I know some of this has been discussed before but with heating season here I think everyone with one of these should check their wires. Mine quit working late last winter and I let it sit till now to troubleshoot. After opening the wiring compartment I found the red wire from the power block to the thermostat was burnt in two. Now something I don't understand is, the installation instructions clearly state if your going to use this thing at full 5000 watts to bring your house wires using number 10 gauge wire, That's fine but why is the wire that goes from the house wire to the thermostat only number 14? Seems like a failure waiting to happen to me. Anyhow, my fix was to install a external wall thermostat using number 10 wires.
Dayton G73 wires burnt!!!
- Thread starter rinker1
- Start date
driz
Well-known member
I just helped a guy rewire his whole house built in 62. When we were sanding the floors the circuit breakers kept blowing no matter where or what rooms you were in or how far apart. We were using 2 heavy duty rental sanders. When he got to ripping out the wire we discovered that not only was the whole house wired in 14 but had only 2 circuits for all the outlets. Most of the house was on only one of them and they were the old 2 wire style with no ground. Weirder yet the kitchen stove had some sort of feeder line running to it. No idea what the wire size is but the outside of the jacket is at least an inch across. 
Duhh
One other thing I discovered once was how much our little rodent buddies can gnaw up romex. I had a long run once sitting 2' in the air that kept snapping out the breaker on my water pump. I opened up the space and there were the 3 wires from 12 romex flying in formation together for well over a foot. Since then i make sure to keep them well fed with rodent poison because no matter how hard you try you can't keep them all out.
DuhhOne other thing I discovered once was how much our little rodent buddies can gnaw up romex. I had a long run once sitting 2' in the air that kept snapping out the breaker on my water pump. I opened up the space and there were the 3 wires from 12 romex flying in formation together for well over a foot. Since then i make sure to keep them well fed with rodent poison because no matter how hard you try you can't keep them all out.
zchrisz
Well-known member
did dayton ever resolve this issue? i read about all these thermostat wires melting, i've had my heater for about 2 years and i don't see any issues so far... i keep it on 3 dots below low, i keep the garage at 45 degrees all winter and bump it up to about 60 degrees when i'm working in there....
how old is your heater?
how old is your heater?
My heater is 3 years old, since it was out of warranty I didn't contact Dayton. Just went out and bought a external thermostat, hope I don't have this problem again seems dangerous to me.
zchrisz
Well-known member
just to update this thread at the beginning of 2014 winter season i inspected my heater and the wires looked fine near the thermostat, a couple weeks or so in to using the heater i noticed it wasn't heating properly and acting weird, i looked at the wires and one was all burnt and ready to fall off.. i will be adding a separate line voltage thermostat