The trashiest of all miracle heaters (with schematic)
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- I bought three different flame effect PTC style "miracle heaters". Two turned out to be the same style despite having different listing pictures, and this one (which cost the same!) turned out to be somewhat less complex (huge understatement).
I think the best way to avoid this heater is to make sure you buy one with a remote control. This one does work, but is perhaps a bit simplistic compared to the others.
It is totally scavengable though, with a pretty good flame effect and useful heater section that could also be a source of resistance wire for custom heating elements.
It's notable that the rotating mirrored mylar blades give a great scaled down Star Trek warp-core effect if used with blue LEDs.
This unit is freestanding with a thin flex of unknown electrical integrity, but I think we can safely assume that it will be the crappiest copper coated aluminium type stuff. It's also easy to knock over, so that thermal fuse and plastic front grill may be tested at some point.
The schematic does bear a strong resemblance to a hair dryer with extra effects, and that is kinda because it is...
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of CZcams's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators
Once the fan motor fails, you probably won't need the flame effect!
No yo might need to redecorate after and pick the plastic out of the carpet. 🔥🤣🤣
You would be able to distinguish the real flame from the fake!
There was some kind of thermal fuse behind the motor strapped to the wires, Clive just misted that I think
@@kitecattestecke2303 he mentioned it at least twice; and I seriously doubt it will have a chance to cut the power off.
3:00
If you build a man a fire, he'll stay warm for a night. If you set a man on fire, he'll stay warm for the rest of his life. At least that's the philosophy of whoever designed these heaters.
Beat me to it.
Excellent! So all we need is gallon of petrol each, and we're warm for the rest of our days! I like the thinking behind that, but there's just one slight snag with that! 🤦🎆💨🤣🤷
@@XFolf Same here.
@@whitesapphire5865 no snag. try it with youre friends :D
GNU Pterry
It is appropriate to have flames animated. This is an early warning for what will happen to your house.
There's a scene from the I.T. Crowd which makes me look at something like this and think only one thing... 😳
„Made in Britain!” 🔥🇬🇧🙃
The "log display" looks like a pile of dog turds, so when you turn it on, you should have the forewarning and the spectacular "Burning Dogshit" alarm before finally laying waste to your rug.
@@buckstarchaser2376 🤣 I thought exactly the same thing!
@@buckstarchaser2376 sold elsewhere as the Turdblaster 9000
@@noisepuppet There's room in any home for an electric Flammenschiser .
These cheap house igniters never disappoint... 🔥🙂
The second I saw the flicker and heard the noise I went "I bet there is just a diode on that switch because it's cheap and easy", these sorts of things are always funny in a terrifying way.
I had exactly the same thought lol
I had the same but that diode is also under rated. as the average might only be 180W, the peek will still be the 360W.
Indeed. In half wave mode I they could have made it much more stable if they had added a smoothing capacitor
Yepp here too :)
A diode is in no way funny or terrifying. It's just a safe and clever solution that's used in hair dryers all the time.
I think Clive should arrange (under laboratory conditions) some gentle torture for this heater. It would be interesting to slightly restrict the airflow and see what catches fire before the thermal trip goes?
Agree
Definitely!
As an electrician that is literally scared of Electric fan heaters this is pretty much my worst nightmare.
Any particular reason? Do you also dislike oil filled radiators for instance?
@@waqasahmed939 oil filled ones are fine. Since they most of the time have a self regulating heater element that is incapable of producing to much heat for the radiator to dissipate.
The reason why I dislike fan heaters is simple.
They are tremendously unsafe when operating unattended.
I've seen 2 houses that I had to rebuild because a fan heater that caused a massive fire.
It was not pleasant to walk through the burned down romms seeing the leftovers and the things the family owned.
I'll forever rember that smell and the destroyed lives they left behind.
Statistically they have a good likelihood to be the cause of an electrical fire if there is one.
And seeing how on most of them there is only one single ridiculously cheap thermal fuse that keeps them from burning when they tip over or the fan fails that is just not something I'd like to have running in my house .
Same goes for old heater based Clothes dryers.
If I use a fan heater then I'll stay near it or use it on a surface that is incapable of burning.
Also there is a large disaster involving these heaters that has been burned in my memory.
It's quite popular but I forgot the name.
A skii resort used train like transportation and they had a failing heater on board causing a burned down train with almost all of the passengers slowly and horrificaly dying.
My mother used the same one days prior.
It was the Kaprun disaster
Yeah, but it's so terribly portable! Take your fire everywhere. No, I mean... FIRE!!! CALL 911! OR 999 if you're 'cross the pond!
I have a scary story for you: i once had a fan heater plugged into the end of a 6 segment extention cord stretching like 200 feet and had to unplug it in the middle of the chain because the hester was still running BUT 5 of the plugs had completly melted....
i don't know why, but these videos help a lot with my anxiety. maybe its the regularity of them or the consistency. or maybe its the revelation of mysterious technological nuggets. whatever it is, i'm glad you keep making them
I agree!
It’s Clive’s sublime narration, definitely.
@@Lumibear. giant Scots bear, can't go wrong. woof, sigh
@@idjtoal well no disagreement there from here.
I have anxiety and maybe it's just me, but watching CZcams all day makes it much, much worse over the course of a few days to a week, even if it is an excellent distraction (or displacement activity) at the time. But of course everyone is different.
The 'flame effect' is a very ominous prediction of what eventually awaits these plastic heaters.
I like that both units seem to use the same molded red plastic logs to display the flame effect through, except one has what looks like dry brushed white paint to simulate ash. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that both heaters were made in the same factory.
By the way, thanks for showing us the guts of one of these so long ago. I instantly recognized the effect and remembered the hardware upon seeing it lit up. I also remember you saying how jerky the flame would look if the mylar weren't twisted properly and here we are.
See, some of us do pay attention.
Both consist of Chineseum crap 😠
Its more an incendiary device than a heater. Great video Clive, thank you.
"you say toe-may-toe, I say toe-mah-toe..." ^_^ ;D
a gift for the in-laws?
"cheap and nasty" is the best that can be said for these! I cannot imagine any of these actually putting out enough heat to even keep a closet warm, much less a room. Mainly they waste costly electricity and that's all if you're lucky enough that it doesn't start an even more costly fire.
At least the fire they start would keep you warm
The moment you stated they "tapped" into the coil, I was like, please test that. And then I smiled. Thanks, your videos are brilliant!
As soon as you said "sci-fi effect" my immediate thought was the warp core in Star Trek Voyager, it had a very similar plasma flame effect look to it
Fag factor five Captain
The only thing missing is a USB port to charge your phone at 6.5 V pulsed DC.
The oil filled radiator heater I purchased last winter is a real miracle heater. No noisy fan.
I quite like them because they heat up and cool down just like your normal radiators
The heat stays in the room for a lot longer too
They’re good for steady output.
I agree, oil filled heaters are great!
I bought this same heater in a slightly different casing and without the LED effects. Full well knowing how crappy it would be, it's only purpose was to act as a thermostatically controlled enclosure heater for the little greenhouse to keep some plants above 16C during winter. It would turn on for less than 30 seconds at a time every few minutes or so, worked fine for a while until the fan motor stopped working for some reason intermittently, at which time it would melt the plastic grille before the bimetallic switch did its job.
lol, go figure!
Dude I'm Doing The Same Thing!!!
Grow Box And It's Too Cool Out Side And I Need A Small Heater To Control The Temp In My Grass House!!!!
I'm Only Using It When I'm In The Shop With It!!! Don't Want To Burn My Crop Up Until After Harvest!!! Then We Burn Down The House!!!
Keep Rocking It Out Brother!!!
In the past I used a five 100W tungsten filament lamps, all running at half mains voltage, 240V lamps, connected to a isolating transformer with a 120V secondary (output). It was a very reliable arrangement.
@@rockerpat1085 Isn't it terribly exhausting to begin every word with a capital letter, especially for those that shouldn't have one?
Isn't It Terribly Exhausting To Worry About Such Things?
And For The Record: It Ain't Hard At All To Be Awesome!!!!
Having been a firefighter, I always find these kinds of heating products terrifying; or is it horrifying?
terrifying people buy these horrifying they allowed to be sold
But why is it so dangerous?
@@songsthatarecatchy Because people often turn on heaters and forget about them and leave them unattended. Combine that with a cheap plastic housing and questionable design decisions and you can easily get a fire.
Job security.
Why not both?
I Bought One Similar For A 2x4x6 Box I Have Some Grass Growing In And I Needed To Control The Temp In The Box!!!
The First Thing I Noticed Is The Massive Stench In The Box After 5 Minutes Of Use!!! I Removed The PLASTIC Face Plate Because It Was Super Soft And I Figured It Was Going To Melt!!! Smell Went Away After Removing The Grill!!!
Nice To See Thermal Protection!!!
Keep Rocking It Out Brother!!!
More weapons of house destruction.
400/500 watt can take the chill out of a room, but people are using them as their sole room heater, recently one in the UK caused a fire due to the user having their chair too close.
interesting design and schematic, many thanks for sharing.
Regards John.
These are always interesting to see how far they might go for realism, I understand a few actually have a random smoke and real fire feature built in, its like the silicone lottery though, never know if you got the one with extra features.
Product Listing: "Product may differ from illustration"
Me: "...especially after running for a couple of hours"
If the heater element went open circuit between where the bridge rectifier is connected across, things would get very interesting for the fan motor, effects motor and LEDs !
A follow-up video ??
i think that happened to a 9$ harbor freight heat gun i had. fan went BRRRRRRRR and poof
Just more realistic flames!
Thus living up to the advertised house warming effect with even less use of electricity. Nice!!
I can smell that thing from here and I'm Australian.
Seems like a great design. Can't be cold when you're on fire.
You had me at trashiest 😍 absolute 80s style trash tech!
God bless you Big Clive for highlighting these dangerous pieces of crap
Seems like a lot of trouble for 300 watts worth of heat; you could run Folding@Home on a modest PC and accomplish something useful with that much power.
That’s what I do to heat my attic
Yep. Used to do that on a dual xeon workstation, it warmed under my desk nicely.
You can also overclock some GPUs and mine cryptocurrency. Or grow marijuana.
A high school teacher had one of these! I’ve been looking for one for years I thought it was adorable, it reminded me of one my grandma has. Glad I didn’t find one 😅
Nice teardown. The cheaper one works exactly like a 70s hair dryer i have. The half wave diode low speed heat setting is a clever old trick.
Out of curiosity, what do more modern heaters do for this? Regulate the voltage?
PJ - Um, not sure, but the mains voltage is fairly well regulated.
I actually purchased several 12v versions of this sort of garbage for a project a while back. Good lord, the absolute certainty of several of the variations to catch fire an burn down was amazing. Some didn't even have soldered connections, just twisted wires. Unbelievable.
Hah! My nextdoor neighbour bought the exact same product just five weeks ago. She hasn't seen it yet because she's seriously ill in hospital. I wanted to dismantle the thing to have a look inside, so thank you, Clive, for saving me the bother of buying triangular screwdrivers just to let me in. Whoever put it together must have been in a hurry to get finished, because it looks, even from the outside, as though its various outer components aren't fitted together properly, the display window components in particular.
I did try to warn her!
Sabotage it so it gets sent back! It'd save her getting burnt to death
Maybe it should "magically" disappear before she returns home...
@@snakezdewiggle6084 Or better yet, it "never arrived".. 🤷🏻
I hope she's in hospital for something other than inhalation of fumes from the plastic grill melting
There are a LOT of plastic cased " bar fire " type heaters being sold ... these burn FAR TOO HOT ( bright orange ) and the Nichrome elements are super thin = VERY short life ( 4 months ? ) ... a better buy would be a 2nd hand 1960's bar fire from a junk ( thrift ) store .. these have THICK elements , run a dull red ... my mum's Belling™ from the 1950's STILL WORKS TODAY ! ! ..( tried - n - tested ) ..... DAVE™ ..............
These half-wave rectifier heaters can introduce significant harmonics into the power distribution system. I notice that when I switch my 1500W space heater to "LOW" mode (which similarly puts a diode in series with the heating elements), the induction motors throughout the house hum noticeably more loudly, and if my variac is plugged into the same circuit, it will buzz quite a bit more than usual!
This can cremate a grandma with her house basically for free.
I like the one you took apart. You could remove the heater and the fan and run it off a 5V powerbank just for the flame effect fireplace. :)
(although it all depends on the current draw of the motor as to how long the powerbank will last)
TBH I have used an actual hair dryer to heat up the room in emergencies before. It's loud as heck, but it kinda does the job, I managed to raise the temperature by one degree as the clock on my wall said, probably even more around the bed where it was aiming.
Ah the smell of burning dust, I've missed that ...
@@DavidCurryFilms I had to crawl under my house with a hair dryer to thaw my water pipes, in a confined space that burning dust smell is almost overpowering.
01:08 - Can't stop seeing a pile of poo in the fireplace.
I agree.... It IS what it IS. 😕
😄
You buy them, so we dont have to.👍👍
Thanks to you I repaired an electric heater. Replaced the thermal fuse. A part for 40 cent that made it the whole thing useless.
Usually, I am happy when I guess something and confirm that I got it right.
This time, I was frightened to guess it was a half-cycle diode rectifier on the switch.
This semi-happy, semi-scared state bothers me now, especially since they will keep doing this, *I know they will.*
Hmmm… Beans & Weenies??? A phantom olfactory delight!!! Thanks, Clive…
I thought the thumbnail was a joke. I'll give them an A for showmanship.
That flame effect was surprisingly nice to look at.
I have three of the "Handy Heaters". I got them at a thrift store over the summer for 5 dollars each. (Three for less than the price of one on Amazon) The ones that plug directly into the outlet. Winter came, and I plugged one in. Powered up, worked really well. After an hour or so, it just shut off. Have to unplug it, and plug it back in to get it going again. Tried another one. Same thing. The third one... Same thing. While they were running, the heat was pretty good. They are the PTC type element and have digital thermostat and a sleep timer. I think that even if the sleep timer is off, it still functions and goes off after an hour or so. But, ANY heater I have ever used with a digital control has been utter sh!t.
While going to flea markets and yard sales I found a "Big Heat" Model 6200 heater. It is the hot-coils type. Now THAT sucker works!! For nearly as small a package, it has tip-over shutoff, an overheat protection, an actual selector switch and an actual bi-metal thermostat. You know, REAL knobs and controls.
Best damn little heaters I have ever bought (I now have three of those.. Er, I mean two. I gave one to my Uncle.)
Link to "Handy Heater": www.amazon.com/Ontel-Handy-Heater-Personal-Compact/dp/B01L9UKAHM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_img_top?ie=UTF8
Link to "Big Heat" : www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/portable-electric-forced-air-heater-1799938058
That big heat one looks like a scary old heater that'll burn your house down. 🤣 Be careful with that old thing.
@@jamesdagmond Only if used without common sense. The only way it's burning anything is if the user is an outright fool and lets the front get covered by something like a curtain or blanket. But even then it does have a one-shot overtemp cutoff. (A thermal fuse) once that pops, it won't come back on again until the fuse is replaced. It has a steel body, porcelain insulators, Steel grille, double insulated, and a true AC induction motor fan with steel blades. (not some plastic, re-used laptop cooler fan) I'd consider an older heater like that far safer than the plastic, chinesium trash getting pumped en masse out of china these days.
Trust me, It's fine.
If you think that one is scary, you should see my 1960's "Markel - Neo-Glo" Heater or my 1930's "Radia Health-Heater" Both of which work great.
Markel: www.ebay.com/itm/195461862634?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D243355%26meid%3D83f3f8a657d6432182e4268632f4ebc6%26pid%3D101224%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D254482626355%26itm%3D195461862634%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebWithV5RefreshRanker%26brand%3DMarkel&_trksid=p2047675.c101224.m-1
Radia: www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-shepler-mfg-co-electric-401425382
As soon as you said half wave rectifier, I got excited and hoped you'd put in a capacitor.
I wonder if the Mylar isn’t meant to derive a varying twist from its free end dragging against the motor. Thank you for featuring this Darwinian catalyst with your adoring fans!
Who wouldn't like their housefire device to come with a nice, ear-grating scraping noise!
The only way to make those flames realistic is to spray gasoline on the device and set it off
Interesting and scary design at the same time. Just imagine the heater wire breaks between the taps of the rectifier. I would think that the fan, effect motor and the LEDs may make a brief, but intensive light show when basically connected to mains voltage with only the heating wire acting as a current limiting resistor. Would be a nice follow up video
I wonder how the plastic grille stands up after a few hours on high.
Probably look like somethimg similar to this.... 🙁 and smell like this.... 🤥
Below 100°C it may be OK, above that I'd be wary (I doubt something this cheap would go for high-temperature plastic, which I suspect would cost more than steel).
By my measurements
Perfect way to heat your whole house this winter, just be sure you're out when it burns down.
So, with the two thermal safety parts, one would hope it wouldn't catch fire, so it's 400w heater in a very tiny package. Seems like it could be really nice for putting on your desk to blow straight at you... In any case, even if it does catch fire, at least you're right there & can (hopefully) put it out before it sets the house on fire. Personally I wouldn't recommend leaving any fan heater running while you're not in the room - even "safe" ones.
It *is* a miracle: a fire starter brick that works without the need of matches or any other source of flame!
The unpainted logs look like turds and I can't unsee it
They do... My dachshund creates very similar logs.
Maybe I could box em up, and sell them to China?
Cheap Chinese plastic products are usually quite similar in the aroma department, until they've off-gassed for several weeks anyway.. 🤷🏻
😆
Splendid! It's cool to get something cheap and trashy once in a while. I wouldn't get 3 at a time though. Good luck. Keep warm.
The plastic moulding looks like something I'd normally see in the toilet bowl after a night on Guiness and peanuts
This serves as a reminder to all: make SURE your fire/renter insurance is paid & current!
Hmm no tilt switch definately a fire hazard, nice video🙂
This is fascinating. I was intrigued when I saw the effect that reminded me of disco lights. Quite interesting that they built it like an effect spotlight rather than a few leds and an mcu. Very cool
As mentioned the heater is exactly like a cheap hairdryer, although running at lower power for it to last longer. As with cheap hairdryers, I'd expect the switch to be the first component to fail.
You'd think it wouldn't be so hard to put the guts of a hair dryer in a box with fake flames and call it a day, but 350 watts on high? Lol, that's 1/6th of the hair dryer I use!
That low setting sounds very like the fans in an E46 3 series when the Final stage resistor dies
I WANT that little trashy heater. I'm a heating technician and would like to put that in our show room as a joke.
Note sure if I would trust either one running...or even just plugged in...while I'm asleep.
Not that you should be leaving it running while you sleep!
@@whitesapphire5865 You shouldn't even plug such things in to begin with...
"Old fashioned resistor style". Gee, thanks for making me feel like a fossil.
The nichrome wire element one is liable to burn your house down. A plastic tunnel around heat coils? I can see it sagging off the wall now, once the cutoff fails.
I love the way they used the diode. Just delightful isn't it!
I've seen those.
And can only imagine that the "UL" listing was simply the Uneasy Laughter as somebody plugged it in 😬
Comes with a deathdapter it doesn't need - Perfect!
Identical to a cheap 1800W hot air gun I bought a while back. The gun has low and high settings of about 300C and 400C. Not much difference between high and low heat, because the fan keeps the heating element cool - this means when the heating element is on low (half wave rectified) the fan is also going much slower, so the heating element does not get cooled as much. Without the fan, the element would probably burn out in seconds. I bought the heat gun hoping to modify it to variable heat (down to about 100C would have been good). Of course it didnt work, because a lower heating element meant a slower the fan. I think the only way to solve this problem is to give the low voltage fan an independent power supply but didnt get that far.
A friend loaned me a very similar one with the digital display to assess. I was surprised to see an infra red receiver next to the display. No remote in the box, no mention of remote capability in the instructions, but the remote for one of my novelty lamps works it.
I think I'll stick to my Aladdin blue-flame paraffin heater, silent, no electrickery needed, and not made of cheap plastic, still could cause a fire if misused, but what doesn't have that risk these days? :P
Yeah....but that smell I remember almost as well as the dentist gasmask. Urgh!
As an electrician and super model, I used to use this exact hair dryer back in the day. Tragically I was irreparably disfigured when my diaphanous scarf and complexion caught fire.
"This is fake! There is no real fire like in the picture!"
Seller: "Just wait a bit :-D"
I took apart an old toaster oven, and used the parts to make a space heater. Actually works great, but I wouldn't trust it enough to leave it on without me here.
1. they could've used a fancier switch, skip the diode, and not have any of the flicker issues. The switch would just power half of the heating element, but configured so on short/long heater section the potential divider is the same. (same middle tap, the switch changes top/bottom taps, so a double pole double throw.)
I noticed the moulding for the logs are the same on both units....
Its funny how they "cost optimised" the flame effect until its barely recognisable. Next version will just have a red led. And the version after that will just be a hair dryer without any flame effect. Its like backwards evolution
Clive,what about doing a safety vid on things like this, block the vents and film what happends, just make a box with an extracter and pipe to a window to get rid of toxic fumes? that would be interesting as well.
Even the logs look fresh and warm when the heater is off 😁.
oh wow a hair dryer. fascinating. lots of salvage there. yes the first one had a much nicer effect.
Just 3-D print a stand for your hair dryer, or clamp it to a bench!
1500 watts or 300 watts, the choice is yours.. 😁
Its very risky design. I am sure it will keep fire dept. occupied for a while
😂 "Is it still hot?" Pokes it with two fingers. Wonderful. 😂 Even big Clive does it.
Of all the things we do in electronics creating heat is then most efficient. I make heat even when it is not a desired result, I even generate heat when I am designing a cooling circuit.. it is a miracle
I'm curious what that half-wave output actually looks like in an oscilloscope, figuring in the back-emf from the motor.
I’m not comfortable going to bed with one of those things plugged in. 🔥
"One Moment Pleeeze" Love your videos, interesting.
I just had to grind down the circumference of my triangular bit to get into a Sunbeam Xpress heat electric blanket. Once in I discovered the damn thing has a 28 pin SMD. You should take one of these apart, Clive, because the wiring in the blanket is not at all what I expected. It's all flat wire spiral wound and there are at least two layers like this. I have to look closer because there might even be another conductor inside for safety. Lots of high tech safety has gone into this thing. Frankly I doubt I will ever get it working again at this rate but I need to spend more time with it, too.
Circumference of a triangle?? 🤔 Hmm...
Just wanted to say that I finally ordered my HOPI from AliExpress 🤓😍
Impressive as this is, it's still nowhere near in the class of the Trident Ingot Ration Heater.
Great video again Clive. Just wondering how the live passes through the diode when switched in low mode, is that a diode or a resister? You do great work on keeping us views educated on safe/unsafe products that are out there, British Standards should sponsor you as you are doing a wonderful job.
Its a diode.. When it's switched into the circuit by moving the switch to the low position, the diode only let's one half of the A/C sine wave through, then effectively only using half of the power. Thats why the LEDs then flicker, because they are only being powered by half of the alternating sine wave, and are dark for the other half.
Power's also going throw a resistor divider network on high and low. It's using some heating element windings as the resistor.
Just got a youtube ad for one of these today and now this video :D
Another lovely teardown analysis. Cheers, Clive!
For a moment I thought "Monkey Butt" was actually on the device. Wasn't terribly surprised, after watching Ashens videos nothing from China seems impossible.
sleeved earth, sums it up pretty much
Those "logs" remind me of one I just flushed away.....
The false labels on the thumbnails are really funny lol
That flame effect was pretty cool, though.
Wow! That looks exactly like the picture.... I'm getting 2 of them......