Lucrative summer business: How profiteers earn money with fake air conditioners
Every summer, the same story: banners, videos, and spam emails promise relief from the heat. But what -- and who -- is behind it?
One of the alleged miracle coolers.
(Image: Alibaba / Shenzhen Jiaoyuanxin Technology Co., Ltd. / Bearbeitung heise medien)
The summer heat has Europe firmly in its grip. Heated interiors not only cause beads of sweat on the forehead, they can also be harmful to health. Air conditioners and other cooling devices are selling like hot cakes. Aggressive advertisements on YouTube and in online magazines promote devices like Epicooler, Cooling Ace, and Breezamax as “revolutionary”. But how much of that can be true?
Airy promises
The videos, in particular, promise miraculous feats that are difficult to reconcile with the laws of thermodynamics. “This air conditioner developed by NASA cools your room in 90 seconds,” it says, and “during the first test, the temperature dropped from 34°C to 17°C in under 2 minutes.” And all this with ridiculously low power consumption: “The performance is comparable to a conventional air conditioner, but it uses up to 90% less electricity,” claims an AI voice, while iced copper coils and various space technologies appear in the background.
The magic device advertised as such, named “Epicooler”, costs just under 140 euros and, according to various – of course completely fabricated – test reports, is capable of cooling a bedroom in an attic within 20 minutes from 29 to 23 degrees. A conventional air conditioning unit, such as a monoblock air conditioner from the hardware store, consumes about 700 watts for comparable results. Epicooler, on the other hand, allegedly consumed only 0.38 kWh in eight hours of operation, meaning it only used 47 watts of power, claims the “advertorial”.
Hard to imagine, because that would correspond to a performance factor of over 40 with comparable cooling capacity – and that would be more efficient than a climate solution permanently installed in the building and appropriately insulated. Epicooler, on the other hand, relies on a special “air duct geometry” and can therefore do without refrigerants. The law of conservation of energy is apparently optional for this device and not a physical law.
Videos by heise
What's behind the devices?
Other devices like Cooling Ace, Coolzy, BreezaMax Pro, and AiraBreeze are also not stingy with grand promises: they are all faster and more efficient than conventional air conditioners, popular with customers, and of course easy to install. At least the latter is sometimes true, because the BreezaMax, for example, is nothing more than a battery-powered fan.
(Image:Â Youtube / JDub Adventures)
The Epicooler and its optical twins Coolizi Coolzy and BrezyMaxx, on the other hand, can be used all year round and can not only cool but also heat. The names are confusing, which is likely intentional. Because real air conditioners like the 7000 BTU monoblock “Breezy Cool 2.0” from Comfee also have names similar to the not very useful Chinese blowers.
When researching the true manufacturers of the devices on the wholesale platform Alibaba, it becomes apparent that the Epicooler is apparently not an air conditioner, but a fan heater with 1,800 watts of power. One of the product images from Alibaba can be found in a “customer report” on the Epicooler order page. In “cooling mode”, Epicooler apparently switches off the PTC heating element and becomes a fan.
(Image:Â Montage: heise medien)
The “next-generation air cooler for combating heatwaves” called AiraBreeze (“smaller than a lunchbox”, “98.7 percent less power consumption”) has a filler neck for water, which is then absorbed by some cardboard or cotton lamellas via capillary action and is supposed to cool the airflow of the mini-fan through evaporative cooling. This works in theory, but in practice the cooling effect is likely to be limited.
This applies to all devices advertised as “revolutionary”. None of the advertised devices suggest that they can provide significant cooling. Only the airflow of the fans (whose power is often a few watts) refreshes the user; NASA's cooling secrets are not to be expected. At best, a cooling effect may occur near the user. The advertising promises in the videos, fake test reports, and on the product pages are therefore partly pure fantasy.
Even air coolers from China are subject to the laws of physics. Advertising promises like these are pure fantasy.
Costs justified?
The “test report” on AiraBreeze raises an interesting thesis: “Portable air coolers are often overpriced,” proclaims the advertising page, with its own product naturally being a glorious exception. But is that true? We compared the selling price of some devices with the wholesale price on Alibaba. The often unchanged product images were extremely helpful in this regard – the convenience of the sellers played into our hands.
Behind AiraBreeze is apparently a battery-powered evaporative cooler with 3 watts of power and a wholesale price of just over 5 euros. On the AiraBreeze order page, the same device suddenly costs fourteen times as much. The Epicooler (selling price 137.99 euros, wholesale price 12 euros) and BreezaMax (87 euros vs. 8 euros) are also in detail about ten times more expensive than when ordered directly from Chinese wholesalers.
Shady test order with direct debit procedure
So the devices cost many times the wholesale price, but are they at least shipped for free? A test order via PayPal is supposed to show. Immediately after logging in, we become suspicious: Why should we agree to payments via direct debit – i.e., a subscription processed via PayPal –? And where is the total price? A few clicks later, we are wiser: Instead of the already steep 69.95 euros, “UAB Commerce Core” from Lithuania adds another 6.90 euros for shipping and an extended warranty for 9.99 euros to the purchase price. A total of 86.84 euros changes hands. And via downstream “upsell” pages, the seller wants to push more cooling pads, cloths, and other summer accessories on us.
The subscription is, of course, a scam, so we quickly canceled it and opened a case with PayPal – a warning appears: before disputing with PayPal, please contact the company directly – that way you'll get your money back faster. At the same time, an order confirmation lands in our inbox: Our AiraBreeze should arrive in five to nine working days. At least this is a swift refreshment compared to the popular but sold-out Midea Portasplit split air conditioner. And let's see if customs will also hold out their hands. We suspect that the test device will be delivered directly from the Chinese manufacturer.
Advertising flood via affiliate program
When researching the actual sellers of the devices, we always come across the same three companies: “Commerce Core” from Vilnius, Lithuania, ecom7 Ltd. and Cola Technology International, both based in Hong Kong. The three companies sell the following products:
- Commerce Core, UAB: Epicooler, AiraBreeze
- Cola Technology: Solyball Cooling Ace, Coolizi Coolzy, BreezyMax Pro
- ecom7 Ltd. Breezamax
All three companies primarily sell products from Chinese manufacturers. They process orders, receive payments, and, according to their own statements, also handle customer service.
Commerce Core advertises prominent partners on its website: The logos of Outbrain, Taboola, Hotjar, Facebook, and Stripe are displayed. Outbrain (with which heise Medien also works) and Taboola are marketing companies responsible for placing aggressive advertisements in their global network. Facebook likely works with the Lithuanian agency primarily as an advertising partner, while Stripe is likely responsible for processing credit card payments.
Commerce Core generated over 120 million euros in revenue in 2025, as a look at the financial statements shows. This is an increase of over 50 percent compared to the previous year; business with cheap fans is apparently booming. However, the company doesn't make much profit, only just under 400,000 euros in 2025. That's only 0.3 percent of revenue.
Where does the money go? We suspected that Commerce Core spends a lot of money on advertising, as it appears so frequently on various channels. However, the advertisers are always different names and companies on YouTube and in Google search results (it's not quite so easy to determine with Outbrain & Co.). The annoying advertising is likely placed by intermediaries.
High commissions for intermediaries: Two-thirds of the purchase price of the Coolizi Coolzy go to the affiliate partner.
Apparently, the business model works like this: Commerce Core runs an affiliate program with various partners and pays them a commission of up to 90 US dollars per order of an Epicooler. The actual advertisers therefore work at their own expense, book video and other ad spaces, and direct visitors to the order pages of Commerce Core, Cola Technology, and ecom7.
Conclusion: Hands off!
It becomes clear: the cheap Chinese coolers serve as a case study for internet marketing. Bought at a bargain price from the manufacturer and pushed into the market with aggressive AI-generated online advertising by an army of sales partners, the devices find their buyers solely through advertising pressure.
However, they are at best suitable for a gentle breeze; the grand advertising promises are extremely exaggerated and partly outright lies. Anyone who needs relief from the current heat should opt for a fan from the hardware store and not be fooled by Epicooler and Co.
Note in our own interest: The advertising for the coolers described here also frequently appears on heise online – possibly directly under this article. We have only limited influence on this, but we are aware of the problem.
(cku)
