Can portable radiators be repaired?

[DemoDisk]

In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units? And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough, rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention, JPM

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 01 Oct 2008 10:23:46p, DemoDisk told us...

The first two items to check are the heating element and thermostat.

[Jon Danniken]

"DemoDisk" wrote:\\

Of the four I have fixed, three had the switches go bad, while one had a fusible link go bad. I've yet to find one that had the elements go bad.

Oh, and I always snip the plug off and put on a heavier duty one; they all get pretty soft after an extended use, some with exciting consequences (I don't know how the hell they can get away with those things).

Jon

[Caesar Romano]

On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 00:23:46 -0500, "DemoDisk" wrote Re Can portable radiators be repaired?:

In another thread someone asked what the differences are between a $15 heater and a $100 heater. The "you get what you pay for" crowd touted more quality and longer life for the $100 heaters. Does your experience contradict that?

[Stormin Mormon]

As a heating and AC guy, may I suggest another alternative? Replace the octopus furnace with a new 90 percenter, and enjoy the comfort.

As to portable radiators. If you are going to plug in heaters, the new "ceramic" heaters are supposed to be relatively safe, and supposed to be more energy efficient. In my part of the world, electric heat is far more expensive than natural gas or oil or propane.

Please consider a heat source other than electric.

[ransley]

You still believe that 2 different 1500 watt heaters can have a difference in efficency, that 1500 watts is not 1500 watts.Think again.

[ransley]

Could be as simple as the plug or wire, just trace to where the power stops, oil filled are good and cost alot. A new furnace of 94% would be cheaper to run Ng is going down electric is going up.

[dpb]

ransley wrote: ...

I'd certainly not count on NG "going down" for long nor in the future...

Yesterday's royalty check was >$10 at the wellhead...

[ransley]

We have dropped to last winters lows, from this years highs of 13 to near 7.5, the near term trend is down as is the economy, sure the long trend is up but this winter is starting ok for Ng users, and and bad news could reverse everthing tomorrow. At least we are starting the winter at a good price.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Anything can be repaired. It's a matter of cost vs. new replacement. Once I replaired one by replacing defective switch. Cost was

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Of course. Depending on that 1500W rating is outpt or input. If input.... different heating element will put out different output. Difference in enniciency.

[Dave Martindale]

If the elements are different in efficiency, where does the rest of the energy go?

In a motor, efficiency is the ratio of shaft mechanical power out to electical power in. The difference is energy that is wasted - almost all of it as heat. But in a heater, heat is the *desired* output, and resistors are 100% efficient at converting electricity to heat - no matter how the resistor is made.

A heater with a fan uses a small amount of input energy for the motor instead of directly converting it to heat. But even that is eventually converted to heat - some in the motor windings, some in air turbulence. All the energy ends up as heat.

Dave

[DemoDisk]

Ahh, well, I can tell you that all five heaters did not cost near $500. Maybe the old saying is true...

[John Grabowski]

Don't you think it's time that you had a new furnace installed? When you go to sell the house this may become an issue. Homeowners tend to like working central heat.

I was in a house recently that had one of those monster old gas furnaces. It had to be 3-4 times the size of a new one, but the owner said that it worked fine and was serviced regularly. She wants to sell the house and will now be installing a new furnace for the new owners to enjoy. If she had done it a few years ago she would have reaped some benefit and payback.