The Lunch Break Refund
Every month, our favorite customer lunch-break photo gets the Ember Pro fully refunded. We choose it on its merits, using the written criteria on this page. There is no random drawing.
How it works
How we judge
Official rules
Last updated: October 2, 2026.
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Sponsor
The Lunch Break Refund (the “Contest”) is run by Hearth & Haul, a sole proprietorship (entrepreneur individuel) registered in France, SIRET 943 105 775 00010, email hello@hearthandhaul.com (“we”, “us”). Mailing address: 62 Rue du Rochoir, 62430 Sallaumines, France.
This is a contest of skill: entries are judged on their merits using the written criteria in rule 5. There is no random drawing, and chance plays no part in choosing the winner.
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Who can enter
Legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 or older when they enter and who bought an Ember Pro on hearthandhaul.com. The order must not be canceled or fully refunded when we judge it.
Not open to residents of Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska, North Dakota or Vermont, or to the owner of Hearth & Haul, the people who help us run the Contest, or members of their households. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.
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How to enter
Purchase required: only people who bought an Ember Pro on hearthandhaul.com can enter. To enter, reply to the email we send when your order is delivered, or write to hello@hearthandhaul.com, and include one photo of your lunch break with your Ember Pro and your order number.
Limit: one entry per order. If you send several photos for the same order, tell us which one is your entry; otherwise we judge the first one we receive.
Your photo must: be taken by you; show a real lunch break with your Ember Pro; not be created or altered with artificial intelligence, or edited beyond basic adjustments (crop, light, color); only show people who agreed to appear in it, and no recognizable person under 18; not be taken while driving or operating equipment; follow your workplace’s rules on photos; and contain nothing offensive, unlawful or that infringes anyone else’s rights. Entries that do not meet these rules are not judged.
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Entry period
The Contest runs in monthly periods. Each period starts at 12:00:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the first day of a calendar month and ends at 11:59:59 p.m. ET on its last day. Each entry is judged once, in the period in which we receive it; an entry received after a period ends is judged in the next period.
We may end the Contest at the end of any period, with a notice posted on this page at least 30 days before. Entries received before the end are still judged.
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Judging criteria
Each period, the Hearth & Haul team scores every eligible entry received in that period out of 100 points:
- Real work setting, 40 points: how well the photo shows a real lunch break on the job.
- Originality, 30 points: how fresh and unexpected the idea, the angle or the moment is.
- Photo quality, 30 points: sharpness, light and framing. A phone photo is fine.
The entry with the highest total wins. In a tie, the entry with the higher Real work setting score wins; if still tied, the entry we received first wins. The judges’ scoring decisions are final. If we receive at least one eligible entry in a period, we award that period’s prize. Your chance of winning depends on the number and quality of eligible entries received in the period.
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Prize and value
One prize per period: a refund of the price the winner paid for the Ember Pro in the entered order, up to $129 (approximate retail value: $129). If the winner paid less than $129 for the Ember Pro, for example with a discount, the refund is the amount actually paid for it. The refund does not cover the second tray or any other item in the order.
The winner keeps the Ember Pro and does not have to send anything back. The prize cannot be transferred, exchanged or paid in another form, except that we refund by another method if the original payment method can no longer receive a refund. Any taxes on the prize are the winner’s responsibility. Each order can win once.
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Winner notification and refund
We choose the winner and email them within 7 days after the period ends, at the email address used for the order or for the entry. The winner has 14 days to reply and confirm they meet rule 2. If the winner does not reply in time, is not eligible or does not follow these rules, the prize is forfeited and we award it to the next highest scoring eligible entry of that period.
Once eligibility is confirmed, we issue the refund to the original payment method within 10 business days. How long it takes to appear depends on the bank.
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License to use your photo
You keep the copyright in your photo. By entering, whether or not you win, you give Hearth & Haul a free, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, reproduce, crop and publish your photo with your first name, last initial and state (for example, “Jordan R., Ohio”) on our website, in our emails, on our social media accounts and in our ads. You confirm you have the right to give this license, including the agreement of anyone shown in the photo.
You can ask us to stop at any time by writing to hello@hearthandhaul.com: within 30 days, we remove it from our website and stop using it in anything new. We do not pay for this use.
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Privacy
We use your name, email, order number, state and photo only to run the Contest, check eligibility, contact and refund the winner, and publish photos as described in rule 8. Before we publish a photo, we remove its location data. We do not sell your information for money. More in our Privacy policy.
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Limitations
We are not responsible for entries that are lost, late, incomplete or not delivered because of email or technical problems. We may disqualify anyone who tampers with the Contest, enters with fraudulent orders or breaks these rules. If something beyond our control stops the Contest from running as planned, we may change or suspend it for the affected period and judge the eligible entries received until then.
To the extent permitted by law, by entering you release Hearth & Haul from liability for any loss or injury arising from taking part or from the prize. Nothing in these rules limits the rights the law of your state gives you.
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Governing law, void where prohibited
The Contest is subject to all applicable US federal, state and local laws. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. If any part of these rules is found invalid, the rest still applies. If the English and Spanish versions differ, the English version applies.
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No affiliation with Meta
This Contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Meta Platforms, Instagram or Facebook. You give your entry and your information to Hearth & Haul, not to Meta, Instagram or Facebook.
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Contact and winners list
Questions: hello@hearthandhaul.com. For the winner of a period (first name, last initial and state), write to us within 60 days after that period ends.