One of the unpleasant feeling a person can experience - it's cold. When the room is not warm enough, heavily engaged in some activity, eat and sleep.
You can experience unpleasant chills and eventually get sick colds. And if in such an environment, there are children - trouble is inevitable.
The easiest way to raise the temperature in the room, can be considered the use of spiral heaters. They have a low price, simplicity of design, low weight, a variety of shapes and designs, reliability and good maintainability.
These advantages put these kinds of devices on one of the first places on the demand and popularity.
Let us examine the design of these appliances.
The main heating element in the spiral serves as nichrome wire heaters. It may be wound as a ceramic frame, and stored in a glass tube made of quartz glass.
The thickness of the wire and the helix length, sets a power and heat unit.
When one Nichrome spiral it has a cross section of 0.5 mm or more.
In some cases, the two helices is used, connected in parallel as necessary.
Compound occurs switch buttons, preset power. This device applies nichrome wire 3.2 mm in cross section.
That is, when connected in parallel, the total section of the wire would be - 6.4 mm.
If properly used heating device of this design, it can serve faithfully for many years. And in the event of a breakdown, at the estate of simple tools, and "direct" hands may make repairs on their own.
This article will be considered one of the most common failures of spiral heaters and easy way to fix it.
Photo 1 electric heater on "light" with a defective heating element.
On the front side there are: two heaters, controls, a reflector and a protective grille.
According to the label of its power is 1 kW. Since the two heating elements, the power of 500 W (Figure 2).
The fault may be several:
- Breakage of the switch element.
- Burning-off wire directly at the switch.
- Open nichrome helix inside a tube of quartz glass.
Broken nichrome spiral - it's a matter of time, as the wire under high temperatures loses its properties and otgoraet.
It is not surprising that in a year - two this happened.
So, to find out the cause of failure, you should disassemble the cabinet. This will allow access to the main parts and components of the fireplace (see Figure 3).
Firstly, you need to remove the back cover. For this purpose put the device back part up and unscrew the three screws fixing the cover.
After dismantling of screws, the cover should be easily removed (Figure 5).
Below it can be seen the heater wire terminals which are connected to switch terminals (Figure 6).
Middle busbar stud extends, insulated from the housing and the feed line voltage to the opposite side of both the heaters.
The photo is a circuit diagram of the device (Figure 8)
As it can be seen that when the two switches, the voltage supplied to the two coils and the heater power becomes maximum. Disabling one of them, the power is reduced by half.
Secondly, it is necessary to remove one of the side walls for access to the common terminal helices (Figure 9).
She holds on to two screws that unscrewed with a screwdriver without problems.
Next, check the integrity of the helices in turn (Figure 10).
First, the instrument probe is connected to one of the switch terminals, and then to another. The second probe at this time should be located on the other side of the spirals at the common junction (Figure 11).
As seen in the picture, the upper helix intact, since the device shows the circuit.
In the measurement of the lower spirals, this does not occur. Indicator does not light up, indicating an open circuit (Figure 12).
To remove the quartz glass with wire, you must remove the protective grille. This is not difficult. Suffice it a little bent at the edges, and fixing lattice out of seats (Figure 13).
Further, the disconnect spiral problematic, first with one and then the other side and pulling wire residues (see. photo below).
It should be done gently, without damaging the ceramic insulators. In the future, they will need to install a new heating element.
The photo shows an open wire, which occurred most likely from prolonged overheating. And it is in order, since any Nichrome wire eventually burns out and becomes unusable.
Breakage occurs most often at the point where the spiral is stretched less likely. In such places, the heating is more intense than where the distance from the wider turns.
Waste wire already nowhere useful nor garter, or something else, as it is just when stretching break. It can only be thrown away to avoid injury from the spiral of debris.
It should be warned that if you remove wires and insulators, must be held a glass tube, or if it is broken, it will get very difficult.
After extraction, the tube gently puts aside on a soft cloth.
Now it is necessary to make a new spiral. This fireplace used nichrome wire section 0.32 mm.
Measure the cross section can be micrometer or in extreme cases a caliper. Also, if it is to roll with the factory coil, then it must be a tag that specifies the composition and cross-section of the wire.
You can use a smaller section of the wire, for example 0.30 mm, but in any case not more, as the tube, although quartz, overheating can give a crack, and then would not make sense to repair.
It should also be remembered that a smaller cross-section wire has a greater resistance, so its length may be somewhat shorter.
If you managed to get the wire, start manufacturing spiral. You will need a metal rod with a diameter of 4mm, performs the function of the frame.
After winding wire disperse and its outer diameter increases to 5 mm, and that the need for such a tube (Figure 23).
Incidentally, the quartz tube length of - 340 mm. Inner Diameter - 10 mm.
Wound wire must turn to turn, maintaining a small stretch.
The length of the helix can be calculated empirically. For this purpose we wind spiral obviously of greater length, and connect one end to the network 220 (Figure 24).
Next, take a piece of copper stranded wires and connect it to the second terminal 220. This guide will serve as a changeover contact, such as a slider rheostat.
If you find a wire from any device with a stylus on the end and screw terminals, you can use it. It will be much more convenient to just a piece of wire (Figure 25 and 26).
Much depends on where it will be repaired. If it is a special stand - as in the photo - it is better to use clamps. But at home for this purpose will approach the cord with plug and divorced at the end of the wires.
In any case, you need to be extremely careful when dealing with stress. Include a wall socket should be only after having done all connections and made sure that there will be a short circuit at the ends.
So, we turn to the most spiral. In principle, it is sufficient to wind the length of the helix according to the length of the tube, as more still nowhere to be together. But if someone wants to can experiment.
Put the finished product on the surface of non-combustible, and starting from the edge, reducing the length of the helix, moving the probe impromptu.
On heat can judge how much to add turns, and how to take the necessary result.
The normal color of a red-hot spiral with the lights off to be crimson.
Still need to be taken into account in determining the length of the spiral must be lightly stretched to the turns do not touch each other directly. Otherwise there will be interturn fault and nothing good will come.
After some time the heating coil is covered with oxide film, which serves as insulation, interturn and then the connection is not so terrible.
In any case, the coils must have a minimum clearance
Should stretch, not holding the edge and pushing fingers clasping coils along the entire length. So to get an even gap.
The photo spiral wound below 750 mm. After stretching its length increased to 1000 mm.
Here spiral connected to its full length. Nacala almost no no. (Figure 30)
Next photo, spiral slightly shortened.
A compound of the edges of the tube gave the desired result. The intensity of the color magenta has a specific (Figure 32).
Be sure to check with the product placed in a glass tube, as the heat in it is worse than in the open air and the result is not correct.
Now let us see what is the color of the filament-preserved native spiral.
Almost the same color, which indicates the correct calculation. Now you need to set up the phone with a wire on a seat in the fireplace.
For this we push one end of the wire into the hole for the withdrawal and trying to establish a spiral glass tube in the clamp.
The photo shows that the handset has minor chipping at the edges. This makes it difficult to crimp, and most importantly, can cause a short circuit wires to the metal body through the lamella.
To avoid this, you need to find a piece of the ceramic tube and insert it at the beginning of the spiral, after threading a wire into it. If the entire tube - it can not do.
As for the terminals, then before inserting the tube should be slightly compressed.
From the outside to the lead wire put on the first ceramic insulator, a tubular body forward.
Now we put on a convex insulators. So that one came in the "body" of the other (Figure 37).
Bends metal stop, retaining the first insulator.
It was convenient to do pin connection on the switch, you must remove the side of the housing.
Turn off from the respective clamping screw switch output.
Counterclockwise make a few turns of wire around the screw.
Bite off excess wire cutters and turn the screw with the conclusion in its place.
Equals insulators bowl so that the wire does not touch the metal of the hull.
Next, move to the opposite side. Also we put on the first insulator and fix its mounting (Figure 44).
We put on the remaining wire insulators and connecting the terminals with the common conductor.
You can do this in two ways. First - this is to unscrew the nut on the stud and screw a few turns of wire - clamp it.
Second - keep a small piece of wire from the old spiral and plant output to twist.
The fact is that in this place Nichrome not much heated, so the wire is not damaged. This method is useful when the nut is rusted and did not want otkruchivatsya.
When the connection is made, set side cover and fasten it with screws.
Next, put on the back cover with an abutment. On the lower side it has made special grooves. Connecting them to the lower lid, spin the top screws.
Now we have to put on the protective grille and turn the unit into the network. In this case, the two switch buttons must be included.
It is important to check for voltage leaks to the housing. For this connect multimeter or other device, showing the presence of alternating voltage, at one end to the device body, and the other a grounded element. This can be a radiator or a metal tube of cold water.
The device must not show a significant voltage such as 220 volts.
If this happens, it means that somewhere in the spiral wire or other live parts of the device relate to housing. Such a heater use is strictly prohibited.
It is necessary to disassemble the cabinet again and carefully examine everything.
Here in the photo (Fig. 55), the device shows 3.3 volts, which is a fire and is not life-threatening.
As both heating spiral heating up and becoming crimson color (Fig. 56 and 57).
It can be assumed that the repair was successful. Over time, it may fail the second spiral. Therefore, the first winding, it can be a few pieces, so in case of breakage, was being replaced.
P.S. I have another article which you can find at infrared heater repair their own hands