Tips to troubleshoot my 240V garage heater?

[wahoowad]

I have been using this Berko brand 5600 watt electric garage heater in my garage for 10 years. I turn it on/off manually whenever I want to work on a winter project, usually running it no more than a couple hours at a time and no more than 10 to 20 hours a winter. Today it stopped working and I don't see any signs of anything burning up or otherwise failing.

(broken image removed)

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot it to see if I can resurrect it? It has an internal thermostat but not sure how to check that. It is 240V and I have a dedicated NEMA #6-30 receptacle to power it. Breaker isn't tripped.

 

[heat seeker]

An ohmmeter will be your best friend here. I would first use the voltmeter to make sure there is 220 at the outlet. Then I'd open the heater up and use the ohmmeter to check for continuity through the internal thermostat, then the heating elements. A good visual inspection might reveal a burned-off wire terminal or loose screw (in the heater, not the owner….). Not much to it, really. It might have a thermal fuse that "blew" and can be replaced, and the ohmmeter can verify that.

 

[semipro]

what heat seeker said plus I'd add:
look for obvious signs of hot wires particularly at connections. Also, the "thermal fuse" that he mentioned will be inline with the power and thermostat. These may act like a breaker and reset automatically or like a fuse where replacement is required. Sometimes the re-settable types will go bad and not reset as intended.

The heating element will have a resistance but it should not be a lot, like megaohms, more like hundreds of ohms or less.

 

[wahoowad]

I haven't tore into it yet but will do so today. Neither the fan nor heating element is working which should help me troubleshoot. I was shopping for a replacement and one knock against this style of heater is that there are no parts available. Mine appeared to last longer than most, at least those who put reviews online.

 

[mustash29]

My clothes dryer quit a few months ago. It's from '94 and never gave me any issues. I poked around with a meter for a bit and found a $15 thermal overheat blown. That was enough to tell me it needed a good cleaning.

Electric dryer 101 - Fresh air gets sucked in across the heater element, through the clothes drum, through the lint filter, through the fan & blown out the vent pipe. I found a big blob of lint in the duct between the filter and fan.

 

[heat seeker]

I found a big blob of lint in the duct between the filter and fan.

Yup, that'll do it! Had a similar situation - blockage about the size of a brick. Didn't blow anything, but it took forever to dry clothes.

Depending on the price of the heater, it may or may not pay to repair it. Generic parts are available for switches, etc.

 

[DBCOOPER]

I have been using this Berko brand 5600 watt electric garage heater in my garage for 10 years. I turn it on/off manually whenever I want to work on a winter project, usually running it no more than a couple hours at a time and no more than 10 to 20 hours a winter. Today it stopped working and I don't see any signs of anything burning up or otherwise failing.

(broken image removed)

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot it to see if I can resurrect it? It has an internal thermostat but not sure how to check that. It is 240V and I have a dedicated NEMA #6-30 receptacle to power it. Breaker isn't tripped.

Was it running and stopped working or it didn't work when you turned it on? Having never seeing one of these I can only make guesses. On/off switch, snap switch for fan control, snap switch thermal overload.
When it was working did the fan come on as soon as you turned it on? Do you have a multimeter?

 

[wahoowad]

Fixed it!

I removed the cover and immediately saw where one of the wires had burnt in half. This was one of the 2 hot legs coming in (this is a 220v heater) and it burned through right at a blade connector. I can only assume it had a poor but working crimp from the factory. I cut the wire back, put on a new blade terminal and connected it back to the thermostat sensor. It ran fine for 15 minutes afterwards and the wire/crimp/sensor were not hot. I think the components are fine and it was just this bad wire (I hope).

Thanks for the help!

 

[heat seeker]

 

[fbelec]

that's funny that i see this post. i just wired one of those heaters for a friend. he bought his a the depot. it throws a lot of heat.

 

[wahoowad]

that's funny that i see this post. i just wired one of those heaters for a friend. he bought his a the depot. it throws a lot of heat.

I do not feel mine does. Yes, there is warm air coming out and those coils heat up, but I would think it would be a lot more heat since it is 220v/5600 watts. It feels like the same amount if heat coming out of a smaller 120v resistance type heater. I don't know how to check the current draw without a clamp on ammeter.

 

[DBCOOPER]

1 watt = 3.4 btus so your heater shoud be puttin out 19,108 btu's per hour

 

[wahoowad]

you can convert it to horsepower or cheval vapeur but I still can't measure it

 

[fbelec]

a small cube heater that is known as a ceramic heater that is 1500 watts will burn my hand if i put it in front but would not heat the basement this big heater runs a cooler temp but pushes a lot more air i could feel it 10 feet away easy and it brought the basement from upper 40's to 60 in about a hour

 

[tjlutz]

Hi Guys! So after hooking a 240 v heater my wood shop, I have the same results as 'Wahoowad'. Everything works but seemingly at half-power. Fan seemingly is half-speed and heat being thrown is way below what my expectation would be for a 240 v heater. How does this get resolved?

 

[heat seeker]

Are you sure you're getting 240 to the heater - checked with a meter?

 

[tjlutz]

Tried to check with meter but couldn't get a reading. However, there is 1 wire connected to one pole of the 220 breaker and another wire connected to the other side of the same breaker. Then at the thermostat, both of those wires are marretted to the single wire going to the heater. Does that not by definition make it 220?

 

[tjlutz]

Here is a photo of the wiring. Double pole thermostat. The lower cable is the 'power'. The upper cable goes to the heater. My guess is the wiring is mis-configured. Thoughts?

 

[heat seeker]

Disclaimer: I am familiar with U.S. wiring, but not with Canadian standards!

From what I can tell, it's miswired.

And, I only see three wires at the thermostat - a double pole should have four.

"Then at the thermostat, both of those wires are marretted to the single wire going to the heater. Does that not by definition make it 220?"

If both of those wires connect together at any point, and the breaker doesn't immediately trip, they are not 220. That would be a dead short!

Can you post a photo of the breaker and the wires thereto?

The heater should have two wires feeding it, one for each leg of the 220. A 220 circuit measures 110 from each leg to ground, but 220 from one leg to the other. The fact that you couldn't get a reading with your meter is confusing. You should get that which I just mentioned.

It is remotely possible that the fan is 110 and the element 220, but that seems unlikely to me.

You might want to thoroughly check this wiring and the heater. Being a safety issue, it might be wise to get an electrician to check it out. This is your house, after all, and safety is paramount.

 

[tjlutz]

Disclaimer: I am familiar with U.S. wiring, but not with Canadian standards!

From what I can tell, it's miswired.

And, I only see three wires at the thermostat - a double pole should have four.
There are 2 reds and 2 blacks.

"Then at the thermostat, both of those wires are marretted to the single wire going to the heater. Does that not by definition make it 220?"

If both of those wires connect together at any point, and the breaker doesn't immediately trip, they are not 220. That would be a dead short!

Can you post a photo of the breaker and the wires thereto?

The heater should have two wires feeding it, one for each leg of the 220. A 220 circuit measures 110 from each leg to ground, but 220 from one leg to the other. The fact that you couldn't get a reading with your meter is confusing. You should get that which I just mentioned.

It is remotely possible that the fan is 110 and the element 220, but that seems unlikely to me.

You might want to thoroughly check this wiring and the heater. Being a safety issue, it might be wise to get an electrician to check it out. This is your house, after all, and safety is paramount.

So how would you wire it? We tried a few configurations with our final (current) configuration being the only one that would turn the heater and fan off when the thermostat was set to off, otherwise the fan would always be running. So the 110's coming in need to follow their own line in to the heater? I'll try to get a photo of the breaker to you tomorrow. Thanks

 

[heat seeker]

It should be pretty simple. Two wires coming from the 220 two-pole breaker (110 to ground each one, and 220 from one wire to the other.) They go to the thermostat - one each to each input. The other two wires from the 'stat go to the heater's two input wires. There should be green grounding wires throughout.

When the 'stat is satisfied, it breaks both legs of the 220 going to the heater. There are some systems that break only one leg, but it may not be code.

(Some stoves, I have read, only break one wire for the oven element, which does work. But occasionally the element shorts internally to ground, and the element is constantly heated with 110, heating the oven and wasting electricity.)

 

[tjlutz]

That sounds awfully familiar. I think that was our original set up. My unit is an "Infusion". Weren't real impressed with the wiring diagrams issued.

 

[tjlutz]

I switched the wiring so that 1 lead goes to each of the thermostat leads. I tried to take a better photo so that you could see the 4 wires of the double pole thermostat. A photo is included as well as the box to see the breaker configuration

 

[blades]

Remotely possible that a side of your breaker is bad Red and black wires ( hot ) across those with a meter ( set to 220 or higher volts ac scale) should be 220v , red to White ( netural) should read 110V, same for black, individually. If you do not have those voltages there then check the input side of the breaker pair same way if that checks ok then breaker is bad- it happens. I have seen breakers that were fused so that you could not flip the set/reset toggle not passing power on one or both sides, and others you couldn't turn off for the same reason. it is possible that with that bad connection that burned in the unit ( drawing excessive amperage on one leg but not enough to trip) to have caused damage to the breaker, or just plain old age.

 

[tjlutz]

I'll try to check those items out Blades. Thanks! I know it's not old age though! Heater and breaker are brand new.