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View Full Version : The "Cool Surge" Scam



David Keller NC
06-12-2009, 11:20 AM
Guys & Gals - I'm thinking that SMC members will see through the garbadge in the ad, but I'm posting this because I've a background in Chemical Engineering and thus thermodynamics, and many of us have older relatives without a technical background that might get sucked into this.

The same company that was advertising "free Amish Mantle Miracle Heaters" during the winter is now attempting to market the "Cool Surge" portable "room cooler", claiming that it operates on "just pennies a day", will cool a room down by ten degrees, and most telling, operates without freon, windows or vents. The ad also states that the unit operates on about 96% less electricity than air conditioners.

Part of the "come on" is that you can buy the first unit for $298 and get the second one "free" by paying shipping and handling on both. THe ad doesn't say what the S&H is, but I'm betting that it isn't exactly the lowest rate that UPS offers to the marketer.

This gizmo is a an electric fan in a plastic enclosure that blows air across re-usable plastic ice blocks. From a thermodynamic perspective, it is absolutely impossible for a cooling unit to operate without a vent to the outside without a secondary way to exhaust heat. In this case, that heat that is removed from the room air is removed from the "ice blocks" by one's freezer. If the freezer is inside the house, operation of the unit will not remove any heat from the house, it will add it!

Needless to say, freezing water by using a household freezer, even if it's outside in the garage, is an enormously inefficient way to cool room air. And even if one wanted to do this, buying some plastic ice blocks and an inexpensive fan from Target would cost about $20, if that, and will do the same thing as the "Cool Surge" - that is, it will make the house hotter.

Moreover, a highly efficient small window air conditioning unit used to cool one room of the house can be had for well under the $300 plus S&H that these bozos are charging.

So please, if you've elderly neighbors or relatives that are susceptible to this sort of marketing, talk them out of this. Even if they don't have a window to put a window unit in, they can buy a real portable air conditioning unit with a long hose for a vent for about the same amount of cash.

Lee Schierer
06-12-2009, 11:48 AM
So how many did you buy??? Just kidding. I am constantly amazed at how many folks fall for devices that claim to circumvent the laws of physics.

I've seen folks (some had advanced degrees) try to blow air into or out of a room or other container with no other inlet or outlet and can't figure out why it doesn't work.

People put window type A/C units inside a room and sit in front of the cool air and wonder why the room is so hot.

People that believe bullets will curve if you swing the gun as you pull the trigger.

Don't they teach any physics in high school any more?

David Keller NC
06-12-2009, 12:11 PM
"Don't they teach any physics in high school any more?"

Unfortunately, I don't think so. I think it was one of those subjects that isn't tested by the "No CHild Left Behind" law, so it isn't taught.

And yeah - I've seen news stories before about the heat's affect on the elderly where a woman was sitting in a lawn chair in front of her (open) refrigerator - she was hoping to cool the room air down. Kinda sad, really.

I have to hope that the "Cool Surge" will get the attention of the FTC and they'll shut these guys down. Sort of like they did with the "EuroWash Laundry Ball" that claimed to "magnetize" the water so you could wash clothes without detergent.