North American’s Choice to Market the “Heatwave” Heat Exchanger vs. Omni Heat Exchanger

Noteworthy Points for Consideration:

10 Years of Experience Handling Sales and Service on Omni Heaters. Rebuilt Omnis Marketing Approach and Back-End Paperwork Flow Systems. Created all of Omni’s 2010 & 2011 Service Video’s which drastically reduced the amount of complaint calls received by Econoheat's Service Line. Implemented call contact management system and moved Econoheat out of the “Dark Ages”. Hired and Trained Key Sales team members. Provided product training, software training, call shadowing, email marketing and service campaigns; effectively turning around Econoheats’ Marketing department and More than doubling their market share.

#1 Complaint about Omni Heat Exchangers:

· Stage 2 on the Omni OWH-150 Heat Exchanger is made of 16 Gauge Stainless Steel. Stage 2 and Stage 3 on the Omni OWH-250, OWH-350 and OWH-500’s are also made of 16 Gauge Stainless Steel. The Stainless areas are double rolled and crimped as mentioned in the Omni marketing material. In addition being made of stainless, the exchangers are also flared at the ends as well as pressed between 2 plates of 11 Gauge Mild Steel. If you examine the Omni Heat Exchangers carefully, you will notice that they do in fact “Run Beads of Weld” that connect the stainless to the piping gussets at the back of the exchanger. In addition to these welds, you will also see some one inch welds connecting the stainless to the mild steel. These areas are prone to cracking if the Heater is not perfectly sized for the building. Meaning, you’d better get the BTU requirement right when installing an Omni heater, if you do not, you will see these welds open up. When you contact the office, they will likely dispute the repair and accuse you of under sizing your heater. If you undersize, you will likely perform multiple repairs on these mentioned areas of the Omni Heat Exchanger.

· The Stainless Steel Firing Plate or Deflector plate on the rear Omni Combustion Chamber Door is in fact a “Wear Part”. Omni claims not to need a target; however this stainless steel plate will need to be replaced every 3 years or so.

Heat Exchanger Weight Comparisons: Omni vs. North American.

Omni OWH-150: 240lbs VS. Our HW150: 540lbs+300lbs North American

Omni OWH-250: 365lbs VS. Our HW250: 750lbs+385lbs North American

Omni OWH-350: 400lbs VS. Our HW350: 1100Lbs +700lbs North American

No Heat Exchanger Material Cools More Rapidly Then Stainless Steel.

The Omni Heat Exchanger is a fast cool or rapid cool heat exchanger, and is designed to heat up fast and cool off fast. Pressurizing duct work with an Omni Heat is possible, but most UL listed systems require ducted systems to be pressurized by a Squirrel Cage Blower that can handle the back pressure or static pressure created by the ducted heating system.

If we were to pressurize our North American system with “Pressure Fans”, the fans would not handle the back pressure needed for duct-ability. Another observation: that if you were to slow the air down and install a Squirrel Cage Blower on an Omni furnace, the heat exchanger would overheat due to its design. Fact: Omni Heaters are Not UL Listed for ducting. Omni heat exchangers are for direct dumping air.

The North American Heatwave Line of waste oil heat exchangers are heavier as a result of being designed to retain heat longer and continue to cool down slower even long after the flame goes out. If a repair shop owner in a 50’ x 50’ Building runs 1 single duct down the center of a 4 bay shop, his Mechanics will arguably be more comfortable receiving an equal amount of warm air, being more evenly distributed simultaneously to all 4 bays. Omni's Flawed Heater Mounting Bracket. I pointed this flaw out to Management and they told me that this did not need changing or repair.

"Don't be fooled by creative marketing!" High Volume Waste Oil Heaters with Pressure Fans, will not even come close to the heat that can be obtained by Heavy Industrial - Ductable Heat Exchangers. High volume - Direct dump, heat exchangers, claim to "Fill your shop with warm air faster". Nonsense. The fact is a simple and an undeniable reality: If you have all of your heat being dumped into one area of the shop, the heater could run longer than a Heatwave-Ductable unit, making the claim that "The Omni gets more heat out of every gallon of oil", a completely false statement. If you go to Omni's website you will see nothing but a biased comparison that sheds the best light on the Omni. They Insult companies that have sold thousands upon thousands more product than the, what we consider to be, Over-Priced Omni. The truth is that the Omni is the weakest and most price inflated product in the Waste Oil Heater Industry. We've isolated Omni as our #1 competitor for many reasons, but the number one reason we've decided to go head to head with them, is the fact that we live in New England and we've used both products. That's right, every week I spend time in a shop that utilizes our Heatwave 350. Prior to December 2012, I spent three winters in a 6,000 square foot shop heated by an Omni OWH-350, Bi-Directional Heater (The OMNI OWH-350 Bi-Directional does not have the UL Certification.) Since November of 2013 (This winter), I've been performing work in another 6,000 square foot shop,with 3 other mechanics. We've reached the unanimous conclusion that Omni cannot heat as well as the Heatwave Heater, In fact, the performance is not even close. Omni presents an emotional and well constructed case for their product, with that said, we would like the opportunity to prove the undeniable weaknesses of the Omni product. Our number one argument will stand on the fact that ductable heat and a super quiet squirrel cage blower benefits, will far out way the convoluted Omnified-electronic parts, that are completely unnecessary when burning waste oil. All waste oil heaters will burn synthetic waste oil. All waste oil heaters will burn gasoline mixed into the oil under 30%. (If the heater will burn #2 oil, it stands to reason that the #2 oil will be thinner than engine oil mixed with gasoline..) Rotary vane air compressors are not the best design for providing air to a waste oil heater, They are very expensive when you have a proprietary company like Omni, and its manufacturing agreements. They covenant Omni as the only one that can sell the compressors to you. Oh yes, I've tried buying the Boards and The Rotary Vane Air Compressors. The Compressor factories have an agreement with Omni, and you cannot bypass them. (We offer a solution that will provide more cfm and higher pressures if needed.) Each Omni Heater comes with over $400.00 worth of unnecessary circuit boards, and they sell them at full price after 1 year. You can bet that those boards are a profitable parts sale for them, once you are no longer under warranty. Omni Solenoid valves are great, the board tells them to open and close in sequence, so that a shot of air will blow all of the oil out of the pre-heater block, thereby preventing carbon. If any carbon appears in your pre-heater block, you can mail it to Omni, and they will clean it for you. When servicing the Omni, it is critical to clean the solenoids. WHAT THEY WON'T TELL YOU is that by the time you reach them all, you have the burner just about torn apart, so why not clean the pre-heater? You might as well if you are re-placing the electrodes, Right? Pre-heaters: they only carbon up when the system is not running, ie; off-season.. The Kagi Burner very seldom needs carbon maintenance, just kill the breaker for the summer. If any waste oil heater is running off of a thermostat, you will seldom develop "That stubborn carbon that Omni claims to be the end-all of Waste Oil Heater Failures". "It's a difficult chore cleaning everyone else's heaters"- Nonsense. This is simply a scare tactic. Omni waste oil heaters loose vacuum when the Omni solenoid system is gummed up, and they do get gummed up. Omni will not admit this weakness. The trouble shooting guide tells you that you likely lost vacuum overnight, check fuel lines and connections. The truth is that there is no pressure at the nozzle and vacuum gets lost through the dirty solenoid switches. Omni has a testimonial video on their website, the customer is so happy with Omni versus all of the other brands that they've used. I'd argue that the testimonial is from a Salvage yard that is 10-15 Minutes away from the front door of the factory. I know that if we put one of our units into those big buildings, and ran a couple of inexpensive ducts, we could make these people much happier. As we move Forward, North American Auto Equipment will be providing video testimonials as well as maintenance and performance videos, to prove the Heatwave Heaters to be the front runner in waste oil heating. I've chosen the Heatwave line because it's 100% USA Made. Heatwave is the preferred choice in the Agricultural Market.