Cheap space heaters are even safer than I realized
Added 2025-01-31 21:26:07 +0000 UTCOK - I know what you're thinking. Another video about an electric heater?
Yep!
But this time, the message is a little more educational and hopefully relieves some fears. I love it when there's a video that I start working on thinking "I have a simple thing to demonstrate" and then I learn it's even cleverer than I thought!
I have evening plans so I can't promise timing on proper captions, but assuming I can finish them by tomorrow morning I'll probably release the video then.
Comments
And here I am charging an electric car at 1500 W with an extension cord. Thankfully, it’s a 20 A circuit with thick wiring to match.
Colin Cogle
2025-02-09 15:26:33 +0000 UTCYour use of Cromulent Embiggened my Vocabulary!
Markintosh
2025-02-08 23:16:23 +0000 UTClol-Cromulent!
Markintosh
2025-02-08 23:15:22 +0000 UTCMe too! I have a blanket I bought last year, and I thought it was defective at first. The modern electric blankets work differently than the ones I remember from childhood. They seem to have zones, like Christmas lights.
Amy Tobol
2025-02-03 22:40:52 +0000 UTCI was caught out on a cold night in the woods last week with nothing but some dry branches, some paper and no matches or lighter. Luckily I did have an electric fan heater, but try as I might I could not make that thing to start a fire.
DrumBrakes
2025-02-03 16:00:24 +0000 UTCGreat. I’m really interested in the space heater videos. I would love you to do one about the radiant, infrared (orange-glowing) ones. They seem like an efficient solution to warm a person when they are sitting still, for example when watching TV on the couch.
Will Jameson
2025-02-03 05:18:44 +0000 UTCCool, thanks for the reply. I'll have to find that video! It that makes sense that they would all have the same theoretical efficiency and I guess I should have thought that through a bit more. Resistively heating with 1500W uses 1500W... But I also wasn't confident in my initial thoughts and thus didn't buy anything. That said, while not actually achieving their theoretical efficiency, for my use case of wanting longer duration supplemental heat (like overnight in a kid's bedroom), the oil radiators seem to better fit my needs. Not instant heat, but cycling on and off as needed to eventually raise the temperature the ~5 degrees F those rooms need. To your point of warming yourself instead of the entire room, I'm a big fan of a hot water bottle (shout out to Low Tech Magazine!) when I'm working in the basement.
Nick Melville
2025-02-03 00:16:20 +0000 UTCAlec made a video comparing different types of heaters a couple of years ago. From a scientific viewpoint, all resistive electric heaters have an efficiency of 100%, since they convert all of the electrical energy going into them into heat. A 1500 W fan type heater, a 1500 W fanless heater and a 1500 W oil-filled radiator introduce the same amount of heat into the room and should therefore reach the same room temperature. The radiator Alec tested did not have enough surface area to radiate off 1500 W of heat. So after reaching ts maximum temperature, it wouldl cycle off and on, therefore having lower average power. It is slower to start and won't be able to achieve as high a room temperature as the hot air types. For me another advantage of a fan heater is that I do not need to heat the whole room to a comfortable temperature, instead I point it at me at a lower setting and have instant warmth in a cold room.
Dr. Bjoern Bieber
2025-02-02 21:42:40 +0000 UTCI like to see a similar teardown of different electric blankets.
AlliePiper
2025-02-02 21:07:11 +0000 UTCWhat’s the consensus on oil filled electric radiators? Also no moving parts and it seems more efficient because of the higher thermal mass continuing to radiate heat, but the quick mention in this video seemed to be negative and not as good as the fanless element style. I’ve got a couple colder bedrooms that could use supplemental heat and was looking at the different options and those struck me as safer (no accessible very hot things) and more efficient but I haven’t made a purchase yet.
Nick Melville
2025-02-02 04:50:30 +0000 UTCYep I guess that, but it doesn't work on mobile. It's not a big deal. I only mentioned in case Alec got single notifications or something
SignalEleven
2025-02-01 20:31:15 +0000 UTCIf you're on a desktop/laptop computer, hold Shift while pressing Enter and you'll get a newline without it automatically closing out the comment. Cheers!
Kevin Tessner
2025-02-01 19:48:10 +0000 UTCOnly slightly less current. At least in Europe, devices are mostly designed to draw just under 10A, so heaters like these are more powerful at around 2000W.
M@trixX
2025-02-01 19:23:58 +0000 UTCYou were supposed to make me feel better but now I'm running around checking my plugs. (I edited this a million times because the patreon web UI sends on enter, but I want to use newlines 😅). I appreciate your restraint for not preemptively acknowledging the snarky "230V use less current and it's less of an issue".
SignalEleven
2025-02-01 16:47:11 +0000 UTCThat sounds a tad concerning
Cooper Schwartz
2025-02-01 04:10:59 +0000 UTCYou have a special ability to make me curious with unexpected word combinations.
Julian Gonggrijp
2025-02-01 03:05:04 +0000 UTCYeah some of them were, but this one rattled. and I took it apart. It was a cup with 2 contacts in the bottom and a steel ball. Of course I got the beating for breaking it.
Crash Cash
2025-02-01 01:25:28 +0000 UTCThere are older units with a tilt switch, but they would have been mercury-based. I picked up a small steel framed space heater with just such a switch from a thrift store. However, it likely does not have the high temp PTC cut-out.
Jerrad Pierce
2025-02-01 01:22:23 +0000 UTCWe had one when I was growing up that had one, but it was specifically marketed as a "kids' bedroom heater". There was a cover over the controls that took two fairly strong hands to open in addition to the tilt switch, and it was in nice pastel tones. The one my parents used had no such tilt switch.
Devon Redekopp
2025-02-01 01:02:05 +0000 UTCI will say you should buy them from a store instead of Amazon. My mom bought some sketchy ones off Amazon and they constantly overheat and shut off, and the casing gets uncomfortably hot (Ideally no one should buy anything on Amazon if they can help it anyway lol)
BrandEver
2025-02-01 00:15:58 +0000 UTCTwo things: One, you left out one more safety device. All the shaded-pole motors I've seen have a one-time thermal fuse wrapped into the motor windings, intended to prevent a fire if the motor were to lock up due to a bearing issue or mechanical interference. Unless you're a Repair Cafe wonk like me armed with replacement thermal fuses and a will and skill to replace them, the heater is toast (sorry!) if the thermal pops. Second, the many spade-lug connections in these heaters - even fancier ones - are a real weak point. As the heater is used over the years, the thermal cycling of the often-dissimilar metals can loosen these connections to the point of killing either the element or the motor. I've seen both. I don't try to fix a heater that has a loose space-lug connection, because if one has loosened, others will as well.
Dean Gallea
2025-01-31 22:36:00 +0000 UTCBefore watching I bet using the wrong extension cord is one of the fire risk issues
Alex Taylor
2025-01-31 22:23:04 +0000 UTCAlways good to get more in-depth info on home products, especially those that pose potential hazards and that many people don't understand very well. Here's my serious/not serious proposal: Every classroom in the country should be mandated to show your videos--at least once per month. I'll bet the kids would love it! Well, maybe they'd hate it, but it would be educational. 😃
Mark Hesse
2025-01-31 22:15:12 +0000 UTCOh that reminds me... my Zero SR electric motorcycle uses a laptop style cord to charge, which gets so hot that it melts into a particular shape when you use it. It took me a long time to realize why I couldn't find a higher wattage cord and I had to make one.
Crash Cash
2025-01-31 22:08:39 +0000 UTCAnd the cord is as thin as humanly possible, mind you it’s using all of the 15 amps the outlet can provide
Cooper Schwartz
2025-01-31 22:00:26 +0000 UTCSo this hits a personal beef of mine, where stuff is "PLUG DIRECTLY INTO WALL - DO NOT USE EXTENSION CORD" and then they come with a 2ft cord. Who the hell are they fooling?
Crash Cash
2025-01-31 21:51:53 +0000 UTCAlso that "foot probe" sensor strikes me as a bad design, now that I think about it, because I know people that would tape it on.
Crash Cash
2025-01-31 21:43:23 +0000 UTCThe newer space heaters are a lot safer than the ones I grew up with. They're still dangerous if you're an idiot and don't treat them with respect.
WildMartin
2025-01-31 21:35:03 +0000 UTCThe tipover switch is only in the last 12 years. Anything older than that might not have them. I've had units without them that happily kept running flipped on their face. Edit: I also had units 40 years ago that had a ball-bearing style switch.
Crash Cash
2025-01-31 21:33:58 +0000 UTCHooray! Education about a seasonably relevant item used in many Northern hemisphere homes this time of year.
Anonimity Smith
2025-01-31 21:31:10 +0000 UTCYay!
Kris Pockell
2025-01-31 21:30:55 +0000 UTC
