My girlfriend put a towel over our storage heater the other morning (at around 8am, so the heater shouldn't have been charging, it's on economy 7), and ever since, it's not been heating up over night. The circuit breaker in the fuse box is fien, so I'm starting to suspect there's a thermal cutout in the heater.
Is this likely? If so, can anyone tell me where it is? I have the instruction manual for our other heater, but not this one.
Many thanks in advance.
My storage heaters were made by Creda and they had a thermal fuse at the top near the control knob. This di blow when I left it covered during the charging period. As 8am. is my cut off time for my White meter I'd say that the fuse is your problem too.
They are easily replaced and there are different temperature values for them. You could try a Maplin for a replacement.
Chris.
On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 09:30:59 -0000 someone who may be "Ian Cowley" wrote this:-
Have you read the thread entitled, "Storage heaters - Does covering them cause them to break down?"
I took the front panel off. I couldn;t find a thermal reset switch, although there was a vertical round metal disc with a plastic surround, with a little white knob on the back of it. The little white knob sort of moves a bit to one side (like a gear stick in neutral) then moves back.
I also found a 1.5 inch long white rectangular block that I think is a resistor. It says ISKRA
6k8 5% 11W on the top. It has a conductor coming out of each end, wrapped back so they are one one side, and it's fixed into a screw block. Except one of the conductos wasn't, and the conductors were very close to each other. I've screwed it back into place.I hope that the resistor thing is supposed to be screwed in and it's not some movement sensor (i.e. it's really close and makes the circuit if the heater moves and throws a trip....). We'll see if the heater heats up tonight. If I can stay awake I'll hopefully feel some heat just after midnight....
Hmm, still no heat this morning. Any ideas anyone? Don't want to have to call out an engineer if I can help it....
Somewhere, in the dim and distant past, I've found a site which gives exploded drawings of Dimplex's range of heaters - which might be of use in tracking down what is wrong. If I can find it again (looking at the moment), I'll post a link, and see if we can work it out. The thermal link sounds favourite - they usually sit between a ceramic choc-block connector on the top right hand side of the heater, and link to the thermostat control on the top. Although they're usually fairly obvious when they've blown, as they're in two pieces.
Have you got a multimeter, to check the heating elements for continuity?
The other tests that you could do, if you're comfortable and safe with electricity, is to take the supply flex out of the wall switch, fit a plug to it, and plug it in to a normal supply, and chase the voltages around the heater with a meter. Be aware though if you do this, that there will be live & exposed terminals / wires whilst you are working on it!
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