Electric Heaters

[James-W]

I can't help but notice there are a lot of threads about electric heaters and where to buy them at to get the best deal. I would like to offer an alternative to buying an electric heater. Personally, I like to build things and when I get an idea that intrigues me, I like to follow up on it and try to come up with a way to design and build it.

Well, a few years ago I got the idea of how to build an electric heater using two heating tubes from Maytag clothes dryers. As you may, or may not know, Maytag clothes dryers have heating coils inside of a sheet metal tube that are used to supply the heat to dry the clothes. I was working at an appliance/electronics store and I had one of the appliance repair guys get me two of those heating tubes from old Maytag dryers that were traded in and were to be junked.

Once I got the heating tubes I removed an electric vent fan blower motor from a junk GE "above the range" microwave and vent fan unit. Then I had an old lamp the wife and I didn't use anymore and the base of the lamp became the stand for my new homemade heater.

The appliance guy said he thought those old heating tubes were 5,000 watts each, but he wasn't sure about that. Assuming he was correct, then the heater can put out 10,000 watts. In any case, the heater work really well and puts out an awful lot of heat. I am sure OSHA would not approve of it, and I admit it is not exactly the most safest heater around. But as long as you know have to be careful with it, and as long as you don't have kids around touching it, it isn't really all that big of a deal.

This thing needs a 40 amp breaker to run, it will trip a 30 amp breaker after about 10 seconds. But the heater is capable of throwing out an awful lot of heat and will warm a rather large area fairly quickly. I use a fan behind it to blow the hot air around, but you could just as easily add some pipe to throw the heat sideways if you wanted to. I run it for maybe 5 minutes and the whole basement is warm. I have a smaller 1,500 watt heater that I bought and it works OK once the temperature is where you want it. So the big homemade heater gets the temperature up to where I want it, then the little heater maintains it fairly well.

 

[rburke65]

Well that's one way to recycle that electric dryer. Hey...nice job!

 

[p_mori7]

I would prefer haveing a $100 UL approved 5000W unit (or 2) than that contraption.

I am sure it throws A LOT of heat.

I just wouldn't let it run without my being in the shop.

 

[casetractorfarmer]

I would prefer haveing a $100 UL approved 5000W unit (or 2) than that contraption.

I am sure it throws A LOT of heat.

I just wouldn't let it run without my being in the shop.

He said he uses it in his basement wow

 

[ArtDeco]

I'd like to see how that is all put together. Sure could use one for my RV.

 

[James-W]

I'd like to see how that is all put together. Sure could use one for my RV.

I'll take some more pictures of it a little later on today and post them for you.

I was using it in my old one car garage if I needed to do something out there in the Winter. But with the new bigger garage I have a natural gas heater so I don't need it out there anymore.

Now I use it in the basement when I am down there doing laundry or whatever else I may be doing at the time. The basement is insulated and I run it for a few minutes to get the temperature up to 72 degrees, then I turn it off and just run the smaller electric heater I bought which is only 1,500 watts. The smaller heater can maintain the temperature pretty well as long as it isn't super cold outside.

The thing is, I only run the homemade heater when I am in the basement and even then it isn't running very long. It doesn't need to run very long to raise the temperature to a comfortable level. The heater is quite capable of raising the basement temperature quickly and easily and it is quite safe as long as you understand the dangers associated with it.

 

[James-W]

The base is from a very old floor lamp, and is made from cast iron. It weighs about 20 pounds and makes a very strong and stable base for the heater. There is a half inch threaded rod, about 9 inches long, screwed into the middle of the base. I bent a piece of flat metal into an "L" shape and bolted one side to the threaded rod sticking up from the base.

The two heater tubes are made from sheet metal and as you can see from the pictures they have "lips" sticking out about 5/8 inch from each side of the tube. I put the two heating tubes together using these 'lips" and some small bolts and nuts. The tubes are attached to the base using the "lips" between the two heating tubes and attaching the tubes to the "L" shaped bracket.

The fan motor is wired to the left switch using L-1 and the neutral wire. The heater coils are powered by using L-1 and L-2 and are turned off and on by the other two switches. When all switches are off, no power is applied to the motor or the heating coils.

I realize this may not be the safest heater in the world, but as long as you know and understand the dangers, and you only use it when you are physically present, I really don't see any reason for not using it. It works extremely well, it only cost me about $6 for the parts I had to buy, and I only need to run it for a few minutes at a time.

I suppose I could have the furnace guy come in and add some heat ducts to the basement, but I am not sure he can do that with the size furnace we have. We may have to get a bigger furnace if we want more heat ducts put in the basement. I don't know that for a fact, but I suspect that is most likely the case. When the furnace was installed the basement was never intended to be "living space" and therefore they didn't install many heat registers down there. Now that we have the basement at least partially finished off, we find we could use more heat down there.

 

[ArtDeco]

I'll look at this in more detail later. Thank you very much

 

[LS6 Tommy]

I can't help but notice there are a lot of threads about electric heaters and where to buy them at to get the best deal. I would like to offer an alternative to buying an electric heater. Personally, I like to build things and when I get an idea that intrigues me, I like to follow up on it and try to come up with a way to design and build it.

Well, a few years ago I got the idea of how to build an electric heater using two heating tubes from Maytag clothes dryers. As you may, or may not know, Maytag clothes dryers have heating coils inside of a sheet metal tube that are used to supply the heat to dry the clothes. I was working at an appliance/electronics store and I had one of the appliance repair guys get me two of those heating tubes from old Maytag dryers that were traded in and were to be junked.

Once I got the heating tubes I removed an electric vent fan blower motor from a junk GE "above the range" microwave and vent fan unit. Then I had an old lamp the wife and I didn't use anymore and the base of the lamp became the stand for my new homemade heater.

The appliance guy said he thought those old heating tubes were 5,000 watts each, but he wasn't sure about that. Assuming he was correct, then the heater can put out 10,000 watts. In any case, the heater work really well and puts out an awful lot of heat. I am sure OSHA would not approve of it, and I admit it is not exactly the most safest heater around. But as long as you know have to be careful with it, and as long as you don't have kids around touching it, it isn't really all that big of a deal.

This thing needs a 40 amp breaker to run, it will trip a 30 amp breaker after about 10 seconds. But the heater is capable of throwing out an awful lot of heat and will warm a rather large area fairly quickly. I use a fan behind it to blow the hot air around, but you could just as easily add some pipe to throw the heat sideways if you wanted to. I run it for maybe 5 minutes and the whole basement is warm. I have a smaller 1,500 watt heater that I bought and it works OK once the temperature is where you want it. So the big homemade heater gets the temperature up to where I want it, then the little heater maintains it fairly well.

Didn't someone just start a thread about garage fires...

Seriously, I applaud the enginuity. I would just rather have a UL approved device. I sure as hell wouldn't run 10kw through a light switch...

Tommy

 

[bottom feeder]

Seriously, I applaud the enginuity. I would just rather have a UL approved device.

Tommy

I'm sure the original clothes dryers were UL approved, right? Close enough!

I think the heater is pretty awesome!

 

[James-W]

I'm sure the original clothes dryers were UL approved, right? Close enough!

I think the heater is pretty awesome!

I like the way you think.

 

[James-W]

In some respects I think the homemade heater is safer that one that you buy in a store. What I mean by that is, I know the heater I made is not exactly something you turn on and walk away from. I would never use the homemade heater if I were not physically present while it was running. In other words, I don't turn it on and then leave to go shopping. The electric heater I bought in a store I might be tempted to do that with, but I would never do that with my homemade heater.

 

[laser3kw]

the comment about the current going through a common light switch brings another observation -the supply wire (12ga Romax?) looks way small compared to a normal dryer plug in cord - and it supplying two heater units?
Good to think outside the box. Great to see you got it working. Now it's time to tune it up and make it safe.

 

[James-W]

the comment about the current going through a common light switch brings another observation -the supply wire (12ga Romax?) looks way small compared to a normal dryer plug in cord - and it supplying two heater units?
Good to think outside the box. Great to see you got it working. Now it's time to tune it up and make it safe.

The wire may look small in the pictures, but that is an optical illusion caused by the camera angle, or whatever it is that causes this. It is really 8 gauge copper wire. Most switches like this are 15 amp, but these are 20 amp. If I could find some switches that are rated higher than 20 amp I would replace them. Strangely enough, I have not had a switch failure as of yet. But I don't run it all that much. I turn it on for a few minutes and the temperature is in the mid-70's and then I turn it off and just run the smaller electric heater I bought. The smaller heater does a fairly decent job of maintaining the temperature, but it can't seem to raise the temperature very quickly, if it raises it all.

 

[laser3kw]

The wire may look small in the pictures, but that is an optical illusion caused by the camera angle, or whatever it is that causes this. It is really 8 gauge copper wire. Most switches like this are 15 amp, but these are 20 amp. If I could find some switches that are rated higher than 20 amp I would replace them. Strangely enough, I have not had a switch failure as of yet. But I don't run it all that much. I turn it on for a few minutes and the temperature is in the mid-70's and then I turn it off and just run the smaller electric heater I bought. The smaller heater does a fairly decent job of maintaining the temperature, but it can't seem to raise the temperature very quickly, if it raises it all.

Well done!
carry on...

 

[bottom feeder]

If I could find some switches that are rated higher than 20 amp I would replace them.

Here's a link to a 30 amp switch:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...e,+Self+Grounding,+Back+and+Side+Wired,+White

 

[slip knot]

Heat is good this time of year. This thing is probably safer than most wood burners that people are using for heat in their shops. I know I've rigged up some scary **** trying to stay warm in the winter.