PICTURE THREAD REQUEST: Space Heaters

[arbilab]

I had one of those copper GEs with the screw-in cone.

I can't take pics--big disappointment--but my 'Big Heat' has been with me since 1988 and it is a prize. It's a 5x5x6 cube and the same heat as much bigger spaceheaters, 1500W. Also a 1200W setting (where I run it, the two elements in series) and a very effective thermostat, overtemp and tipover cutoffs. Even a neon light showing it's heating.

I open it up occasionally, dust it out and oil the phono-motor fan. Extremely well built and lasted all this time. A little on the noisy side in a quiet home. It spends the entire winter in the bathroom off the bedroom in my apt. I plug it in anytime the outside temp is below 45. The central in this apt doesn't keep up well with cold, it's only 5kW, 3 times bigger than the Big Heat. I don't remember what it cost, but knowing myself, it was cheap.

Good as it is, the company that made them went out of business.

 

[akronman]

Markel heater voltage

All my heaters are 120V, but this one doesn't list wattage. It doesn't trip a 15amp breaker.

 

The first picture, with the screw in Edison base coils, are just 660 watts. Various others units with heavier NiChrome coils are 1200 or 1500.

 

[circlew]

Now that I think about it, when I was very small we had a reflector type heater similar to the GE above. It had belonged to my grandfather who came to live with us when I was only a few months old. It was rarely used as my mom was afraid I'd stick my fingers thru the openings in the grill (I was very curious).

I saw one of this type at a yard sale not too long ago, but someone had put a light bulb in the socket for the heater coil.

 

[rapunzel]

Havent got a pic to post,

...but found this advertisement on youtube. I think these are Kerosene space heaters, not sure but.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[58limited]

Here is my Art Deco Markel

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

DaveAMKrayoGuy's Space Heater Collection:

A "smelly oil"-filled electric heater... My friend had one of these, in which as the result of frequent (although to him 7 probably the rest o' us, NORMAL) use leaked oil everywhere--which I'd heard as being an inherent problem w/ these heaters; hope that it never happens w/ mine!

First heater I bought for our house:

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

DaveAMKrayoGuy's Space Heater Collection, 2:

Here is the BEST heater that I bought! An "electric coil, fan-forced" design...

Don't mind if my wife wants to use, but despite having a tip-over shut-off switch, and the cabinet being super-insulated w/ "cool touch" outer protection, preventing the outside from being hot, really hopes she does not leave it on or use near anything flammable or by any person; supposedly has an Auto-Shut Off, too, of some sort:

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

And finally:

If not for buying this on-sale for $9 instead of whatever the price was originally, I probably wouldn't have considered this one, even though when I was heater shopping I was really tempted to, though being disappointed when I tested it, opting for the other two:

It is really for a garage/utility room, but it gives off so little heat (although that can be said for that "radiator design", as well) that I think I can run it in that area of the basement... I really bought it in spring, so along will come the opportunity to tell how well it performs in the proper season (and hopefully as well as the previous pic seems to)...

What I really dislike the lack of a "clickable" on/off switch; the red toggle switch (which illuminates when the heater is on) is really a "Hi/Lo" deal... The knob just turns it off in the very lowest position... Note the three-prong plug:

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

DaveAMKrayoGuy's Space Heater Collection--Postscript:

My mom had an ARVIN heater, much like the hot orange-coiled, fan-forced one that I have...

It was a square-shaped deal that she got rid of (I believe there was an "old and/or unsafe heater removal drive" going on, too) that once inadvertently went on (when I was at home, in my bedroom to catch it going on--But I would always unplug it when I left the house) and not knowing any better at the time, had an extension cord plugged into it, which the plug connected to it had been about to be burned off & luckily noticed it just in time; and after that realized I never really needed to use one with it, while getting in the know about using one of a much safer gauge, designed for such use...!

Wife gets cold all the time (and with that, she always assumes that the baby does, too) but I really do not think I can trust her to use these in a safe, well-operable manner (there tend to be a LOT of house fires caused by the improper use of these heaters & the fires always take place at night when everyone's asleep & right "when the kid, or kids have their friend/friends over", that I've read & heard about), so I don't ever want her left at home w/ any of these on--would rather she turn up the furnace then, though some of our gas bills have been near-unforgiving, as a result of "for just plain safety"...

So given the age & inherent condition of much of the heaters here, I hope that you guys operate 'em safely and turn 'em off should they be unattended... Also remember proper use of extension cords: (when my man-cave was in the basement, I tried to plug the first two heaters, which I had at the time near me, given that I had no safe cord, other than the one they came with) use the right length & gauge and three-prong where ever possible...

-- Dave

 

[retro-man]

Hey Dave
Very rarely will i use a space heater in the house. If its cold turn up the furnace. My feeling is i would rather pay a higher gas bill than possibly starting a fire. That is what the furnace is for. Another way of thinking about this is: what is the deductable on your homeowners insurance policy? How much money is a human life worth? How valuable is moving and rebuilding your home worth? I would suspect a few months of higher gas bills is worth it to me. Just my 2 cents worth.
Jon

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

"Home, Sweet--and SAFE!--Home"

OK, I didn't mean to imply that I'm THAT cheap...

While my personal feelings about high energy bills over took my post (& conserving our electricity, natural gas, oil, coal, water & other vital, natural, renewable but not always renewable resources for our future generations to come) I do agree, that lives, the well-being of our home (& NOT wanting to deal w/ rebuilding/relocating) & how well prepared we are for natural disasters in any such event (& how well our Ins. Co. would treat us, there) are important enough that THAT is what I should have considered & conveyed in my thread...

Sorry for not making myself more clear...

-- Dave

 

[vacbear58]

Dimplex

I am guessing that the Dimplex model was an import from the UK, its a brand name that is still going strong here.

This tupe of heater was very popular in the 1920s and particularly the 1930s, very commonly installed in bedrooms or rooms of occasional use, where a quick warm up was necessary - remember these were the days before central heating was common. Often they were installed on small decorative (and definatly non functioning) fireplaces.

Here is a much later version of something similar, although not as attractive. But it gives the idea

 

[vacbear58]

Malleys Warma

That type of heater was very popular here throughout the 1950s and 1960s too. My aunt had one, and there was a large glass container in the back which held the paraffin ("Pink Paraffin" or "Esso Blue") - there was a domed burner in the front and I suppose it must have operated along the same principle as a gas mantle.

The ones I remember were quite bulky and had a reputation of being very dangerous if they got knocked over. I dont remember seeing them much (if at all) after the late 1960s - i expect most houses had sufficient wiring to accomodate small electric fires or fan heaters which were far more convenient than mucking around with cans of paraffin, not to mention the fire hazard of either the heater or the cans of fuel

 

[vacbear58]

This was also populat here too

No glowing element here, more what we would call a convector heater

 

[vacbear58]

And I am afraid

you have to be of "a certain age" to remember this one - there were two major brands of paraffin that i remember "Pink Paraffin" and "Esso Blue" so named because they were tinted in these colours

As a side point, i wonder if this was voiced by Bill Waddington, who played Percy Sugden in Coronation Street for years

 

[vacbear58]

We had one of these

The two bar Princess model in bronze and with logs.

The logs were created from some sort of papier machie effect which was slightly transparant. Underneath these was a red bulb with s small circular fan type blade over it. The heat from the bulb caused the blade to slowly rotate creating a "real flame" flicker effect as if it really was a basket of glowing logs. At least that was the idea, it looked nothing of the kind really.

 

[vacbear58]

And finally

i could not resist posting this one, the Melrose - this brochure is from 1961, the design looks like it might have come from 1935

Al

 

[74simon]

Very interesting, I didn't know that electric heaters were well known in the USA, as I thought the maximum wattages for a 115v socket would have made them ineffective compared to a European appliance running on twice the voltage, and it's delightful to see I was wrong - the art deco Markel and green Arvin are especially striking.

 

Al, thanks for posting the Belling brochure, I can't help but feel that there's an irony that some of the fires qualified for a Clean Air Act grant, considering that most of of power stations were coal fired back then!  I do think that the 'Adam' was one of the ugliest fires ever!

 

My family had a Paraffin (Kerosene) heater until around 1979-80. Our flat was equipped with an electric fire in the living room, but my mum wouldn't use it as it cost too much for her to run. I think we used Pink Paraffin, and I remember my mum going out to the Paraffin man with our neighbours - he'd drive from street to street in his lorry, like selling ice cream. In winter we used to get dressed and even wash in front of it, as the only other heating in the flat was one of those combined lamp/heaters in the bathroom, and it couldn't cut it in northern Scottish winters. Luckily for us, my grandad was a gas engineer, and we eventually got gas heating and a Berry Magicoal fire put in at family rates!

 

I do think safety can be an issue with older electric fires though. The lack of safety cutouts, and the skimpy element guarding on some (an uncle of mine was injured as a child as he grasped a live bar type element) makes them a worry, and I notice some of the above seem to be Class 0 or 01 - single insulation with no earth.

 

Also, although I think one mustn't panic too much about asbestos content in vintage appliances, I own a couple of 1930s fan heaters that I bought from a family with children who used them sometimes. Part of the construction involved strips of asbestos mat to keep the elements separate, but some of the strips were deteriorating to the extent that they had started to crumble and asbestos dust was present - and would have been blown out into the room if the fire were switched on. One has since been stripped down outside, with the asbestos dampened and double-bagged, the other is still wrapped in a couple of bin liners, but I understand that there are asbestos substitutes available.