Oil filled heaters: 600 watt heaters pretending to be 1500 watts
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- čas přidán 20. 11. 2021
- I love these oil filled space heaters because they are completely quiet. But every one of them I have tried will trip it's internal overheat thermostat if it's set higher than level "1", which is about 600 watts.
Seeing that leves 2 and 3 are useless and perhaps dangerous, I modified mine to have a 400 watt and 600 watt level, but no higher levels.
According to CSA C22.2 No. 46-13 any oil filled radiator heating surface accessible by a 102 mm sphere can not exceed a temperature of 90C. This is why the temperature limiting device is there and cycles. If you buy the same heater in the USA with a UL 1278 certification there is no heating surface temperature limit, therefore no cycling will occur at maximum thermostat setting. The number one cause of portable heater fires is due to loose electrical connections, that's why the connections that carry the full electrical load are or should be soldered. I have worked for an unspecified small appliance manufacturer for over 25 years working with multiple agency's safety compliance for portable heaters.
Ah, very useful infomation. That may be why some are reporting their heaters don't cycle. Maybe it's just for Canada they need this overheat thermostat set to what it is, which makes it a stupid design for here.
Very interesting!
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Yes the Canadian Standards association (CSA) has the max metal heating surface 90C requirement. Underwriters Laboratory (UL) does not have the metal heating surface requirement for US heaters.
Portable heaters can be certified by UL to be sold in Canada and the US, the compliance label will have a cULus marking if it does. This just indicates it was tested to both standards. There's more than just testing involved but I will leave it at that.
There is a third compliance organization Electrical Testing Laboratories (ETL) that tests to the UL and CSA standards. They are a cheaper option for compliance testing so you could see ETL or cETL on the compliance label as well.
Which brand or model has everything you’re talking about?
@@whatthe2458 Each model will only have one of the certifications listed not all. The manufacturers have to pay annual file review costs for each certification. The small appliance business is extremely cost sensitive.
I'm allways impressed by your confidence. You start filming and put a lot of effort into things, even if you could get surprised and caught off guard. You always find a solution.
This wasn't the first heater I modified
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 modest as well ;)
He said it many times before, but usually the stuff that ends up in film is never the first try. Like on drawers for example you'll notice that there is always an already finished drawer in the background
@@AnastasisGrammenos
A la Norm Abrams
@@AnastasisGrammenos I for one love seeing the mishaps and mistakes and how they were overcome with a solution.
I have had newer Chinese made Delonghi radiator heaters that offer the option of 750-900-1500 settings. Over the years, I've bought the older Delonghi heaters, which were made in Italy and are almost double in size - 8 fins with larger spaces in between- and rated 600-900-1500. I really prefer these, and like what I think are the savings of 150 watts on low power. In my opinion, once that thermal mass of metal and oil are warm, the old 600 watt heaters are warmer than the newer 750 watt version. I have seen newspaper clippings of the model I have from 1980, and it was selling for over $150- given inflation, that has to equate to $200 or so in today's money. The new (non-Delonghi) models Wal-mart sells were around $40 a few years back, so the smaller size and Chinese production seem to have reduced the price a lot, but I still strongly prefer our massive 40+ year old models that I've picked up at garage sales and thrift stores, and always run them on the lowest power setting.
I bought a delonghi one in 2012 and it made that wrong-sounding oil popping noise that's in this video.
@@jimmybrad156 Ours make that noise sometimes when starting up, but it goes away when warm. It's never very loud. I always assumed it had something to do with the cold oil expanding as it got hot.
I have a newer DeLonghi here. Is it best to run it on low mode? I’m a bit confused on which power to use.
Yep, I always run it on low and it does just fine.
That crackling on first for up.. Either when Brand New/unused OR for the season.... is Normal !
Start worrying if it doesn't do that :-)
I don’t think I could fail to be impressed by the level of ingenuity consistently displayed on your channel. well done, as always.
I second your thoughts
When these were introduced they had more fins. Good ones were made by (or were branded) DeLonghi. Wouldn't be surprised if in those the heating element only went halfway in so the oil would circulate around. How about a teardown on some of these heaters to see how long the elements are?
got a 2000 W delonghi here in europe, its been working for 25 years no problem.
Don't they make quite good coffee machines too?
I mean, yeah they probably are the best. But one could add more fins
DeLinghi makes good heaters. I have had several over the years.
Yes when I grew up we had DeLongi oil heaters. They were made in Italy.
This video encouraged me to hook up my oil filled heater to a power meter. Curiously, the third setting remains at 1325 watts even after it's been on for hours and the room temperature has reached over 70F. I don't know if I should be pleased or concerned, it was the cheapest "1500 watt" oil heater at walmart after all.
How many fins does it have? Maybe your heating element is simply longer than the creaking one Mattias demonstrated.
Canadian or US?
See the pinned comment and I think you will find the reason.
Or it isn't certified / has fake certification like a lot of things these days :/
On our oil-filled heater,it has two switches, one for each element. The switch for the high power element burned through its contacts long ago. I removed the wiring on that switch, and we just use it on low. It's fine... It'll make those oil-ticking noises for a minute or two at power-up after having moved the unit, especially if it's been tipped slightly. Manual says that's normal.
We got one where the contacts for the high element burned out too -- before I realized never to use the high power element!
An oil filled heater, combined with a fan, has the advantage of being less of a fire hazard. Heating elements of fan based heaters can get quite hot, and the fan sucks anything small inside. Saw dust, hair, pieces of paper...
@@hansvandermade6045 probably sounds better than a heater with a tiny built-in fan too. and a lot of warm airflow instead of a small hot intense wind
@@poiiihyProbably, yeah. They're best without any moving parts, though :)
@@hansvandermade6045 yeah but then you have confirmed it's gonna have issues if the fan breaks which can happen easily.
I've had one of these small oil filled headers for 13 years now I use it every year and I love it and I never had a problem with it
How many fins does it have? Is it a DeLonghi? Looks like some changes have been made to newer ones to make them cheaper. Ideally, the heating elements should only be half the length of the heater so oil can flow down the far end as it cools off, then up the control end as it's heated again.
@@greggv8 I have an old Kenwood, which apparently was made in the same plant as the DeLonghi.
One thing to watch out for is oil leaks. We love these heaters to. But keep them on a tray so we can detect oil leaks. If it happens they go to recycling due to fire hazard. Newer happend to us thought, but there has been some fires due to them. As it has from other ovens from dust or covering. Thats why I like these. They dont get so hot that they can ignite dust, paper and such by accident. Gretings from Norway 🖐
we had one leak, returned it. I think the thermal cycling, and oil boiling increase the probability of leaking quite a lot.
Also the overheat protection can fail in such a way so that the circuit is still closed meaning you can get a runaway heating on higher temperatures causing the oil to boil and blow the radiator causing fires
@@zerg539 That's why we like seeing a thermal fuse as a backup protection like with the first heater he opened.
I've had 3 leakand others fail in other ways. It's why I won't get them again and opt for halogen bar heaters instead.
I got one of those external thermostat outlets that can be set to a temperature rage of something like 5 to 40C. I plug that into an outlet, then I plug my oil heater into that, set the heater to max and then set the external termostat to my preferred temperature. The benefit of doing that, is that I get a more constant temperature in the room and I can easily adjust the temperature on the external termostat.
Been using this system for two years and it still works great. I assume I will have to replace that relay some day, but it will probably last longer than that thermal switch that's built in anywhay.
I've been doing the same for the last ten years. All my heaters are still alive and well, never had to fix or replace anything.
I just started doing that this year, I grow plants that I need to winter the bulbs indoors over the winter, and I set up a small room in my unheated shop with an oil filled heater to keep them above freezing but not too warm, found that the heaters work well, but that if I added an outlet with a thermostat I could keep is really nicely controlled and not worry about overheating them or burning out the heater
Depending on the situation, you might find it better to use a lower power setting (by which I mean not using all the elements, not setting the radiator thermostat lower) and have it cycle less often. I do something similar but I found a ceramic heating panel. Unfortunately, it wasn't high quality and I'm looking for a replacement. The panel had the advantage that it was low profile. It has the disadvantage that bare wires are now showing :)
Yep, I keep it on the low switch setting so that it heats up slowly, and cycles for as long as possible
The argument that Matthias made against that solution is that the radiator will still creak due to cycling when externally switched on and off.
I have two of the delonghi oil radiators. Bought ten years ago for $79 ea. I don't think you can touch them for that price these days. They are 1500w and digital with two on-off timer setting. I have one right next to me as I write- it is 25f outside. These heaters do a great job and I've never had a problem and haven't run my furnace since I bought them. I love that they're completely silent and don't dry the air out. I expect them to last many more years. Almost 30 years ago I bought a delonghi radiator and it must have been wired for 220v as on 110 it would hardly get warm at all. Needless to say it ended up never being used and was probably thrown away at some point.
I still have the Delonghi I bought over 20 years ago. That one turns on and off, and it is one of the features of the model. Once it has reached the set temperature it switches off. I can’t comment on how much power it really draws on different settings, but the only time it makes that ticking noise is when it has been switched off and is cooling down.
But I switched to gas heating anyway, because electrical heaters are too expensive to run these days. Those oil heaters are nice, but take far too long to warm up. Plus the gas heaters still work when we have blackouts.
If you have acces to renewable energy where you live, gas probably isn't the green option tho...
(I have seen gas company making greenwashing ads where I live saying it was the green option, when most if not all our electricity comes from hydroelectricity)
Gas in the bay area is more expensive than electric heater.. so I am hoping to save some money by switching to a couple of DeLonghi with program
I had an old one in the 80's that worked great. It ran the heating elements in series when idling then switched them to parallel as needed to regulate the temperature. All it had was a thermostat, an on off switch and a hole to poke a screwdriver through to hit the button to reset the overheat sensor. Unfortunately I didn't bring it with me when I moved and all the new ones are garbage.
Like you I purchased a DeLonghi oil-filled radiator in the early 80s. It is still running perfectly! Made in Italy. I need another one but you said all the new ones are garbage. What am I to do?
I had an oil heater radiator 30 years ago that worked great and in curiosity I measured the amps it was drawing at each setting and it was doing as it claimed. A couple of years ago I bought a new one and immediately noticed just what you did, so I returned it.
I started trying to find one that was built properly and even called one companies US distributor. After talking to a couple of people I ended up talking to an engineer who told me something interesting...
He said that they didn't specify how it was wired but that the Chinese manufacturer was complying with a EUROPEAN REQUIREMENT and that to simplify manyfacturing the US ones just got built the same.
Somewhat like how California laws drag everyone else along in the other 49 states.
I have a Garrison, bought at London Drugs. It works as it should unless it's left on high for a long time, then it leaks a bit of oil out a tiny hole in the back. I turned it down and it continued to work great.
Jon in rural BC, Canada
The safety requirement is fine (it stops a catestrophic oil fire), just the heater is too small for the power.
I have one of these exact model... I noticed the same thing you did (that it only drew ~700W continuous) so I added some aluminum fin extensions that by my estimate double the surface area. It pulls full power now if I put it on level 3.
how did you fasten them?
@@dizzolve thin aluminum sheets around each existing "fin" with thermal paste on the flats to improve conductivity, riveted together on either side to tightly clamp the sheets to the existing fins.
@@kschleic9053 great idea thanks for the info!!
How nice of them to sell crap that we have to fix :/
The overheat protection elements are rated at different degrees. You could potentially change it to a higher degree rating and get more power out of the heater, clearly that would be a risk so you would have to do it at your own risk. Thank you for the video!
The best is to buy a bigger heater, but just run it on half power.
This is a great solution.! I keep one of these in My basement to warm the upper floor.
But - For those of you who may be uncomfortable with electronic alterations - -
Upstairs - I keep My ceiling fan on reverse to force warm air down.
That seems to keep Mine from cycling on/off.
If I forget the ceiling fan it cycles and reminds Me. -KJ
Just set it to "1" and it won't cycle.
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 I mean, it will still cycle if it reaches the set point of the thermostat, right? That's the whole point of the dial?
@@isaackvasager9957 yup... But from experience those thermostats are super inaccurate...
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 But if the temp's that low I'll have to put on clothes. ;-/
;-)
“Only I can set the temperature” spoken like a true Dad lol
lol
when I moved into a larger camper, the two oil-filled radiators weren't big enough. It was suggested that I use infrared heaters...they worked! I have 3 infrared heaters for the past 2 years and they're flawless...and are run by a thermostat.
Hi
What was the brand of heater that you got? I've been looking for a couple weeks to get one and I want to get a good one. Thank you
Ya, wait...
You had TWO oil-filled radiator heaters you replaced w THREE infra-red heaters to heat the same space and it worked? Three did the trick where two didn't? 3>2? SMH
"Ah, security screws..." Dremel tool... "Problem solved." I love it - I just bought a "Security screws" set of bits. 🙂
I have 4 or 5 (who knows maybe more) old DeLonge oil space heaters that are all probably 30 years old. They are tanks in comparison to the new units.
I wonder if an insufficient fluid level in the radiator would cause limit tripping in high power. An air pocket is required for thermal expansion of the fluid at the top but if the fluid does not reach the top manifold it will not circulate vertically during heating which may cause the overheating during high output (fluid boiling).
Could this be a mfg cost saving that the purchaser will never notice? Is it even oil? Can the element be removed to check oil volume?
Hmmm?
excellent point there. Don't really want to pull the element, cause it might not seal right when I put it back in. But feeling for how much of it gets hot, it looks like the oil level barely gets to the top reservoir when its on.
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 an IR camera could give you a good idea of the oil level
@@2bfrank657 I think even a laser thermometer would do the trick
Cheap ones have very low oil filling and thin metal stacks. I compared a cheap one vs a more pricy one and the expensive one looks to have more volume of oil and thicker heavier fin stacks.
The tinkle in the eye, when you said only I can set the temperature. Makes you so happy, made me chuckle
The way he said "out" he must be Canadian. I really enjoyed this video, very informative. Thank you.
Or from Dakotas
I had one of those... the dial "thermostat"'s sensing element also passed heater current. 1500 watts, all the way up, would actually end up a cooler temp than 900 watts. ... it got rewired to handle a regular baseboard heater thermostat. Works like a champ now.
Glad to see there is a solution to the quirks of the oil filled heaters... they are a great alternative to the "element and fan" cycling on and off.
Matthias, we love those heaters too, although in Australia (at least in our little bit of it) we turn them on only a few nights in winter, then by the end of September, when they haven't been used for a month, we cover them up so they don't get dusty and think about them next May when it starts to get cool again.
Except this year the heater was on right through into mid December in Victoria. Winter just never stopped.
Oil heaters are great. They're silent, so easy to have in bedrooms.
@@davidunwin7868 you are so right. I could handle some of that global right now.
Same here in S. Texas. By early April I have them in the closet with plastic garbage bags over them so they don't stink when they are brought out again.
Same in Florida
may is summer broseph. fricken moran
Hi.
I just bought one of these this winter and noticed the same situation (should have seen this earlier). It’s meant to have 3 heat settings but as it can only radiate an amount of heat proportional to the difference between its and the environmental temperature setting it makes no difference (in reality) what power its set on. On level 3 it gets hot quicker but the electrical consumption scales back to an equilibrium. If it was in a very, very cold room or, as you tried, you put a fan on it (done that too), then it can maintain a greater heat value setting. In essence these work great in small spaces, but don’t heat larger ones as they scale back.
Cool vid!!
The upside of the oil heaters is they are more mellow. Instead of dumping really hot hair every so often you get a steady stream (with a low speed fan) of decently warm/hot air.
I have a small honeywell fan for general use that I point across my radiator when its in use because little heaters are annoyingly loud and the draw+light cooling makes the heater cycle less. The fan is pretty quiet and also moves air to the side of the room on which I sit, because the heaters cant run on the same circuit as the two computers in that room.
Its a little obtuse but it works for me
Our UK ones cut *all* the elements once the overheat protection cuts in. I have a 500W mini radiator which despite having a 90°C safety cutout only radiates about 170W. My 1750W model had a 65°C cutout and even on the 600W setting only heated to about 380W. I replaced both cutouts with 110°C versions, now the 500W heater kicks out 380W without tripping the safety and the 1750W can cope with about 1100W before tripping. I've marked the thermostats accordingly and now they're plugged into smart switches that turn them on at night when electricity is cheaper than gas.
Damn your gas expensive as hell. For me only way electric is cheaper is to run heatpump but at night. During the day no, gas still cheaper
I was super lucky to randomly find a near silent fan heater at Walmart that I also control with smartthings. you're cool.
It would be nice to see teardowns of the old Hydrosil electric baseboard heaters, the ones with the gel inside. My gas wall furnace was red tagged as my contractor installed the new furnace wrong, with the old shorter vents of the old furnace. The old Hydrosil has worked well to keep my bedroom area comfortable, with outside temps here sometimes down in the 30's. I did replace the thermostat, as the old one was a bit wonky.
Turn the Heater upside down, when it's cold, so that the oil is mixed evenly. (It says do do this seasonally in the owners manual). I recommend placing them on a cookie sheet as the will leak eventually. When they leak, its time to replace them. Overtime, the popping noise goes away and they are very quiet. I like this design, they work well.
thank you for the tip about seasonally rotating them upside down to mix the oil, I didn't know that.
I like those heaters. I have one. It does an excellent heating job, so I'm not worried about if it only stays at 600 W.
I envy the electricity prices you have in Canada. I'd love to have electric heating.
Grüße aus der Heimat
Yes, I always admire the sophisticated german heating systems, but with your fuel prices, that makes sense, here it's not worth it.
What is Mathias’s rate per kw?
@@nrehberg Not sure about NB but in the two provinces I've lived in it ranges from 0.08-0.16CAD/kWh
@@omegaflameZ its 0.37cad/kwh in uk rn :(
@@djenson laughs in 0.43 cad/kWh in Germany
A dad's dream , to be the only person to set temperature!
Reminds me of the safety features clothes dryers have. There is absolutely no way I would ever bypass or modify them. Use the device within the capabilities it was designed for. And by the way I am a 64 year old certified appliance service technician with a couple decades of experience. If you aren't happy with the performance of an appliance find one that satisfies your needs.
Where can I buy a microwave that doesn't beep?
My toshiba allowed me to turn OFF the beeps.@@tomjacobson7623
I have two of those large standup quartz heaters from 1962.
I have rewired them so they are safe. They are very quiet with no fans.
They are 1100 W and provide good radiant heating.
Paging Alec from Technology Connections... :)
My question is how safe is this heater if a kid accidentally puts a shirt on it or throw a blanket on it and can it be placed on carpet?
Me: 4 digit pin on my Nest
Matthias: hold my beer
I have a similar style heater I bought recently. I decided to test it after watching your video. It was advertised as a 600/900/1500 watt heater. It's actually a 400/800/1200 watt. If it runs for 12 minutes the overheat protection kicks in. Interesting though it shuts off the 400 watt element leaving the 800 watt element still going. I think I'm going to wire in a toggle switch to where you can run the 400 watt or 800 watt but never 1200 watts.
What brand
I have several of these things spread around my home. I have each one on a plug-in programmable thermostat that regulates the room temp. I keep the heater controls on low, and max their thermostat so it doesn't turn off by itself. Never had any issues with them. Maybe some day I can afford to install an actual heating system in my house. lol
That’s pretty clever. Where do you live? I feel like my electricity bill would be through the roof in winter here in Utah if I had that setup.
@@mikeg1433 Other people mess up and turn the power level on these heaters low and the thermostat high will that mean it's never gonna reach temperature if it allows us to cut off and it will suck energy
@@mikeg1433 Guess my reply is a little late but to answer your question I'm in the Boston area. My winter power bill can be $1300 a month. Still beats the $50k I'd need to install a proper system in a 200 year old house. Can't find any bank willing to give me a loan that big based on my income. Takes me the rest of the year to pay off the credit cards I used to pay the power company over the winter. Sucks.
Holey crikey!!! Been to Boston many times and winters are no joke. But, 1300 a month? Insulation is out of the question, I'm guessing? 1300 n diy buys a lot of remodeling, just saying. 🤷♂️
I specifically went out of my way to buy a 1980s DeLonghi 600/900/1500W that will run wide open, and does not make any popping noises. All it needed was a fresh power cord and one internal connection replaced.
I like these heaters too, but my issue with them is not with the power levels, but with the thermostat controls. I find them highly inconsistent. My solution is a thermostat switch in line with the power cord. I am not needing to get much power out of the heater, so it just sits on the lowest setting cycling on and off with the external thermostat.
I feel like I’m the only one that likes the popping noise when I sleep lol
You should set up a local Home Assistant instance to manage all those smart plugs and other devices.
I'm glad im not the only person who modified these things. at my old job i had one under my desk. I modified it to have a single power setting and I just turned it on and off. it would just make it warmer under my desk without making my legs sweat.
thought i might be able to fix mine. But this is really above my level of understanding and... i dont have the guts to do anything with wires. Luckily mine was only 40 bucks. so getting a new one is cheap enough.
Great informaion. I particularly like the "They have hese security screws... *grind* *grind* - no problem.
Great Fix, nice to see how these things are actually put together 👍
heater like that burnt my camper down years ago it was cold in there for weeks then one night it was nice and warm woke up heater was on fire and the floor around it was on fire like somebody dumped a gallon of diesel and lit it up
I’m sorry for your misfortune, but I have to say the way you told this story made me laugh really hard! 😀
The only surprise to me is that Matt has smart home gear he came off as a guy who would resent it
This was very interesting. I have an old oil filled heater and it has always been somewhat arcane. Now its behavior makes a lot more sense.
Put the heater near the coldest spot (like a window) and it trips less often. But I too love these heaters.
Isn't that just wasting money though? You want the area where people are sitting to be warm, not keep the heater in a fridge just so it doesn't trip.
@@DenkyManner putting it where it's cold actually saves energy as temperature differential across the radiator being greater is more efficient
@@DenkyManner You'd think so, but in addition to the differential, that's usually a drafty spot, so you're warming the cool air that's being sucked in. Knocking the chill off that moving air makes the room _feel_ warmer than if it was actually hotter with that cool draft. (The heater isn't causing the draft. Air escaping through our poorly designed attics/roofs create a vacuum effect.)
@@DenkyManner most rdiators are placed under windows for this reason
..and BAM! Therein lies the rub. The whole-house envelope.
I bought several oil-filled radiators over the years w the first lasting the longest at just under ten years. After the third broke I went on a journey where the enlightenment occurred.
tldr: seal the envelope! Better in so many ways. Less waste/resources, greater comfort. Done.
I think the crackling sound when cold starting is small amounts of water boiling out of the oil. I usually start them at a low level to quietly drive out the water (turns to vapor at the top of the heater. After a few minutes I can turn it to high and no crackling. Mine are very old US heaters, so no low temperature limiter. They can get very hot to the touch.
I have one of these but it has two illuminated flip switches plus the rotary temp selector first switch is 750,and second is 1500 have had it since 2007 and it works flawlessly to this day, have never had to run it beyond 750
I find this odd.. I have a Delonghi oil filled radiator from 2002 and its still cranking away. And yes. It will out full wattage without stopping. I usually will turn it to both elements to get the oil warm, then kick back to medium or low and set the thermostat when the room is warm enough.
Matthias thanks for bringing this to the surface. So, truth in advertising is not being adhered to. In order to claim a heater power output level it should be continuous power not until the thermal limiter cuts off the heater power. So, that should be considered false advertising. Hopefully the trade commissions of respective countries are listening.
Matthias thx for making and sharing.
problem is he is trying to use it in continuous duty mode, while they are made to cycle on and off with the thermostat. well, some of them. I somehow came into possession of one that didn't have a thermostat and ran on a timer, instead.
Oil heaters aren't flawed because you have an inferior unit. The ones with a decent thermostat can run 2400w virtually continuously.
Most oil heaters produce the popping sound, particularly in the few minutes after switch on.
It's normal.
2400W? So you are using a 5-20 plug?
I suppose the power consumption would be relative to the temperature of the room. If you put it in a room that was below freezing, it would probably pull 1500 watts continuous.
No, it pull the same amount but for longer time without cycling, is not an air condictioner
@@signor_No I believe that's effectively what Aaron was trying to say. And if the room is cool enough and poorly insulated, it may very well run continuously.
would have to be a very cold room, below freezing, I suspect.
@@isaackvasager9957 Or a drafty room, that moves the hot air away from the heater.
I have one in the kitchen which is drafty and plugged into a power strip too. The circuit breaker cuts it off after about an hour at level 3 .
Thanks for that lesson. I'm sitting right next to mine right now. Now, if it stops working, I'll know wherre to look first.
What I did is I bought one for each corners of my L shaped garage. I have been a warm happy camper for many years. I love these.
We have a steam radiator of similar form factor but it uses a steam hydrostatic thermostat and is solid cast iron, 1200W. Thing must weigh close to 100#, made in the 50s. On something like its 4th power cord just from age
You are a pure distillation of an Engineer and a Dad. Awesome stuff.
Cool comment Dan R
I built a sauna using one of these and 6 clamp lamps with near infrared bulbs. Thaks for the video, very useful info .
Just tested with an older oil heater I have. Kill-a-Watt shows 1500W even after nearly an hour.
Pretty much validating what that other comment said about US heaters not having that limitation.
I can usually convince the 5 lonely degrees outside that the inside ones are having a bigger party. I've never failed to get them to join, they even bring their own salads to the buffet.
These are my favorite heaters also. I use them on low alone or medium with a fan never on high. I use a heavy extension cord if necessary and keep the thermostat about halfway. The new models are not near as good as they were 15 yrs ago !!!!
I have one that had a crumbling switch so it is now hotwired to full 1500 watts with no thermostat control. I think the boiling oil sound is just a startup thing as the oil is becoming less viscous. I'm not advocating that solution but nothing has exploded here.
Yea, the oil popping sounds are not from it overheating like he is saying. That noise only occurs when it's warming...not at full temp. Not sure how he missed that.
a disadvantage of our 240V system is that you probably die if you ever touch it... but at least our heaters are running at 3000 watt. most important for kettles
I grew up in germany. Got zapped once or twice. It definitely hurts more than 120 volts.
Dang, our 240v maxes at 2400watt
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Dad was an electrician. He said 120V felt like the worst static discharge of your life, but 240V was like getting hit by 120V and punched in the chest at the same time.
Have one of these heaters and was in the room and I smell a burning odor which was coming from the plug in the wall.
I pulled the plug out and also turn the house power off.
Took out the wall outlet and replaced it.
Also replaced the plug that connected to the oil heater with a heavy duty one.
Been several years and all is well, no issues, but with anything like this...keep an eye on it.
my friends heater like this blew up and sprayed hot oil all over the babies room. Everyone was ok and luckily we heard it from downstairs
that's baad. what brand was it and how old was it?
What if you put a ~120mm computer fan on top? Those are almost silent.
What if we JB Weld on some more fins? 🤔
The one I have has the decency to run taking up around 900 watts continuously I think it's because it simply has more surface area than the ones you have, the high power doesn't seem to trip anything (though I haven't checked extensively) but the heater starts smelling a big when run on high power for too long so I keep it on mid or low.
Try wiping down in between the fins with a slightly damp cloth. The smell is probably the little bit of dust that's accumulated on the surface being "roasted" on the higher temperature setting. In any case, the smell should go away after a few hours of use on high, once the volatile compounds in the dust (i.e. the stuff your nose detects) fully evaporate and are gone.
I feel like the 800 watt setting might be useful in some situations. Like a very cold garage, where there's enough cool air to keep it from overheating when drawing that sort of power.
what a great and simple video to understand. never really knew how these things worked. thanks!
I have a few of these things; one in particular is in the guest room to provide an extra-warm room because my wife, bless her, is not a fan of winter. So we can turn the whole house low and just warm up individual rooms when it's just us in the house.
I have enjoyed these oil heaters since I bought an RV trailer about 10years ago. I have not had those noise problems except for one instance where the heater was stored on its side. It quieten down with low power use in the late spring and no problem since. My RV trailer is only 25' long and on low or medium power, the trailer gets warm guickly. The one thing to be causious about it modifying the internals. I work withj what I got, as is, so I dont overheat the place. nobody should be modifying nothing!
Pretty interesting indeed, Matthias!
Here in Brazil we don't need those... But ACs, on the other hand... 🙄
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
I saw one of these oil filled heaters in Portugal with a massive plume of hot air rising off of it. I had never seen or felt anything like it off of these heaters, so I looked at its sticker. Sure enough, it was 2500watts. It looked very dangerous, but there was no denying the effectiveness in the cold room it was warming.
In Europe they use 220v for regular appliances and electrical use while in North America we use 110v and 2500w would be out of the question. I'm sure the heater was quite safe. If you have an electric furnace in your home then it will most certainly be 220v
Yeah, it's still pretty bizarre from an American perspective to see 220v on every single outlet
How funny you post this today! Last week I just chucked one of these out and had to buy a new one because the overheat thermostat actually fried! Apparently it got so warm that it melted the insulation off the spade connector and the whole thing was dark in color! I thought I had been smelling something warm for a week or so.
Chucked the whole thing for what is a $6 part is a real bummer. :(
@@bradley3549 It burnt the wires back about 2'' from the little thermostat. It was probably 15 years old. New one has a digital thermostat now. I got my money out of it. Live and learn I guess.
@@hotrodhog2170 Maybe so, but I still always hate seeing fixable stuff going to the landfill. But that's not you, that's society.
I have the same problem with Costco's parabolic radiant heater: keeps clicking on and off. Drives me nuts 🤣 I wonder if a similar solution would work?
I have one of those, and I think the issue is different. They only have one heating element, so they either run at 100% or they’re off. If you turn the temperature to max, it won’t cycle at all. At least, that’s how mine works.
they are my favourite resistive type heater. partly because they are a bit safer in that you wont instantly get burned by touching it (you will, but you have a second or so to react) so if you forget its on, or a kid touches it, its not really an issue.
they are also handy for keeping a room 'not freezing'. I tend to sleep very warm, so don't like to sleep in a warm room, prefer it somewhat, but in the middle of winter its just too cold, so running one of these set on a single element (the one I have has 2 switches, one for each element) and set to a lower temp keeps the chill off the air while still being comfortable for me.
In other words, the behavioural negative reinforcement coefficient of this design is inferior.
@@godfreypoon5148 yea that
I love how you made those into Flathead screws engineering innovation 👌🏻
Always thought the modern ones are too small. Had once a very old 1200W (400/800/1200) one that was 3x the size of the larger one you showed.
I have that exact same heater, SAI. I had an older model for many years (not SAI) that I replaced with the SAI one after the cord became worn and in my opinion unsafe. The Sai one quit working after a year, so I took it apart to have a look. All the wires showed signs of overheating, dry brittle insulation, even the extra isolation caps around the connectors were dry and brittle and crumbled. They just don't make stuff like they used to.
I came here to make this exact same comment, SAI heater quit working, took it apart same as you and found the same thing... wiring and wiring boots brittle and crumbling.
Also: they won't burn the dust that lands on them, even if you regularly use a vacuum cleaner
Thanks for sharing experience with oil heaters! Nice modifications and great video, as always! 👍
Had one similar, one winter was running it regularly, went to switch on one morning and it went bang and jumped over a foot in the air, stripped it down, the tilt switch ball had caused it to jump, whether there was a short in one of the elements, I didn't check, but wow just that small ball and 240vac did that!
These heaters really are a bad design. I first noticed what you’re describing when I bought one for my workshop. It was plugged in through a power meter. I noticed that the current draw suddenly dropped to almost zero despite the neon light on the thermostat being on. I could hear the thermostat clicking on and off as I turned it but it was eventually 10 minutes before it came back on. I took it back to the shop and bought a different model from elsewhere. Did the same thing. It was a small “800W” model. I worked out that I was only getting an average of 150w to 200W out of the thing (Peak being 800W while trip was on). I also concluded that it wasn’t a good idea to be using the thermal trip as a means to regulate temperature in normal use. I emailed the helpline in the manual to describe what I’d found. They said I was either using it a room that was too small or too big. Cop out. Took that back to the shop also. Got a convection heater - never looked back. Silent and heats very nicely. I’ll never get an oil heater again.
Adding snubbers in parallel with termostats (and the cycling overheat protection) can make them last a lot longer.
I think you could make snubbers with motor capacitors and stuff you already have lying around.
or I could just set it to "1" where it doesn't cycle. You don't actually get any more power out of them when they do cycle.
Why modifying them at all if they can just be set to 600 W then. no need for a 360 W setting.
Why don't you just run them on "1", instead of making "2" 600 W
@@m8e why would you not want more features?
@@chaklee435 more features are good, but pointless if you just going to set it to 600w anyway.
A typical snubber is not going to be too helpful given that it is a purely resistive load.
A capacitive snubber will be particularly unhelpful, in fact it will likely increase the chance of the contacts welding shut.
I advise against this, for obvious reasons.
Wish that I'd known this about 10 years ago. We lived aboard a sailboat , and when at dock ( during the winter ) we'd use one of these to keep warm. Quiet and warm , but we killed a few of them. Thank you Matthais.
I would say that crackling sound is humidity that has condensed and fallen into the oil in small quantities boiling off, not the oil itself which won't boil until an obscenely high temperature.
this is correct, that popping is condensation inside the radiator because its not been used in a while.
I also like these Vs fans and bar heaters. I did have one years ago that overheated too much, ended up with a slow oil leak. The huge stain is still on my bedroom carpet.
Splendid, I've done something similar with open element heaters. Security screws are only there to secure corporate profits on badly designed equipment, and it is beholden upon all of us to disregard then at all times, cheers
"Security screws are only there to secure corporate profits on badly designed equipment" - No, they're also there to save the complete idiots from themselves. Utility voltage is not a toy.
@@CoolKoon What purpose would some complete idiot have to open a well working product?
@@angrydragonslayer
1. Curiosity
2. The insides of the product can contain potentially lethal voltages even after it stops working.
Wow I have no idea what you accomplished. I'm gonna have to watch again. And heck I'm good at stuff like this.
I had one of these made by Lakewood (a reputable brand) where the electrical cord would get warm from the current draw.
Eventually it stopped working. When I opened it up, I found the neutral wire burned and disconnected. Had that been the live wire, this could have been dangerous.
I ended up replacing the cord with an appliance cord that could properly handle the full power *and* give it a ground. Making it much safer.
Oh
Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative video presentation which is very much appreciated by the people.