Oil filled heaters: 600 watt heaters pretending to be 1500 watts

I love these oil filled space heaters because they are completely quiet. But every one of them I have tried will trip it's internal overheat thermostat if it's set higher than level "1", which is about 600 watts.
Seeing that leves 2 and 3 are useless and perhaps dangerous, I modified mine to have a 400 watt and 600 watt level, but no higher levels.

[legeeg]

According to CSA C22.2 No. 46-13 any oil filled radiator heating surface accessible by a 102 mm sphere can not exceed a temperature of 90C. This is why the temperature limiting device is there and cycles. If you buy the same heater in the USA with a UL 1278 certification there is no heating surface temperature limit, therefore no cycling will occur at maximum thermostat setting. The number one cause of portable heater fires is due to loose electrical connections, that's why the connections that carry the full electrical load are or should be soldered. I have worked for an unspecified small appliance manufacturer for over 25 years working with multiple agency's safety compliance for portable heaters.

[windar]

I'm allways impressed by your confidence. You start filming and put a lot of effort into things, even if you could get surprised and caught off guard. You always find a solution.

[randomtheater]

I've had one of these small oil filled headers for 13 years now I use it every year and I love it and I never had a problem with it

[robertlane]

I just bought one of these from Tractor Supply. I rewired it so both elements are in series on setting 1. It had Phillips screws so it was a piece of cake. Thanks for the great video

[zero_gravity]

I don’t think I could fail to be impressed by the level of ingenuity consistently displayed on your channel. well done, as always.

[creativeobsin]

I got one of those external thermostat outlets that can be set to a temperature rage of something like 5 to 40C. I plug that into an outlet, then I plug my oil heater into that, set the heater to max and then set the external termostat to my preferred temperature. The benefit of doing that, is that I get a more constant temperature in the room and I can easily adjust the temperature on the external termostat.

Been using this system for two years and it still works great. I assume I will have to replace that relay some day, but it will probably last longer than that thermal switch that's built in anywhay.

[greggv]

When these were introduced they had more fins. Good ones were made by (or were branded) DeLonghi. Wouldn't be surprised if in those the heating element only went halfway in so the oil would circulate around. How about a teardown on some of these heaters to see how long the elements are?

[KaleidoscopeJunkie]

This is a great solution.! I keep one of these in My basement to warm the upper floor.
But - For those of you who may be uncomfortable with electronic alterations - -
Upstairs - I keep My ceiling fan on reverse to force warm air down.
That seems to keep Mine from cycling on/off.
If I forget the ceiling fan it cycles and reminds Me. -KJ

[intractablemaskvpmGy]

I have two of the delonghi oil radiators. Bought ten years ago for $79 ea. I don't think you can touch them for that price these days. They are 1500w and digital with two on-off timer setting. I have one right next to me as I write- it is 25f outside. These heaters do a great job and I've never had a problem and haven't run my furnace since I bought them. I love that they're completely silent and don't dry the air out. I expect them to last many more years. Almost 30 years ago I bought a delonghi radiator and it must have been wired for 220v as on 110 it would hardly get warm at all. Needless to say it ended up never being used and was probably thrown away at some point.

[QuanrumPresence]

The tinkle in the eye, when you said only I can set the temperature. Makes you so happy, made me chuckle

[CoalTen]

This video encouraged me to hook up my oil filled heater to a power meter. Curiously, the third setting remains at 1325 watts even after it's been on for hours and the room temperature has reached over 70F. I don't know if I should be pleased or concerned, it was the cheapest "1500 watt" oil heater at walmart after all.

[mickm]

I have had newer Chinese made Delonghi radiator heaters that offer the option of 750-900-1500 settings. Over the years, I've bought the older Delonghi heaters, which were made in Italy and are almost double in size - 8 fins with larger spaces in between- and rated 600-900-1500. I really prefer these, and like what I think are the savings of 150 watts on low power. In my opinion, once that thermal mass of metal and oil are warm, the old 600 watt heaters are warmer than the newer 750 watt version. I have seen newspaper clippings of the model I have from 1980, and it was selling for over $150- given inflation, that has to equate to $200 or so in today's money. The new (non-Delonghi) models Wal-mart sells were around $40 a few years back, so the smaller size and Chinese production seem to have reduced the price a lot, but I still strongly prefer our massive 40+ year old models that I've picked up at garage sales and thrift stores, and always run them on the lowest power setting.

[matambale]

On our oil-filled heater, it has two switches, one for each element. The switch for the high power element burned through its contacts long ago. I removed the wiring on that switch, and we just use it on low. It's fine... It'll make those oil-ticking noises for a minute or two at power-up after having moved the unit, especially if it's been tipped slightly. Manual says that's normal.

[Blue-moon]

The way he said "out" he must be Canadian. I really enjoyed this video, very informative. Thank you.

[hernancoronel]

The overheat protection elements are rated at different degrees. You could potentially change it to a higher degree rating and get more power out of the heater, clearly that would be a risk so you would have to do it at your own risk. Thank you for the video!

[dfpytwa]

I had an old one in the 80's that worked great. It ran the heating elements in series when idling then switched them to parallel as needed to regulate the temperature. All it had was a thermostat, an on off switch and a hole to poke a screwdriver through to hit the button to reset the overheat sensor. Unfortunately I didn't bring it with me when I moved and all the new ones are garbage.

[mfsolutions]

Glad to see there is a solution to the quirks of the oil filled heaters... they are a great alternative to the "element and fan" cycling on and off.

[stco]

Hi.
I just bought one of these this winter and noticed the same situation (should have seen this earlier). It’s meant to have 3 heat settings but as it can only radiate an amount of heat proportional to the difference between its and the environmental temperature setting it makes no difference (in reality) what power its set on. On level 3 it gets hot quicker but the electrical consumption scales back to an equilibrium. If it was in a very, very cold room or, as you tried, you put a fan on it (done that too), then it can maintain a greater heat value setting. In essence these work great in small spaces, but don’t heat larger ones as they scale back.
Cool vid!!

[kschleic]

I have one of these exact model... I noticed the same thing you did (that it only drew ~700W continuous) so I added some aluminum fin extensions that by my estimate double the surface area. It pulls full power now if I put it on level 3.

[JonnyDIY]

Great Fix, nice to see how these things are actually put together 👍