Heater fan replacement

My daughter has a decorative fan heater/fake fire (a Dimplex machine).

Most of the big black box is just for the decorative fake fire and it seems to have a pretty conventional 2 or 3kw fan heater built into the base.

On the "fan only" setting, the motor just buzzes. Ditto on the low heat setting. On high speed (a available when high heat is selected) the motor runs but makes a continuous grumbling noise.

The air output seems adequate to prevent the elements overheating but I'm not happy with it. The fan spins freely so it's not a stiff bearing.

If it were *just* a fan heater I'd just chuck it. Is it possible to source a replacement motor (at an economic cost)? The motor is a 230v 14W Fuer FEA-J. Google hasn't been my friend so far.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+
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Sounds like a bearing problem to me. I'd pull out the motor, remove the end bearing plates, give them a thorough clean then soak the bearings in

3 in 1 oil to see if it's just dry phosphor bronze bushes. If it's got ball bearings, I'd replace them and pray! then refit!
Reply to
Capitol

Umm, "The fan spins freely so it's not a stiff bearing." Freely AND smoothly. If you spin the motor whilst powered on the the fan only setting, there's no apparent torque being generated by the motor. It doesn't run briefly and then grind to a halt (or at least it doesn't run any further than it would with no power at all).

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

I guess the (economic cost) menas you've already had a look at Dimplex's spares prices :)

It sounds from your description as if either the fan has more than one speed, or is being controlled through something else, the fault may well lay there rather than the fan...

Since it's labled as 230V, have you tried disconnecting it and powering it directly?

Reply to
Lee

Is this a brushed motor?

Reply to
Capitol

Brushless. There are only two connections to the winding. I suspect it uses the heater element to drop the voltage for the lower speed. Can't see how else it's controlled.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Hmm. I was thinking of hairdryers where the element is in series with a rectifier and a DC motor and the speed is determined by the current flow. Is the fan blade rubbing on something?

Reply to
Capitol

Does this help?

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Reply to
Capitol

Searching using DuckDuckGo and Google.com brings up different possibilities.

Reply to
Capitol

Sounds logical, I was thinking it might have been a simple series diode or SCR but shaded pole motors don't always react well to that kind of speed control :)

Reply to
Lee

Would saying that "the fan spins freely" a third time make it any clearer?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

If it's a shaded pole motor, check the single turns around the shaded poles haven't broken. Another possibility is that squirrel cage on the rotor has broken connections - I've seen this once, and heard of it a few times. In either case, you might be able to solder it back together, but these conductors carry a high current (at very low voltage).

Yet another possibility is a winding failure which has not broken the continuity, but has resulted in a shorted turn. This tends to make the winding get much hotter than it should (and usually turns into a burned out winding or a blown thermal fuse).

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

You know something, I think you may have hit on something. ;-)

I took the back off to check the bulbs (both blown) and when I tested the fan with the back off the noise was much louder! It was then that I spotted it has a motor driven spindle for the flame effect. The motor has clearly stalled, slipped a cog or some other mishap.

So, at the end of the day, not the fan heater motor at all! Apologies to all those that I misled.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

I suspect that the feur may be feuer (german for fire) and that fea-j is the internal code that refers to the product. You haven't specified the Dimplex model name of the fire, which might give us a clue.

Even if the fan spins freely, I'd still try the bearings, there is not much drive torque in a shaded pole motor.

Reply to
Capitol

Cheers Andrew but had a massive "doh!" moment this evening when I found that the noise wasn't coming from the fan motor but another hidden one for the flame effect.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Glad you got there, now we search for the flame motor?

Reply to
Capitol

Some of these fans are thermostatic. Any obvious control there?

Reply to
Bob Eager

Is there excessive axial play on the shaft? Occasionally the rotor slides and catches on something. There's usually a couple of washers on the shaft to locate it. These motors usually have "shading rings" to make them self starting (A single thick turn of copper wire) Make sure the joint on this is intact (usually brazed)

Make sure there's nothing chucking about inside the fan housing that's catching on the fan.

Reply to
harryagain

Smell the windings. Rarely, there are turns shorted out due to defect in insulation. Fishy smell indicates overheating.

Reply to
harryagain

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