In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention,
JPM

On Wed 01 Oct 2008 10:23:46p, DemoDisk told us...


In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention,
JPM

The first two items to check are the heating element and thermostat.


--
Wayne Boatwright
(correct the spelling of "geemail" to reply)

*******************************************
Date: Wednesday, 10(X)/01(I)/08(MMVIII)
*******************************************
Countdown till Veteran's Day
5wks 5dys 1hrs 3mins
*******************************************
Fortunately, the second-to-last bug
has been fixed.

"DemoDisk" wrote:\

In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Of the four I have fixed, three had the switches go bad, while one had a
fusible link go bad. I've yet to find one that had the elements go bad.

Oh, and I always snip the plug off and put on a heavier duty one; they all
get pretty soft after an extended use, some with exciting consequences (I
don't know how the hell they can get away with those things).

Jon

On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 00:23:46 -0500, "DemoDisk"
wrote Re Can portable radiators be repaired?:

In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention,
JPM

In another thread someone asked what the differences are between a $15
heater and a $100 heater. The "you get what you pay for" crowd touted
more quality and longer life for the $100 heaters. Does your
experience contradict that?

As a heating and AC guy, may I suggest another alternative? Replace the
octopus furnace with a new 90 percenter, and enjoy the comfort.

As to portable radiators. If you are going to plug in heaters, the new
"ceramic" heaters are supposed to be relatively safe, and supposed to be
more energy efficient. In my part of the world, electric heat is far more
expensive than natural gas or oil or propane.

Please consider a heat source other than electric.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"DemoDisk" wrote in message
news:[email protected]. com...

In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention,
JPM

On Oct 2, 7:38*am, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
As a heating and AC guy, may I suggest another alternative? Replace the
octopus furnace with a new 90 percenter, and enjoy the comfort.

As to portable radiators. If you are going to plug in heaters, the new
"ceramic" heaters are supposed to be relatively safe, and supposed to be
more energy efficient. In my part of the world, electric heat is far more
expensive than natural gas or oil or propane.

Please consider a heat source other than electric.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

"DemoDisk" wrote in message

news:[email protected]. com...

In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention,
JPM

You still believe that 2 different 1500 watt heaters can have a
difference in efficency, that 1500 watts is not 1500 watts.Think
again.

On Oct 2, 12:23*am, "DemoDisk" wrote:
In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention,
JPM

Could be as simple as the plug or wire, just trace to where the power
stops, oil filled are good and cost alot. A new furnace of 94% would
be cheaper to run Ng is going down electric is going up.

ransley wrote:
....
... Ng is going down electric is going up.

I'd certainly not count on NG "going down" for long nor in the future...

Yesterday's royalty check was $10 at the wellhead...

--

On Oct 2, 9:27*am, dpb wrote:
ransley wrote:

...

... Ng is going down electric is going up.

I'd certainly not count on NG "going down" for long nor in the future...

Yesterday's royalty check was $10 at the wellhead...

--

We have dropped to last winters lows, from this years highs of 13 to
near 7.5, the near term trend is down as is the economy, sure the long
trend is up but this winter is starting ok for Ng users, and and bad
news could reverse everthing tomorrow. At least we are starting the
winter at a good price.

DemoDisk wrote:
In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention,
JPM


Hi,
Anything can be repaired. It's a matter of cost vs. new replacement.
Once I replaired one by replacing defective switch. Cost was 5.00.

ransley wrote:
On Oct 2, 7:38 am, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
As a heating and AC guy, may I suggest another alternative? Replace the
octopus furnace with a new 90 percenter, and enjoy the comfort.

As to portable radiators. If you are going to plug in heaters, the new
"ceramic" heaters are supposed to be relatively safe, and supposed to be
more energy efficient. In my part of the world, electric heat is far more
expensive than natural gas or oil or propane.

Please consider a heat source other than electric.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

"DemoDisk" wrote in message

news:[email protected]. com...

In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention,
JPM

You still believe that 2 different 1500 watt heaters can have a
difference in efficency, that 1500 watts is not 1500 watts.Think
again.
Hi,
Of course. Depending on that 1500W rating is outpt or input.
If input.... different heating element will put out different
output. Difference in enniciency.

Tony Hwang writes:

You still believe that 2 different 1500 watt heaters can have a
difference in efficency, that 1500 watts is not 1500 watts.Think
again.

Of course. Depending on that 1500W rating is outpt or input.
If input.... different heating element will put out different
output. Difference in enniciency.

If the elements are different in efficiency, where does the rest of the
energy go?

In a motor, efficiency is the ratio of shaft mechanical power out to
electical power in. The difference is energy that is wasted - almost
all of it as heat. But in a heater, heat is the *desired* output, and
resistors are 100% efficient at converting electricity to heat - no
matter how the resistor is made.

A heater with a fan uses a small amount of input energy for the motor
instead of directly converting it to heat. But even that is eventually
converted to heat - some in the motor windings, some in air turbulence.
All the energy ends up as heat.

Dave

"Caesar Romano" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 00:23:46 -0500, "DemoDisk"
wrote Re Can portable radiators be repaired?:

In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that
was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no
reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.

Thanks for your attention,
JPM

In another thread someone asked what the differences are between a $15
heater and a $100 heater. The "you get what you pay for" crowd touted
more quality and longer life for the $100 heaters. Does your
experience contradict that?

Ahh, well, I can tell you that all five heaters did not cost near $500.
Maybe the old saying is true...

"DemoDisk" wrote in message
news:[email protected]. com...

In the past few years, we've accumulated five oil-filled radiators to
heat our very small house. The alternative is a gas "furnace" that was
installed when the house was built over fifty years ago. HUGE money
waster!

Two of the rollable oil-filled radiators have simply quit for no reason
I know of. Has anyone here diagnosed and repaired one of these units?
And Is it worth the trouble? I'd like to, if it's easy/cheap enough,
rather than buying yet another pair of them.



Don't you think it's time that you had a new furnace installed? When you go
to sell the house this may become an issue. Homeowners tend to like working
central heat.

I was in a house recently that had one of those monster old gas furnaces. It
had to be 3-4 times the size of a new one, but the owner said that it worked
fine and was serviced regularly. She wants to sell the house and will now be
installing a new furnace for the new owners to enjoy. If she had done it a
few years ago she would have reaped some benefit and payback.