thermostat failure on electric heaters

GordonThree wrote:
Four electric fan type heaters, now with dead / unreliable thermostats. All different brands and models.

Do all the thermostats come from a single factory in China?

Is RV travel damaging the thermostats?

I plan to replace the failed thermo with a temperature fuse instead, and use an external digital thermo, but ugh that's work.

Doesnt everything come from China nowadays..LL

I broke a knob on my electric baseboard heater thermostat in my house and couldnt find replacement in any stores or electrical suplies..

Didnt feel like replacing complete heater so bought closest looking thermostat,,took it appart and bolted upside down and it works..
Of course the metal cover didnt fit,so had to trim and cut a circle to make it fit,,works as new now saved myself 150$..

Hi Mex,

Thanks!

Operate the dial listen for the click-click. If the dial numbers and a genuine thermometer disagree you need to calibrate the temp as well.

Spin it up note where high click is. Spin dial down. Where does that click take place?

Pry the cover off. Some have screws to remove.

There are three adjustments. Spin to high setting. That temp will click the high limit. Counter clockwise note what snaps. That's the critter. Tweak the screw, then cycle the dial again. What you just did will bring the two clicks closer or further apart. Your thermostat. Your call. My bedroom thermostat is separate from the A/C. Due to a lack of Almas Beluga Caviar, and white truffles, I cannot heat via short circuit. I wanna go home.

Hi Mex,

I was not clear. I wanted to know what thermostat you are using, and how to adjust the Delta T.

Easy fix.
Get 6ft heavy duty extension cord (as used for window A/C units),one 2x4 electrical box C/W two wire clamps, and one wall mount line voltage thermostat as used for baseboard heating.
Splice thermostat into extension cord, turn heater thermostat to maximum and connect everything together.
Art.

PT: "Yes". I had to utterly re-engineer a floor hot water heating system for a 30,000 square foot mechanical repair shop in the mountains. The brand new installed system was a joke. Six zones, and none of them worked right. The owner paid thirty thousand dollars for a 750K boiler, underfloor tubing and zone controllers. A month after installation after ten visits by a tech, resultant threats to the seller, bad juju, thunder, lightning and evil karma, the owner (whom I first tried to argue out of wasting his money but failed to do so) came to me and begged me to "Make It Work". Six zones? Anticipation? Lead and lag? Probably one of the more involved engineering feats I had to overcome. I had to work with major components already in place. Hydronics is not for anyone who is not an intense nerd with engineering skills.

First setup was a success. All six zones got tweaked and worked as they should

Outcome was absolutely to the molecule as I had predicted in my initial argument. Heating takes energy and energy meant LPG consumption. The seller lied his ass off. Four 500 gallon tanks had to be set to get the liquid boil off high enough in -20F weather. Why have a thirty feet tall ceiling in the work bays? Heat rises. Unnecessary air circulation invites discomfort because of the acceleration of heat loss. Need 110F metal halide lighting?

He disn't listen-
12 inches of wall insulation-
Three feet of clearance over top the highest RV on a lift-
24" of ceiling insulation-
Infrared heaters in each bay at forward end for the mechanic-

The genius was shocked to get a nine hundred dollar bill from the LPG company. More screaming and yelling. I had to take him inch by inch throughout the structure using a pyrometer proving my system. His hard-headedness about structure height and heat loss because of five massive roll up doors, went nuclear when we went outside on a -5F day and he saw with his beady little eyes door temperatures of 40+F.

Another Mammoth Lakes genius, insisted on installing a hydronics heating system for his 300' driveway. A one million BTU boiler was installed. I sat back and laughed when the propane mechanic said the first month's three thousand dollar driveway bill was the end of that scenario.

So, the design and implementation of heating systems (not a heater) takes strict observance of reality. pre-planning- acknowledgement that some barriers cannot be resolved by brute force and remain intelligent.

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Narrowing Delta T can radically increase comfort. Who wants to remain in an environment where the temperature see-saws twenty degrees? The same holds for refrigeration and foodstuffs. Delta T should be understood and acknowledged by the consumer.

The gizmo I recommended has a fixed temperature so extending the leads is a must. Then comes the Easter Egg hunt. Where to place it. This can only be done by trial and error. It's primary use is to protect huge electric motors.

The advantage of the gizmo is it's size and durability. Smaller than two stacked dimes, and able to cycle more than thirty thousand times. Pluses and minuses. Advantages and disadvantages. No such thing as a simple, tiny, reliable, affordable ADJUSTABLE thermostat. Pick your compromise.

The failure for the units I have is the thermostat gets stuck "on" ... yes, banging on it sometimes works.

I have a similar fan cube heater from WM. has worked great for several years. If it gets tipped over, you have to upright it and wait for a few minutes before attempting to use it.

It sure is possible many thermastats come from the same company. We use a small cube fan heater that we got at Wal Mart for $15 four years ago. It still works great much to my surprise. Never thought it would last more than a year. Go figure

Is this Thermal Safety like the one in a clothes dryer? Looks a lot like an old power transistor, like a button battery cell on a sheet metal bracket?

I ask, because IF it safety'd off due to heater falling on its face, sheet of paper sucked against the intake screen... and you can remove it... They can often be re-set! Saw this on an appliance repair forum. Take it out, smack the flat side hard, against a hard surface like tile or concrete floor. It's a bi-metal disc and he impact can turn it back to right-side-out.