Since 1954 when Ted Rookstool’s family first started the business, the focus has been to provide great products and outstanding service.  From the days in North Platte, NE. then a move to Grand Island, in the 1960’s, to regional expansion in the 1970’s, SMV and later SUNHEAT has been driven by the spirit of innovation. 
In the mid-70 throughout the 1980’s Ted owned or was involved in the operation of 20 retail sewing machine and vacuum shops. He started importing ceiling fans and kerosene heaters in 1984. In the 1980’s, with the first energy crunch, the company offered consumers one of the few alternative heat sources, kerosene heaters.  From 1995 until 2005 SMV grew to become the largest volume independent sewing machine dealer in the world.   In 1999 SMV began to work with overseas manufacturers to build and import sewing machine accessories to sell and distribute over a 7 state region.
When Hurricane Katrina caused a real energy crisis, Ted rediscovered the Sun Twin.  The original manufacturer of the infrared heater, he had sold a decade before, was still in business. SMV become a dealer and in 2004 sold about 1000 Sun Twin heaters. The next season SMV sold over 4000 Sun Twins and made an agreement to distribute them in 8 states. By the next heater season, Sun Twin sold the rights to Bio-Tech Research, the parent company of Eden Pure. 
With assurances from the original Sun Twin Company to remain a distributor, Ted (although skeptical) made plans to supply the dealers he had contracts with by ordering 1,500 Sun Twin heaters to be delivered every two weeks starting just after Labor Day 2005. Even though he had several thousand orders from dealers, Bio-Tech was unable to deliver heaters until late October and then only about 300 were received. While Eden Pure focused on their online sales, Ted and his dealers had to wait until late in the year to receive about 6,000 heaters; and of those, over a third of the Eden Pure heaters were returned because they didn’t work.
Ted took matters into his own hands and sent a prototype of the upgraded SUNHEAT to an overseas manufacturer. This manufacturer had built other products for SMV for over a decade and knew the high standards and expectations of Ted and the company.  Ted knew by this time that there was no other choice, but to make the Original SUNHEAT.