My brother Ralphie has broken yet another fan heater. He doesn't quite grasp the concept of not blocking airflow through cheap plastic heaters, and quite often you'll put a blank over himself while he's waiting for his Wood-Fired stove to to heat up and he'll stuck a heater underneath for a bit of heat and then wonders why they die. Let's explore it now. Uh, I'll power it up first I have taken all the screws out of this but I shall Power It Up and turn it on on the fun runs. I'll point it away from the microphone but there is no heat. Okay, that's not uncommon now. there are two thermal protection devices. I'll just open up. That's the best bit. I've taken all the screws out because it was doing its best to stop us getting them to explore this. There were two anti-tamper screws here and there was one super deep screw here, but they are out well. I Hope they're out, they might not be out completely and uh, we shall open up now. Things are already mentioned: The heater assembly is mounted to the back, the thermostats are mounted to the front. so when you open this up, take careful note of the root of all the cables through this and also make sure that's kind of important that it is unplugged. So what do we have here? We have a thermal switch here, right? Say what? I'm just going to go and grab my meter I should have had my meter through here, but I don't one moment please I have my meter which is set to continuity Let's uh, yep, continuity is active. So first thermal cutout. Let's try this one at this side here that is actually against the plastic casing. No continuity hold on it may just be making a bad connection. No. I think it is this one that's actually filled right. Tell you what. I'm just going to pop this off and take a closer look at it one moment please I Have procured the driver. This isn't my normal bench so I don't really have all my tools here so this one fits. Here is the first thermal cut out. It's unusual to find on this side. It's usually just the ones down here. There's one down here with a thermal fuse. I Always think it was the thermal fuse that was away, but it appears to be this one so that is making connection to there. but there's no continuity through the contact. so that's a burnt or dirty contact and this thing's a bit corroded to be honest. I wonder if it's just suffered corrosion damage? Now what about this other one here? There's a second thermal cut out down here that I can probe by going on to here. and here it is also seemingly not making a good connection. Is everything just corroded in this? It is that's dire. And what about the thermal fuse? Last Resort Thermal fuse. The thermal fuse is fine, all right. I'm going to try and clean these. but here's a thing aside of the fact that he's probably had this out in a garage or something. It's kind of corroded. uh, if these cycle too often. If you do cover the heater and it cuts in and out, the contacts tend to fail very quickly because they're not rated for many cycles. and when they feel the last resort, if they weld together, the last resort is for the thermal fuse to go. But I'm going to try and clean these by getting a bit of cardboard and I'm going to slide between them. and well, I've just used this bit of paper here. In fact, this would work assuming you're going to actually go together. Here's a bit of paper, which is slightly abrasive and I shall drag it. and when you drag it between contacts, it's a common old trick to repair contacts. You can see the dirt that's coming off that, but the question is, is it actually oop. Is it actually going to close together enough for us to actually make connection? It does have the advantage that uh, there's a fairly high voltage, well, 240 volts open circuit across these, which will help make a connection. Let's try that. Has that helped? Nope. I Wonder if these contacts have been? It's just barely making a connection there. I think with the means behind it, it would actually just jump that. Gap so to speak there break down the last residue of oxide. I'll tell you what. I'm going to clean that contact as well down there and uh, well put it back to. we'll put the cover back on Just for safety and uh, we'll give it another go. So I'm going to I'm trying I'm not doing very well I shall rip off a strip Common enough technique. This is where I have to be very careful not to pull this contact too far because they really are flims little contacts and they're dealing with these heaters. They're dealing with eight amps, which is quite a lot. There is oxidation on them. maybe. I've just accused Wrath of macarons here and really, it's just crappy contacts. I Mean it's a cheap heater, right? Tell you what: I'm going to pop this back up. actually. I'll screw that back on will I I'll screw that back on. That would make a lot of sense. This is where it's worth reminding you when you do repairs like this. Uh, do make sure that when you're turning things on off that you leave it off before you stick your fingers in again. right? tail. Let's uh, turn this on, plug it in. Uh, tilt it back and it's heating up with a slight smell of smokiness. So it was tarnished contacts or damaged contacts by pitting, which isn't that uncommon making sure that I unplug it. One of the biggest pitfalls of do-it-yourself appliance repairs is people who turn things on and turn them off and turn them on. Turn them off and then they completely forget they left it plugged in and turned on. or they unplug the wrong thing. So in this instance, it is recoverable. Now all I have to do is screw this back together again. I Might leave out the anti-tamper screws, the safety screws because they're just a pin ass. but Ralph can have this back now with a warning to not store out and damp garages and also to make sure he doesn't cover them. but uh, that is actually a win. That is a a good repair. And now I have to say that uh, it's kind of important when you put it back together. just make sure all the wiring is dressed into the correct place. It's worth taking photos and you do stuff like this to make sure the wiring is rooted around in the correct location. I've just moved that over to that side of that because there's a very good chance. Uh, you really want it kept well away from Blades and things like that. but there we go. Uh, that's a surprising end to that video. I Thought I was going to be writing this heater off as destroyed by overheating to the point that the thermal fuse would burn it. The answer to that one is to replace the thermal fuse, but sometimes they're not very accessible because the way they're manufactured, they're manufactured cheaply and sometimes it's just quite hard to replace the thermal fuses and get access because of the sequence that are manufactured. And it's also worth mentioning if you replace the thermal fuse, you have to take care if you're soldering it that you use a heat shunt to take it away from the uh from the wires as your soldier and leave them as long as possible and fold them carefully out the way, because otherwise you can trip the new thermal fuse with your soldier iron while you're trying to repair it.