Fixing a heater and an apology to my bro
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 พ.ย. 2022
- I'm not sure where Ralfy has been storing this heater. The contacts and the plug pins were heavily oxidised. That makes a refreshing change from him restricting airflow and wrecking thermal trips and fuses. (My brother Ralfy and I are polar opposites in every way. He's not technical at all.)
The thermal cutouts in these cheap heaters are not rated for many cycles. They have tiny cheap contacts that are expected to break up to 8 Amps in use, and often fail after a few operations. Often arcing enough to trip themselves repeatedly.
It is very important not to bridge out the thermal fuses in these products despite the temptation of an instant fix with the fuse being fitted later (it often never happens). The next stage of failure after the bimetallic trips fail in a welded state is generally complete meltdown, and 2kW in a plastic shell doesn't end well.
The tarnishing of the cheap contacts is a sad byproduct of people "investing" in important electrical metals like copper and silver, driving the cost up and resulting in the use of cheap alloys that result in early failure.
The paper strip trick for cleaning contacts is ancient. You can still buy packs of contact cleaning strips that are very slightly abrasive and impregnated with an oil that protects the contacts from further oxidation. Do not use coarse files on contacts as it can remove important contact layers.
Note that it is sometimes easier and safer to just buy a new product when attempting to repair cheap disposable junk like these heaters. You can get better made heaters at higher cost that will last longer and are built to a safer standard.
As mentioned in the video, always be aware of whether things are plugged in when you are working on them. It's very common for people repairing home appliances to accidentally leave the device plugged in after testing or unplug the wrong appliance. The more tests you make, the higher the odds of you accidentally leaving it plugged in.
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/ bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Takes me back to my student days. Now I have a wonderful system called "central heating".
Me and my parent's own these fans. When the boiler packs up, they feel so good to stand in front of the hot air! Good products.
I've found that when a heater cuts out and in,,,,, as it's designed to do,,,,, the biometric strip loses some of it's springtness due to heat and flexability causing a weaker pressure between the contacts.
This causes a bit of arcing, hence points failure.
As you said these do have a cycle time as the heating and cooling takes place.
Clive can you give us all a test on the accuracy of bimetallic trips and the differences in the temperatures of a trip, you might be surprised just how innacurate they are.
Good vid, plus it keeps Ralfy happy
When I was young and still learning, I once got my soldering iron out, opened the TV to be worked on, pulled the plug, started poking around, and found a loose wire. I reached for my soldering iron, only to discover it was cold. I then realized I had unplugged the soldering iron rather than the TV I was working on, and had been poking around in a live chassis for over 10 minutes. My knees got weak and I had to sit for a moment. So the comment about "sometimes they unplug the wrong thing" hit home. Never made that mistake again, though - one near-accident was enough to scare me into a more cautious behavior.
My expenses with these:
Fan can fall off.
Once switch for fan failed (inductive load), but not for heaters.
I once de-rated one of these for use on old Communist apartment block where electrical wiring is rated only for lights and TVs, in all rooms there were unfused 6A sockets with 1.5mm sqr aluminium cables. They assumed that district heating would be good (it was not, 19 degrees at best).
I first disconnected 2nd heater. Then my wife complained that 2nd level is not working (even though I warned her not to use it, because there was fire in identical tower block due to wire overloading). Next was to put diodes in series with heating elements (they were at least anty paralel). Last revision was that on 1st level both heaters are in series, and on 2nd only one, second heater was shorted out.
Placebo is interesting thing when you have 2 levels, when one is hotter them other. Like amplifier that goes to 11.
Had the exact same issue with one of the Beldray branded jobbies from Wilko. I recall I used Servisol to clean-up the contacts, and it's been fine ever since.
Good fix, thanks for sharing. Oddly you clean micromters in the same way.
I remember helping my father in law with his vacuum cleaner. He kept vacuuming his Astro Turf mat on the balcony. Everytime I visited I had to change the internal fuse and remind him not to vacuum when the mat was still wet from rain. He always forgot so I put in a resettable fuse and showed him how to reset it after letting the machine dry.
He was a wonderful man and I still remember his childish face of guilt every time he asked me to have a look 😁❤️
Do dysons have internal fuses, I have so many failed motors it seems ?
@@highpath4776 or the fuse inside the plug?
@@Cheese_1337 deff not wir. the motors are on the bench
I enjoyed that story, thank you.
Great solution BTW
@@Cheese_1337 I live in Sweden, and we don't have fuses in our plugs so that's not for us. I'm not sure how common it is around the world, I've been to Australia a couple of times. I don't think they have plug fuses from what I can remember, does anyone know how common it is?
Ralphy should get a bear hug that will keep him warm
Family responsibilities are divided fairly
Ralfy is the wrecker.
Clive is the repairman
Oh god, THIS heater! It's so incredibly cheap and so fragile. They break all the time yet cost 12$
A very good Saturday morning to you all from Wellington Somerset
We would use a torn off striker strip from a book of matches to burnish contacts.
My Heater suffered from crimp failure over heat tripping the cut out, so soldered both crimps. Still works after 4 years.
Someone should get Ralphy an electric blanket.
I think he has one.
@@bigclivedotcom Maybe a kotatsu (type of low power Japanese heater) that is designed to pretty much only heat the small space under a blanket might do the trick if he can't stand waiting
I have a bedjet unit. It blows hot/cool air between a special 2 layer sheet. I absolutely love mine but it has its brand specific downfalls.
@@bigclivedotcom If I were you, I'd take it off him, for his own safety...
This is why I have cats, I can strategically place them in areas to keep warm lol
the heaters we have here, most anyway, have a safety switch that prevents them from working unless they are flat on the floor. if you tilt them at all they shut off
Dragging a slip of paper across the contact faces, is a common cleaning method for micrometers.
I always hang the cable round my neck, and I now wear rubber gloves after too many shocks to count. A couple with burns, one with irregular heart rhythm for a couple of days in hospital. That one was a colleague plugging it back in.
A common trick with classic arcade games is to drag a fresh US one-dollar bill between the button and joystick contacts to clean them. Super fine grit, and not as easy to rip as writing paper. Not sure how other currencies would fare in this regard.
This video just saved me 18$ in having to buy a new one :) , exact fault and exact repair thanks
I had one of these, Heater still worked but fan had failed. Completely locked up.
My old blow heater needs a service every year, it's just the fan bearings well bushes really. So every year I take it apart and give it a clean and lubricate the bearings and like Ralphy I use it in conjunction with a blanket but never covered. The heater blows into my blanket which hangs down from my chair trapping the heat around my legs.
Unless they have changed the plastic recipe these plastic fans are a disaster waiting to happen. . I know someone who had a black and decker fan heater in a shed . Left it on for 10 mins before he went in the shed as it was middle of winter. 10 mins later the shed was half burnt down . Fire brigade said the motor probably stoped and the thermo cutout failed
A friend's standard lamp has an E27 light bulb which flickers. The replacement did the same. The fault is a high impedance in-line switch moulded onto the cable. I need a new switch. I have fixed fan and convector heaters in the past.
I recently had to start using one of these as the central heating packed in and on full (2kW) the plug becomes its own heater, excellent. It could be worth advising Ralph to check that after 10 mins or so on whatever heaters he has around the place.
Cleaning up the prongs and tightly screwing down the contacts in the plug allowed me to use it on 1kW until I could get another heater.
I got through two of those heaters and went for 400 watt Halogen instead of 2 kilowatt fan. Less electricity charges.
I remember Electrolube used to make impregnated card strips for cleaning non-wiping contacts such as this. I have a pack in my toolbox - probably dried out by now...
I've seen business cards used for this kind of cleaning.
Check out how tarnished the mains plug pins are! Naughty Ralphy.
i was fixing mine and couldnt make it work so i realized those thermal things by your video now. Probably mines are dirty too.
I had the EXACT same plastic white fan heater! Different brand name, everything else looked the same. Almost burned down my house two weeks ago. Fan didn't turn on, started glowing bright red and within 10 seconds the plastic started melting. The thermal safety did *NOT* work. If that fan failed and I wasn't standing next to it, my house wouldn't be here anymore. Dangerous devices.
Switches and thermostats that break high current need a bit of time, a few seconds to a minute, to cool down from the arcing on opening before they are opened again or the contacts melt, corrode or weld together and then the thermal fuse becomes all that protects you from a fire or plastic casing turning to slag. The AC circuit switch arc only lasts until the AC voltage next passes thru zero ( 1/100th or 1/120th of a second). High voltage DC switches are always "snap action" as the arc will continue until the contacts are far enough apart to break the arc.
I seem to have a collection of dead heaters, including wiring burnt out, I hate those dunces cap wire connectors pain to strip and re-join
I have identical looking heater, but it has only one set of thermal fuse and a cutout and it cuts all the power to the thing so the fan also doesn't work. I blown my thermal fuse by accidentally pushing it back against the wall reducing airflow. They use rivets on a mica board to mount the fuse and I used same technique to replace it without soldering. Instead of 2nd cutout mine has anti flip switch that didn't work due to the warped bottom plastic meaning that it would not close standing on a flat surface.
"quite often he puts a heater under the blanket with him and wonders why they die" - Both heater and Ralfy if he's not careful! Thanks for some good safety advice with this video.- It's so easy to forget to unplug, particularly if you're getting tired/frustrated.
Yep, it takes only one faulty overheat fuse and Ralphy is crispy._
They make heaters designed for blowing hot air under a blanket. They got the BedJet in the US, but Japan has had similar things for quite a while. (Japanese houses have poor insulation. They also usually sleep on futons on the floor, which get folded up into a closet during the day. If you don't air them out, they become musty)
I recently saw a picture of a Japanese table with a downward facing quartz sort of heater on the bottom of the table. The table had a ring of sort of quilted blanket around it to capture the heat for the lower half of seated individuals around the table.
Sounds toasty and scary at the same time.
@@amorphuc Depends how hot the filament is driven, if it's two in series (and thus half the rated voltage per heater) it doesn't get that hot to be that flammable._
@@amorphuc Kotatsu. Before electricity, they used charcoal in a cage, so you'd have a fire risk and carbon monoxide poisoning at the same time. They're about 500 watts. The latest ones are flat carbon heater panels, which give more legroom and spread the heat out more.
Our old toaster had pitted contacts on the electromagnetic switch. Cleaning worked for a while, but they are prone to sparking when they disconnect. I was going to fix it again, but it was less bother to buy a new one.
Explaining that it's important to put the cables in their right place... All I see is the blue wire on the wrong side of the plastic pin.😳 Luckily you saw it too, it would have bothered me to no end😆
We amateur radio operators use paper to clean the contacts on our morse code keys. A crisp new US bill works very well. Posh business cards or anything on bond paper seems to be the best. Finally, a reason to keep the occasional piece of junk mail.
Cool! I also had to fix this kind of heater in the past (the internals are literally the same), but the repairs were far less straightforward then here. It's actually a good heater in the sense of heating, but it could also be very dangerous!
I was living in my cottage out of the city, and it got cold at night, so I usually had this heater on to maintain a temperature in the room. And one night I was already half-asleep when I heard the fan slow down just slightly. I didn't really pay much attention to that since it was still working fine. But what really woke me up seconds later was the big fire show in the middle of total darkness! I immediately jumped out of the bed and moved towards the outlet in the dark, my path being illuminated by all kinds of sparks and a fire in the middle of the room! Luckily I was not asleep and quickly reacted to that, and in the end only the heater suffered any damage.
So, what went wrong? In my case, since my house was far from the city, there was not much power to run different loads. And if the neighbors decide to use, for example, a kettle, then all lights dim and flicker at my place. So it's very possible that my neighbor just wanted some tea in the middle of the night, and the power drop caused the fan inside the heater to slow down a bit. But the heating element is so strong that all the wiring inside immediately caught fire! I gotta say, based on that experience these heaters are running on edge all the time by poor design and could easily turn into fire hazard.
As for the repairs, all the wiring was completely burned inside, so I had to reverse engineer the schematic using only my knowledge and experience (but its a very simple circuit of course). Everything else was burned and a bit molten, but still good enough to be put back together.
So the moral of the story is: Don't leave working electronics unattended! Know your power supply capabilities before using loads! Use only reliable things and not this plastic crap (like, I have the same type of heater now but it's made completely out of metal, and way better engineered)
I've never seen a fan with just two blades before.
If I understand correctly.. Trying to light yourself on fire is a family trait. Who puts one of those under the covers?
No microcontroller, no full wave bridge, no capacitive dropper, what kind of LED flasher is that? As lond as Ralfy doesn't get to cold, it's fine. Good luck! 👍
He's got plenty of quality whisky to keep him warm..He keeps a sensational bothy..
Used to service carpenter and Ericsson relays used in radar kit (something to do when bored on nights). The card of choice was the RAF F731 serviceability label. The older coarse ones were the best - the newer glossy ones weren’t so good. We also had various grades of diamond coated scraper thingies (imagine a half in feeler gauge on a plastic handle), but they were never as good as card.
The wires! Oh deary me the wires… it's ridiculous. It honestly would save many companies lots of money to re-engineer products so they use pin-to-pad contact where wires would cross over into multiple enclosure pieces.
I use one to keep my boiler room warm I run used canola oil, it works great. cheap easy. Surprised it does not have a bottom safety switch.
i have found fluff gets between those contacts on fan heaters
The recommendation that I've seen regarding thermal fuses is to use crimped connections, not soldering. The last heater of that sort that I had failed in that the plastic shaft behind that knob to select the range broke. It went up into the attic and when I moved it did not make the trip. Oh well. I got enough use out of it before it failed, anyhow...
3:18 Look at that smiley cable clamp. Ohhessoocute.
Brave of saying something naive or indeed patronising, we had alot of these in our music studio and learned you just had to give them time to cool down. We always overheated them and we sussed that, but, we always assumed they had a timer switch inside to stop you firing it back up straight after it cut.
I have a near identical one. Same casing, same innards but no anti tamper screws and there is a floor switch so it switches off if knocked over.
Ralph must be made of money to be operating one of these in 2022.
I hve the same cheap heater that I use as a shed heater which has also succumbed to the damp but in a different way. With mine its that the motor turns slowly due to slight corrosion. Again, easily fixed.
Interesting. I have exactly the same heater (only working) but it's badged "Daewoo".
"Turn it on, turn it off, turn it on", I've seen several devices where the owner had assumed the fault was the power switch (because it would not turn on) and has subsequently tried to 'punish' the power switch into submission.
Signs of this being panel damage around the switch where various implements (i.e. hammer) have been used to try and help it 'turn on'
This model looks like a nightmare. Like they pre-melt it in some industrial accident
A drop of Deoxit on those contacts would help keep them clean as well.
I've got this exact heater! Every winter I have to pull the damned thing apart and clean it up inside. Even though it is kept indoors, those bi-metal contacts corrode and oxidise which kills the heater. Crappy materials during manufacture to keep costs down is to blame.
When I first saw the thumbnail I thought we were looking at a top down view of a special toilet seat with straining capabilities! Ugggghhh!
It even says "DO NOT COVER" on the housing.
When I want blow heated air onto myself while under a blanket I use one of those shoedryer-things with the vacuum-cleaner-like ducts, that way the part with all the action can be a safe (50-70? Cm) away from the covered zone.
"When I want blow heated air onto myself while under a blanket" My personal preference is someone named Jennifer.
I’ve resorted to using a foot switch when doing these types of repairs. Push the pedal down to test for a few seconds, then lift your foot before restarting repairs. Preferable to forgetting to unplug and less work than unplugging over and over.
That's my minor specialty, quick electric repairs for cheap products.
Cheap heaters are pretty poor quality in some cases, I’ve got a tiny 900w one that the fan is wired to part of the heating coil in order to lower the voltage, and the fan started having issues running properly so the thermal fuse went in it.
The solution was to install a thick copper wire fuse instead, and duct tape an usb desktop fan in the back of it - it worked wonders for a few months until I bought a better and bigger one, and always made sure to run it on a timer with intervals of 15-30 minutes. Granted if it ever had started failing due to overheating - then 15 minutes is an eternity… ;)
Before digital photography it must've been a pain to fix appliances because you had to take photos of the disassembly and have them developed before continuing.
I thought whiskey should take care of Ralph's heating problem!
I was yelling at the screen for you to move the blue wire behind the plastic post and thankfully you heard me.
most of those I've seen have another switch on the base that stops the heater running when it falls over.
Landfill thanks you. Winning.
You’d think all that whisky would keep him warm! 😂
had a "hyundai" fan heater like that a while back. was brand new, but faulty. the fan didnt run but it still heated up and melted pretty quickly. I think it was from pound stretcher, who didnt take it seriously and left the stock on the shelf.
Ah the old Connect It branded electronics, a Poundstretcher special
The condition of the plug says it was all from corrosion from being stored out in a damp garage.
Surprised that it doesn’t have a tip over cut out switch.
I'm glad you mentioned the need to thermally isolate the soldering of the thermal fuse. I suffered a severe forehead-slapping event when I replaced one on a friend's heater. Of course, it didn't work after the first repair attempt. The thermal fuses should come with the ID ten-T user warning (ID10T). The second repair attempt solved the problem.
the sinclair zx81 and zx spectrum power supplies have a thermal fuse...soldered to a pcb, below the transformer primary winding,...presumably the automated soldering is quick enough to not trip it, the length between the pcb holes is quite wide, though so hand soldering likely possible if you're quick enough, never yet come across a popped one in these...
I’ve thrown out two of these that just stopped working!
sounds like Ralfy has been sipping too much sauce and sleeping, when he should be stoking and feeding the fire up. 🤣🥳
Get yourself some contact cleaner files, very handy to have in electrical toolboxes
Can you suggest Ralphy tries out a quartz radiant heater for his comfort?
I reckon they’re better - they’re more responsive, and don’t raise the dust.
Also, they’re not trying to heat the whole room volume before you get comfortable.
I get it about electric heaters but they cost too much to power and despite the safety now built into these people still manage to burn down their homes
Neat fix
I have a fan like that, but it has a cutout switch on the base so it only runs when resting upright.
These heaters often have a two-bladed fan; I wonder why.
Probably cost.
I bought one of these for like 7 bucks at the time (few years ago, now they sell it for 9.90), its metal fan make an extremely annoyng noise, never used. then falled off a table and all the assembly broke that little plastic it was attached to.
Was anyone else watching the blue wire, hoping Clive had seen it? He loosely closed up the heater twice with it in an iffy routing, before spotting it and re-routing it safely!
Ralphy sounds a bit like my other half - she loses and breaks things and grants me the privilege of finding ‘em and fixing ‘em.
You did manage a home repair while not being completely sober, well done
I also have a similar brother.......
It is good practice when working on anything with a plug, to get into the strict rule of having the unplugged plug visible where you're working.
That strategy doesn't eliminate the possibility of having the incorrect plug in view.
A non-contact voltage detector can be quickly waved around the danger area at various times.
Teenage me wants you to know that advice is especially appropriate if using a non-insulated screwdriver with a metal handle to undo the screws on electrical terminals 😵💫
That’s a really good advise.
And to have the work area (a bit) clean from other similar cables, so you minimise the risk of unplugging the wrong one.
I usually hang mine on a little hook screwed into the side of my trust bench. That reminds - must get an Explosion-Containing Pie Dish.....
He reminds us twice once when he first opens the heater case and once when he closes it up at the end to make sure the wires are replaced in their original locations. And the closes it up with one of the blue wires very near the heating element. Not where it started out. Oooops!
My electric forced air across aluminum and ceramic panel doesn't use cutouts like that to cycle the coil. It has a thermal safety and anti trip switches but keeps the power on the element full time. Its rated for continuous operation. If it reaches temp i set via manual thermostat the entire unit shuts down until the temperature drops enough to trip the thermostat. Which is wasteful. I think it should cut power to the panel first and wait until the air cools to room temp or very close and then shut the fan down. Or if they wanna stay low cost build just setup a fifteen second delay to give the fan enough time to put the remaining heat I already paid to generate to be pushed into the area. And shutting down the fan should be an option too. Some do these things but the unit I have doesn't. Its only 120volt and i run it typically on low which pulls 350watts for the panel and roughly 30watts if that for the fan motor.
A bit of 600 or 800 grit sandpaper followed by a spritz of Deoxit sometimes helps.
I would use some high/fine grit metal sandpaper on it. And even a little water (for lubrication) on it won't hurt, provided you allow it to dry prior to plugging it in.
I have one of these small heaters, the fan barely runs. But if turned on it's side or upside down, it runs fine.
Doubtless the corrosion is from all the whisky vapors!🎉
This particular heater is probably the most generic on sale in the UK , they are branded with dozens of retail badges and cost around £10. Not surprising that most do not get repaired , tracing back from sale to manufacture and all the profit add ons and shipping it makes you wonder the actual cost is to make? Landfill galore. Excellent content as usual Clive.
Yes it's incredible that manufacturers actually make any profit but often they make more money from P&P than from their goods !
They usually turn things out by the tens of thousands and quite often part of the cost of manufacture (in China) is subsidised so even though only a fraction of the retail cost gets back to the manufacturer they don't lose out completely. This is mainly because their government recognises the value of factories and exporters and will support them even though they are not profitable !
These and others just like them are all over here in the states, I have 4 of them. All in various states of failing from the fan, which I doubt can be "fixed"
I have one here in Finland, not exactly like the specimen in the video, but the general shape is the same, the two knobs just aren't next to each other, but one of the left, one on the right. I have had it for a decade or more, and it was 15 euros at max. It keeps working like a champion, although it doesn't see awfully long hours in a winter, which might explain it.
@@herrakaarme Same here, I have that same kind of cheap and dreadful heater, though mine is from a somewhat reputable local brand (Supra, located in Obernai, Alsace) but still it feels cheaply made.. I don't even know where this thing came from.
I did use it a few times when the central heating wasn't working (the joys of living in a 1970's tower block...), although I'd NEVER let that thing run unsupervised.... I sorta got a bit of a irrational fear about these things..
@@Alexis_du_60 Oh, yes, it's most certainly not going to run unsupervised. I've never let it run more than 10 minutes continuously at the hot (II) setting. The middle setting pushes out barely warm air, so I've once let it run for an hour, wanting to give a drying textile a flow of air. That was years ago.
It's such a plastic bubble that it's immediately evident you either want to heavily limit its use or treat it as an expendable commodity.
Good opening comments on preferring repair rather than replacement, even for very cheap items, to reduce landfill. As for unplugging items when repairing them, I'm sure I don't know what you mean. I worked at a repair cafe, so would be delving into the innards of electrical items more than most people. I would allow my self one zap per month in order to start paying attention again.
One ZPM - that's a new unit of measure which could be applied to repair technicians!!
@@stepheneyles2198 I’d probably need 2-4 ZPM 😂😂😂😂😂
I too work at a Repair Café i fact its on tomorrow the last one of the year …..wish me luck lets hope I don’t get any ZPM 😂
Regarding repair cafés - do they carry any public liability insurance? It was suggested to me that it would be a good use of my time as my imminent retirement approaches but I am wary on such matters.
@@HowardLeVert
I hadn’t thought about it before, but there’s no record kept either of parts repaired
So very little come back and generally people are so happy to have that special item working again be it
Table Lamp, mower, toys, clothing etc ……
This type heaters and similar ones, has the same problem. I thought you had hacked it and were going to give us a definitive solution.
I have one of these, and used another one at work. The ones with european plug have horrible quality plugs. The pins easily heat up to 50 degrees, while a different plug in the same socket barely heats up.
I'm very hesitant to use it at full power for that reason. I don't want it to melt the wall outlet.
" We'll put the cover back on, *just for safety* ".
Says the man who cuts open fireworks, with a craft knife, on his work bench. 😁
I have bypassed the thermal switch when they go out. I do know that should never be done and could cause a fire. The only time i use an electric heater is when I'm waiting for my gas heater to warm the room, usually only 30 minutes max then it gets unplugged. I've rarely had the thermal protection fail, usually it's the switch or ceramic heating element. I can repair a switch but I'm not sure if there is a way to repair a ceramic element. I do save old broken heaters that way i have spare parts for the next one that breaks.
Poor Ralphy being cold, nice quick fix Clive thanks