Old Wesix portable heater

[kb0nes]

Stan,

So you measure 9.5 ohms across the coil? The math would indicate 1300 watts if your line voltage was basically 110 volts.

But, Nichrome wire will increase in resistance a bit when its hot. You may be over estimating power by a couple hundred watts based on a cold resistance measurement.

If you want to get a better idea of the hot resistance try plugging in the heater and letting it warm up. Then with the ohmmeter probes in hand, unplug the heater and measure resistance immediately while the element is still hot. You still need a Kill A Watt just for fun though!

 

[stan]

Hi Phil

That's what happened initially.. He tested it cold, and it was so low that he said it was showing a short and said "how come it didn't blow a fuse" I said " it didn't, I'll show you" I plugged it in, and it fired up (didn't blow a fuse) and got hot. He retested, and got 9.5 ohms.
Think that's why he said for me to quit while I was still ahead LOL

 

[stan]

So far it's

Been working for a little over a week, no problems, cord and plug are cool to the touch.. Heats the bathroom enough for a bath, then gets shut down.
Since it's going well, I'll move on to the GFCI, as suggested.

 

[rp2813]

Stan,

I agree with your brother.  I think you've got it as good as it's going to get, and since you're now using a coil that was made to the heater's specs, I think we can assume it's drawing the correct amount of current to produce the intended BTU output.

 

Next stop, a switched GFI receptacle!  Yay!

 

[sudsmaster]

There's probably a way to wind some nichrome wire to restore the heater to its original appearance.

 

I'd probably use an appropriately sized metal or even wood rod mounted in a lathe turning at the slowest possible rpm. Then just let the lathe wind an appropriate length of wire around the rod. Slide the curled wire off and mount on the ceramic insulator. This is how I learned how to make light gauge springs in the machine shop, by the way, using piano wire.

 

The tricky part could be finding the right wire... but if one could measure the thickness of the existing wire (using a micrometer) one could probably get pretty close.

 

 

[travis]

I bought wire here once

I replaced the coil in a 1940's Arvin heater. I had part of the original. I tried to measure the wire size. The result was that it doesn't heat as much as it's original twin.

It was about $60 for 10 feet.

http://www.morelectricheating.com/products/NICHROME WIRE COILS AND ACCESSORIES/NICHROME COILS.aspx

 

[sudsmaster]

An old heat wire may have lost some mass in years of operation. Perhaps the replacement wire you used was too thin? From your chart it looks like the thinner gauges (higher gauge number) have higher resistance. Higher resistance means less current, less heat produced. Where Watts=V2/R.

 

For a 1,000 watt output, you'd want about 13 ohms resistance along the length of the wire. If the length of wire on the heater is 1 foot, you'd want the L19 or 19 gauge nichrome. All these figures are approximate and I don't know if your chart is reporting cold or hot resistances...

 

 

[this post was last edited: 11/17/2015-01:44]