JamieMacdonald

Hello,

As there's no mains gas, my girlfriend's flat is infested with those horrible night time storage heaters (x3). I reckon these things are over 30 years old. Since we have lived here they have all taken turns to stop working at one time or another.

I've managed to get them working again by giving them a good clean out with the hoover, and replacing a thermo fuse on one of them.

They all need replacing, but we are selling the flat and will hopefully be out in a few weeks, so I'd rather just keep them working to keep the buyer happy (although not sure if they'd have any comeback anyway?).

Basically, the most recent one to fail has a faulty thermostat. This thing:



The part which has gone (burnt out) is shown below:



A few bits of swarf fell out when I fiddled with it, and I know that the heater still works, as I put that tab of metal underneath the bottom contact so that it was touching, and the heater came on. It was making a bit of a crackling noise though so I thought I'd better not leave it that way.

I don't think I've got any chance of getting a spare part for this, so I was wondering if it would be safe to just bridge this connection using a piece of wire or something? I know that you wouldn't have any control on the input (currently 1-7), but would this have the same effect as leaving it on level 7 all the time?

Don't want to burn the place down if I can help it!

Cheers,
Jamie

mart360

Brendan Hughes

Usually appliances are sold with no guarantee of them being tested / working?

I'm with mart, bodging it is not acceptable.

As you say, they're 30 yrs old FFS. What does the buyer expect?

David Lock

Sling 'em out (bloody heavy IIRC!)

You could always get a couple of oil filled rads if you are feeling guilty.

mad555

iTrader: (1)

Try Your local City Electrical Factors,if no joy there pm me and I maybe able to help you out in getting the part.What make are they Heatstore,Dimplex,etc?

JamieMacdonald

They are Tricity Simplex 8003. They don't even have seperate input/output controls, just this one control which does both. I've bocome a bit obsessed with keeping these things working , it's become a personal mission , but I think it's only worth doing properly.

Throwing them all (or just one) out is not an option as it would leave a big gap in the wall were it has been painted around etc. The particulars of the property advise that nothing has been tested, but my gf had to sign some paperwork which basically said everything worked (it did at the time!). We don't want to fork out for a brand new one just as we're leaving.

Although saying that, the buyer is buying to let, so I imagine he'd have to get all electrics all tested, and would probably be forced to replace them with more modern equipment anyway. Think I might do what Mart suggests and just put it back together, switch it off, and forget about it!

It's not that cold now anyway.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

It is pretty standard that you will have to state what works and what does not - and you will be liable if there is a difference!!

Paul3446

If you do replace them, take the bricks out before removing the heater from the wall, it makes it a lot lighter!

JamieMacdonald

"But it worked when we lived there.... must have 'gone' after we exchanged contracts"