Crisis sees return of the Super Ser!
THE iconic Super Ser heater – a staple of Irish living rooms in the 1980s – is making a comeback.
Hardware stores say they are running out of the gas cylinderfired portable metal heaters, as rising electricity costs and the threat of winter power cuts force people into a homeheating rethink.
The owner of Topline Doyle’s Hardware in Carlow town, Pat McGuane, said the heaters are ‘like gold dust’.
Mr McGuane told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘We’ve sold our season allocation already. We will have more coming in, but I think it’s caught everybody on the hop, and you’re looking at probably the end of October to the end of November before they come in again.’
And he said the Super Sers are not the only product selling unusually well right now.
‘Another weird one is we’re selling barbecues with side burners,’ he said. ‘People want to be able to boil a kettle and that. Flasks, hot water bottles, torches, you name it. People are prepping themselves.’
Mr McGuane said he believes much of the demand for the Super Ser heaters is being driven by a ‘fear of power cuts’.
Other retailers point out that the portable heaters are attractive because they allow buyers to bunker down in one warm room instead of switching on the central heating.
‘It’s definitely a more efficient way to heat one room, instead of the whole house,’ said Lee Whittington, owner of Donegal Town Hardware & DIY.
Though plenty of different brand gas heaters have been christened ‘the Super Ser’ over the decades and other brands are selling well now, Mr Whittington said his customers are demanding the trusted original – which he is happy to have stocked after a poor return selling a cheaper model last year.
A sales assistant in a Woodie’s DIY superstore in north Dublin said their gas heaters were ‘completely sold out and we can’t even get them back in’.
The store worker added: ‘They were always good sellers but not this fast. We literally had them for a week and they were gone.’
Standard 11.34kg butane gas cylinders usually cost around €35 to €40 to refill and haven’t been subject to the eyewatering rises of other forms of fuel and energy.
Marie O’Neill, of Finglas
Fuels in Dublin, said: ‘People are stocking up, especially older people.
‘I had one lady asking for eight of them [gas cylinders].’