[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.
