I'm a college student in the US and I bought a small oil-filled radiator three years ago for my dorm room since it gets very cold in the wintertime here - the brand is Costway. It's worked well so far and I manged to take care of it properly too, but I just recently had to move out to a new room and the person who helped me move out was not careful at all with my belongings, dropping the radiator off the cart couple of times. I noticed that one of the elements is slightly bend, but no fissures seem to be in the metal, only the paint layer is cracked. I haven't noticed any oil spills yet but I just plugged it in and the radiator didn't start working until turning it to the second power level. I'm just worried that it might actually have some cracks in the metal somewhere, even where the paint is scratched off, that I cannot see and that it will leak oil eventually. Is a potential oil leak dangerous? I understand it can be a fire hazard, but could the oil inside become volatile and cause harm to human health without realizing it? I don't have much money at this moment and I'm also an international student, so I want to be sure that the radiator is fully damaged/a hazard until I buy a new one. Thank you!
Oil-filled radiator damage - dangerous?
Sep 22, 2022
Last reply: 3 years ago
8 Replies
If it's cracked it'll leak. Is it leaking? Is the metal damage shape that of a crack?
It's slippery
not really, your house is full of flammables already
Sure, if you can get it to 500C. I don't think you'll achieve that without noticing.
If you wanna be sure it's fully damaged, half an hour with a sledgerhammer should do it.
I would be more concerned over not working at power level 1. It could be from a loose wire.
Please let me know of an oil that only become volatile at 500C?
You're not being very helpful, are you? Heaven knows why they/you are (cross)-posting to a uk group.
have a look in the control box
Chuckle. I've never seen one with power levels, which suggests more than one element. All of mine are just one element and a thermostat. If an element has died, one needs to make sure it is not shorting to the metal case. In the UK these things are earthed so if this happens it either takes out the fuse or the breaker on that circuit. Having seen some US stuff recently, I'm not even sure if they use fuses in their plugs!
Brian
It is common for higher powered oil filled radiators to have two elements and three settings.
All of mine are just one element and a thermostat. If an element
They don't, but then they have the whole circuit protected at 15A, so the circuit fuse/mcb ought to provide fault protection down as far as the appliance end of it's flex.
TBH, as he found it necessary to ask the question I had assumed that would be above the student's pay grade.
Well 15A is only 1.5kW, there or thereabouts.
They tend to have more house fires over there, due to their cheeseparing 110V which means any appliance worth a damn takes a huge current. Four times the heating effect in any plug/socket. And their plugs/sockets are very flimsy anyway.
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