[Big Clive] picked up a tiny heater for less than £8 from the usual sources. Would you be shocked to learn that its heating capacity wasn’t as advertised? No, we weren’t either. But [Clive] treats us to his usual fun teardown and analysis in the video below.
A simple test shows that the heater drew about 800 W for a moment and drops as it heats until it stabilizes at about 300 W. Despite that, these units are often touted as 800 W heaters with claims of heating up an entire house in minutes. Inside are a fan, a ceramic heater, and two PCBs.
The ceramic heaters are dwarfed by metal fins used as a heat exchanger. The display uses a clever series of touch sensors to save money on switches. The other board is what actually does the work.
[Clive] was, overall, impressed with the PCB. A triac runs the heaters and the fan. It also includes a thermistor for reading the temperature.
You can learn more about the power supply and how the heater measures up in the video. Suffice it to say, that a cheap heater acts like a cheap heater, although as cheap heaters go, this one is built well enough.
I had the Eurom VK2002. I’ll never forget that heater and don’t even need to google the product number as it’s burned into my mind next to a huge danger sign. I bought in a local store in the Netherlands. The package mentioned EU, CE, TUV etc.
Winter came around and my workshop didn’t have heating yet. I grabbed the electric heater I used for only a few hours previously from the attic, put it on a table in the workshop, not close to anything and plugged it in. The fan didn’t turn on. It failed somehow. Within a second or two, the entire inside was glowing bright red. I immediately unplugged it. The entire time between plugging it in and unplugging it was maybe, if being generous, ten seconds, but probably less. The entire top of the device was melting, black smoke was coming off and I saw flames inside the device.
The building of a previous employer burned down, due to a locally bought electric heater. My grandparents had to evacuate the assisted living facility they were living in due to a fire, from an electric heater. I don’t trust these devices. I’d rather put on a few extra sweaters.
That was not a PTC heater.
They are safe even if the fan halts.
Clive published another video demonstrating exactly this!
Yeah, not gonna trust ANY heater in a plastic case. Just “no”.
I bought a cheap electric heater (metal case) off Amazon for my basement workspace. It’s plugged into a mechanical timer and I only use it when I’m actually in the room. Just to take the chill off the otherwise unheated space in the winter.
It does have UL, Intertek and ETL logos, but it’s from China, so I’m fairly sure they’re fakes.
I have a Milwaukee drill, and it´s red so it must be communist. Or it´s a fake and it must be American and racist.
Usually these small heater are PTC heating elements with a curve with a top temperature at 80C.
Not matter if the fan is blowing or not they will never have a temperature higher than that so wont melt any plastic if the fan fails.
The video tells another story :) It might be PTC but it reached 230°C without a fan…
Why am I not surprised something branded Tesla is a pile of overhyped junk