Solar Comfort Infrared Heater Blog

After nearly 5 years of dealing with Solar Comfort brand Infrared heaters and researching other brands, I have come to a personal conclusion: Solar Comfort is the only way to go!

Ironically, Solar Comfort’s pholosophy of ‘keeping it simple’ is paying off in a big way! While other companies are filling the industry with plastic, gadgets and an overload of digitals and motherboards Solar Comfort has maintained an Infrared heater that will out last them all by keeping it simple.

As one of the largest U.S distributors of Solar Comfort, I only carry one heater, you guessed it, Solar Comfort. I can carry all the other brands but have not found even one that I can personally feel comfortable with selling to my customers. If there was another that could be a good second option I would consider it.

See in my first year of selling Solar Comfort, I began questioning my decision as some of the other brands were coming on the scene with all the fancy digitals and remotes not to mention the Chinese inindated ‘Quartz bulbs. I questioned my manufacturer as to why we don’t have all that fancy stuff. I kept getting the same answer, we don’t want it! They wold consistantly express how dangerous the quartz bulbs were and how the digitals are the failing points.

Well, I have seen the light! No pun intended. After the past several years of being a service center, I have seen just about everything bad that can happen to the quartz digital Infrared heaters. I have seen melted cases, fried wiring that burned and arched through the side sheet metal and an over abundance of premateur failures.

On contrary, I rarely have to service a Solar Comfort. Ah ha! I wonder if this is why you do not find ‘remanufactured’ Solar Comforts? I see all summer long other brands selling their remanufactured heaters but I don’t see them for Solar Comfort.

In conclusion, in my opinion, Solar Comfort is the only real choice for Infrared heating. I say this as someone who has been in and out of just about all the brands.

Again, this is just my opinion that has come from years of personal experience in the industry.

Charles

http://www.solarcomfortheating.com

My ComfortZone Heater Purchase

I just bought a ComfortZone Infrared heater and was truly surprised by what I found, especially after knowing that many people have been purchasing them! After buying the unit I put it to the test. I wanted to feel the heat, take it a part and compare it to other heaters such as Solar Comfort, EdenPure, SunTwin and SunHeat.  I have found so little information on the ComfortZone heaters that just arrived on the seen in 2007.

Here is what I found:

The ComfortZone is mostly sold with the Plastic housing and they all have digital components with a credit card style remote control. The wood cased unit is the same with the only exception being a wood cabinet. In my view the fancy remote and digital displays are just another thing to go wrong. In my opinion, it is not a matter of if but rather when. After really reviewing the ComfortZone heater, I cannot have confidence that it will last for years to come. When the warranty is over and the chips that run the fancy display is outdated, then what? Ask yourself when the last time was that a digital component went bad in your home? My bet is that it is now in the landfill.

The ComfortZone heater looked so tiny, and was cheap looking too! This is of course, only my opinion. Perhaps others would disagree. The air filter was the first main thing that I was shocked by. The dealer says that it is great for filtering the air and will last a lifetime. This filter was flimsy and tiny both in thickness, length and width. I put it toward my ceiling light in my store and it was almost like seeing right through it. The filter on the ComfortZone heater was without a doubt inferior to the Solar Comfort filter, which is massive in comparison. The Solar Comfort filter was harder to see light through.

My local Comfort Zone infrared heater dealer stated that they are the easiest to change the lamps on. I am certainly mechanically inclined and even I had a difficult time. Why? Because you can hardly see into the area where the quartz bulbs actually insert into. Way inside the unit, which is very dark inside, is a springed connector that the end must align into. I had a very difficult time aligning it and was not certain it actually was inserted properly. I am not here to bash the ComfortZone dealer. From what I can tell, they were nice people trying to make a living. I am just glad that I am not selling their unit.

The instructions on the inside panel of the case says something to the effect of finding the bulb that is not working and replace it. However, I could not see any way to determine which of the four were not working. I guess you have to take them all out and check them over. Besides, how do you even know if one is not working? The only thing I can guess is maybe you would feel that the temperature is not as hot. So how do you know if the bulbs or a bulb is out? No peep holes or anything else that can detail this? Maybe someone else can shed some light on this.

The heat chamber

As I mentioned earlier, this is a very dark place inside. They boast about copper for the heat exchanger. However, all that was in there was a few fairly small sheets of copper that follow the flow of the warmed air. In my opinion, it does not seem like it is really going to make much of a difference in capturing the warmed air. The SunHeat, Edenpure and SunTwin heaters, which also use quartz bulbs have a copper coffee can style heat chamber around the bulbs. Although I feel these canisters fail in comparison to Solar Comfort’s large aluminum heat exchanger, the Comfort Zone, in my opinion, does not seem even as good as the other three companies previously mentioned.

The entire internal part of the heater case is raw sheet metal., This is also just like the SunHeat, Edenpure and SunTwin Infrared heates. No paint or powder coating to help with heat absorption and dissipation as seen with the Solar Comfort Infrared Heater.

The Comfort Zone’s main heat is generated through 4 quartz bulbs that have a stainless steel ribbing around the bulbs. I was not impressed. It did not seem any better than the Eden pure, SunTwin or SunHeat.  I was anticipating a lot more of a heat chamber to absorb and then dissipate heat. Not so! However, one benefit over the Edenpure, SunHeat and SunTwin products was that the ribbing can help in preventing the touching of the quartz bulbs. See if you touch the element you can destroy the bulb just like halogen bulbs.

What kind of heat does it put out the front?

I put a thermometer on the front of the unit to get a good reading of the temperature just as it leaves the unit. The reading I got at its’ highest point was about 135 degrees. When I tested the Solar Comfort in the same room temperature and surroundings, the Solar Comfort put out approximately 150 degrees at its’ peak. At nearly 150 degrees of soothing heat, the Solar Comfort wood case was still cool to the touch and by no means dangerous.

Conclusion

Overall, I was not impressed at all with the ComfortZone. In my opinion, if you are looking for quality, longevity, ease of replacing parts and a superior quality case, it is a no brainer. Save your money and get the Solar Comfort. Hands down it is the best unit on the market. They are worth much more than they are being sold for. In fact, I was much more sold on the Solar Comfort after really seeing the ComfortZone in person. I also have an image of one of the competitors plastic units that actually melted. This just draws out another concern that I have regarding the plastic cased ComfortZone.

Again this is my personal opinion. You be the final judge.

Food for thought.

Plastic and Infrared Heaters. Is a plastic housed heater really safe? As I have mentioned before, I have personally seen a melted plastic infrared heater. Eventhough you can save some money in the short run with a plastic housed heater, is it worth it? I just would not feel safe personally. Could it be also giving out toxicity from its’ warmth? If you know the answer to this please inform me.

Fancy digital displays and remote controls. Is it just another thing to go wrong? Now this is another thing that would concern me. At first you could easily get caught up in fancy features. Have we become that lazy? After all if they don’t have a remote and digital display, they have a thermostat. So is it really that useful?

One must really ponder this digital display and remote option. Is it likely more to go wrong after a period of time? Is it an expensive repair? What happens after the warranty is over? This is certainly something to consider. As an example my TV remote is on the brink after only 3 years. So I know they can fail. I have actually read stories of people who received units with these devices that had failure with in a week or so.

Now this I find interesting. I was sales rep for a company that was a chip broker. And what these chip brokers would do is buy up chips for computers, cell phones, digital displays, well you get the point. They would buy them when they felt it was near the time that the chip manufacturers would stop making them. Hense, making prior devicese obsolete. Then they would stash them away until the manufacturer ended the chip and created a new one. At that point they would raise the price so high it was unbelievable.

So my question is this. What happens on the digitally displayed, remote controlled heaters after a few years down the road when the chip changes and the heater manufacturer changes its product to the next advanced chip. What happens to your heater if it breaks down at this point?

Before, I thought about this digital and remote option that actually caused me to wonder, “why does our Solar Comfort not have this fancy stuff! However, I thought deeper, out of the box if you will. Now I think way different. What I personally like about Solar Comfort is simplicity. Just simple, no fancy electronics. Just a reliable, safe and effective heating product with little to go wrong.

I have tried to get an accurate answer as to when Edenpure started making their heaters. Unfortunately I can’t get an answer. So if you know please inform me.

I called Edenpure yesturday and I could not believe the hassles just to talk to someone. First thing I had to give my address and then they wanted my first name and last name. I had not even mentioned I wanted a unit at this point. So I said, my first name is all I want to give for now. They said they can not move forward or talk unless I gave my last name. No budge. So I just gave a generic last name as I don’t feel my last name was necessary.

Finally they were satisfied with the last name. I asked when Edenpure began to make and sell their heaters. The rep. says, “the technology has been around for over 25 years”. So I said no I am wondering when Edenpure began selling and making them. They would not answer the question. I asked if there was someone I could talk to that could help me with this question. The rep said no. No number to anyone or anywhere  that I could be led to for this. Hmmm!

Well first off, the technology that has been around for about 25 years is Solar Comforts. Solar Comfort has been around for 25+ years, they are the original. Second, none of the others use this 25+ year technology, they use quartz tubes in coffee can style canister heat chambers. Not the same! As you may have seen my mention of before, Solar Comfort made the mistake back in 1999 to 2000 by trying the quartz system. However, it was a bad choice and they went back to the infrared lamps that worked and was the safest.

So if you have an answer as to when Edenpure began selling their heaters, I would be interested in finding this out.

Last year (2007), we had an elderly customer’s on in law purchase a Solar Comfort Infrared Heater from us. His story was quite interesting. He had an EdenPure infrared heater for just three months and it broke down. He then got it replaced and ran it for a short period of time before he had a new issue. While his son in law and daughter were visiting him, the son in law smells plastic burning and looks over to see the Edenpure case melting and smoking. Really! I have the Polaroid image of it.

Polaroid of Inspired American's customer's EdenPure Melted. Copyright (c) Image Inspired American. Image taken 12/2007 Do Not Copy Property of IA.

He called Edenpure for the warranty and he just made his 1 year warranty by 1 week. Last year Eden pure only had a one year warranty but has changed to the standard 3 year that most others offer. Even though he got it replaced (I am sure Edenpure did not want that case going into the hands of competition), he still purchased a Solar Comfort because he lost trust in the Edenpure after this experience.

The bottomline, his confidence is with his well performing and safe Solar Comfort Infrared heater. His Edenpure is not being used as he is afraid of it melting again.

Personally I would be concerned about a plastic case as well. Plastic and heat just does not seem to go together.

Thank you for taking the time to visit the site.  The site and the blog is being developed to give the differences between the infrared heaters on the market today. I am sure you will find it obvious at this point that we favor the Solar Comfort.

However, even if you decide to go with a competitors product, I am confident you will have much more information to base your decision on.