Replacing a termal fuse in a night storage heater

[Daniel Towner]

Hi all,

The thermostat control in my night storage heater seized up recently, causing overheating. Fortunately, the thermal fuse did its job, and cut the power. I've now unseized the thermostat, and need to replace the fuse. Should I buy the fuse from a spare distributor (for about

15UKP), or can I fit a thermal fuse bought from Maplins for 50 pence?. Is there any real difference between the two types of fuse? The lowest temperature Maplin fuse is 93 deg. C. which seems rather high. Roughly what temperature should it cut-out at?

thanks,

dan.

[burbeck]

hi dan, i very much doubt that a thermal cutout/fuse costing 50p will be capable of taking the load current of a storage heater. the best advice is to get the correct part as specified by the manufacture, as this is a safety critical component, stops the house burning down. furthermore are you sure the thermostat is ok ? regards bob

[Lee]

Probably not, unless it's a small heater, the Maplin one is rated at 10A max with a max rupture current of 40A res, 20A ind.

Obviously agree with this, but the manufacturer's part most likely comes as an assembly with leads and connectors, I don't see anything wrong with replacing just the fuse itself with an *identical* one, and provided it is mounted in exactly the same way as the original.

Lee

[fred]

In article , Daniel Towner writes

Try this crowd:

, haven't used them but their site makes them look small and helpful. Or google for "storage heater" +spares

[Ed Sirett]

These are an important safety item. If you get the wrong spec you may have a fire.

The thermal fuse is essentially a small rod of low melting point metal. It probably is intended to melt at around 100C or more, we are talking about the innards of the heater.

A frequent cause of these parts failing is new users of the heaters covering them to dry out clothes, although in your case it was the running thermostat that got stuck.