’s cold and Australians are looking for economical ways to stay warm in their homes. Enter cheap plug-in mini-heaters. But both your hip pocket and you could get burned — literally.
Getting off gas for heating and switching to electric (done right) is a good move.
But over the last couple of months, I’ve been seeing ads increasingly appear on a bunch of websites and social media for electric plug-in mini heaters. The ads and pages they take you to make all sorts of claims including cutting energy costs, warming up a room in just minutes and the list goes on.
They are sold under various names, but the common point is they are small fan heaters that plug directly into a power outlet — there’s no lead between the heater and the outlet. That on its own is enough to raise eyebrows (before they potentially get singed off).
Earlier this month, the good folks at CHOICE published another warning about these devices, stating that:
“Overseas online retailers are continuing to sell dangerous plug-in electric heaters, even after regulators effectively banned them from being sold in Australia.”
The image above depicts a plug-in mini-heater that was sold by an Australian firm and subsequently recalled. But a quick search of eBay’s Australian website reveals plenty of listings still spruiking this type of device.
BlumeHeat: Lots Of Unhappy Customers
BlumeHeat is a name that keeps popping up in ads on various sites I visit, some of them very popular news sites — and the device looks like many being sold on eBay at a much lower cost. Among the many claims the vendor makes:
“BlumeHeat is highly efficient, converting almost all the energy it consumes into heat, allowing you to save up to 80% on heating costs.”
That’s what any electric fan/resistive heater does: it converts most of the electricity it uses into heat — there’s nothing particularly ‘smart-tech’ here. As for the savings claim, if you have conventional fan heater with an 800 Watt setting and run it on that, using a Blumeheat unit (reportedly rated at 800 Watts1) will save you exactly zero dollars on electricity. And a conventional fan heater would do a better job at pushing the heat and directing it than one with a comparatively tiny fan.
While the ‘customer reviews’ on the vendor’s site are of course glowing (no pun intended), Blumeheat reviews on Trustpilot tell a very different story: 115 reviews from Australians at the time of writing, and a star-rating of just 1.2 out of 5. The common complaints:
- Won’t heat a small room even after hours of use.
- Being overcharged when purchasing.
- Aggressive/deceptive upselling.
- The use of an adaptor plug to suit Australian sockets.
- Not honouring their refund guarantee.
- Non-shipment of products.
The word “scam” is mentioned more than 90 times in the customer reviews.
Aside from the questionable claims made by BlumeHeat, the use of an adaptor plug is particularly troubling. According to several reviewers, it doesn’t support the weight of the heater when plugged into a wall socket. I saw one reviewer mention he taped it to hold it together — brr. A poor connection can present potential fire and electrocution risks.
As well as the adaptor reportedly not being fit for purpose and dangerous, anything that plugs into a power outlet in Australia must have Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM), which looks like so:
Given the heater was designed for use overseas, it won’t have the RCM mark. And if an adaptor plug — the bit that actually plugs into the wall — doesn’t have this mark2, it can’t be used here. In the situation of a fire and an insurance claim is subsequently made, the use of a non-compliant device identified as the cause of the blaze could put the claim in jeopardy.
Keeping your home warmer in winter and cooler in summer doesn’t need to cost a fortune, nor put your family at risk. Pick up some tips on making your home thermally efficient throughout the year, and the pros and cons of various options for keeping your house warm or cool when some extra help is needed.
Footnotes
- The ‘Australian’ BlumeHeat website has pretty much zero technical information about the product — another red flag. ↩
- I don’t know if BlumeHeat’s adaptor has an RCM mark. And if it does, based on other troubling aspects of the vendor’s claims and approach to doing business, I’d question its authenticity. ↩
About Michael Bloch
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I’ve seen these advertised and wondered if anyone actually brought them. It appears they do. They seem like a good way to burn your house down.
Interestingly, an online review video of a prominent brand PV inverter and battery system, showed the circuit breaker in the system, to not have the RCM, the lack being emphasised by the reviewer, a PV system installer.