According to CSA C22.2 No. 46-13 any oil filled radiator heating surface accessible by a 102 mm sphere can not exceed a temperature of 90C. This is why the temperature limiting device is there and cycles. If you buy the same heater in the USA with a UL 1278 certification there is no heating surface temperature limit, therefore no cycling will occur at maximum thermostat setting. The number one cause of portable heater fires is due to loose electrical connections, that's why the connections that carry the full electrical load are or should be soldered. I have worked for an unspecified small appliance manufacturer for over 25 years working with multiple agency's safety compliance for portable heaters.

I'm allways impressed by your confidence. You start filming and put a lot of effort into things, even if you could get surprised and caught off guard. You always find a solution.

I don’t think I could fail to be impressed by the level of ingenuity consistently displayed on your channel. well done, as always.

Glad to see there is a solution to the quirks of the oil filled heaters... they are a great alternative to the "element and fan" cycling on and off.

The tinkle in the eye, when you said only I can set the temperature. Makes you so happy, made me chuckle

I've had one of these small oil filled headers for 13 years now I use it every year and I love it and I never had a problem with it

When these were introduced they had more fins. Good ones were made by (or were branded) DeLonghi. Wouldn't be surprised if in those the heating element only went halfway in so the oil would circulate around. How about a teardown on some of these heaters to see how long the elements are?

I had one of those... the dial "thermostat"'s sensing element also passed heater current. 1500 watts, all the way up, would actually end up a cooler temp than 900 watts. ... it got rewired to handle a regular baseboard heater thermostat. Works like a champ now.

I have had newer Chinese made Delonghi radiator heaters that offer the option of 750-900-1500 settings. Over the years, I've bought the older Delonghi heaters, which were made in Italy and are almost double in size - 8 fins with larger spaces in between- and rated 600-900-1500. I really prefer these, and like what I think are the savings of 150 watts on low power. In my opinion, once that thermal mass of metal and oil are warm, the old 600 watt heaters are warmer than the newer 750 watt version. I have seen newspaper clippings of the model I have from 1980, and it was selling for over $150- given inflation, that has to equate to $200 or so in today's money. The new (non-Delonghi) models Wal-mart sells were around $40 a few years back, so the smaller size and Chinese production seem to have reduced the price a lot, but I still strongly prefer our massive 40+ year old models that I've picked up at garage sales and thrift stores, and always run them on the lowest power setting.

The overheat protection elements are rated at different degrees. You could potentially change it to a higher degree rating and get more power out of the heater, clearly that would be a risk so you would have to do it at your own risk. Thank you for the video!

I have two of the delonghi oil radiators. Bought ten years ago for $79 ea. I don't think you can touch them for that price these days. They are 1500w and digital with two on-off timer setting. I have one right next to me as I write- it is 25f outside. These heaters do a great job and I've never had a problem and haven't run my furnace since I bought them. I love that they're completely silent and don't dry the air out. I expect them to last many more years. Almost 30 years ago I bought a delonghi radiator and it must have been wired for 220v as on 110 it would hardly get warm at all. Needless to say it ended up never being used and was probably thrown away at some point.

Thanks for sharing experience with oil heaters! Nice modifications and great video, as always! 👍

I had an old one in the 80's that worked great. It ran the heating elements in series when idling then switched them to parallel as needed to regulate the temperature. All it had was a thermostat, an on off switch and a hole to poke a screwdriver through to hit the button to reset the overheat sensor. Unfortunately I didn't bring it with me when I moved and all the new ones are garbage.

what a great and simple video to understand. never really knew how these things worked. thanks!

I got one of those external thermostat outlets that can be set to a temperature rage of something like 5 to 40C. I plug that into an outlet, then I plug my oil heater into that, set the heater to max and then set the external termostat to my preferred temperature. The benefit of doing that, is that I get a more constant temperature in the room and I can easily adjust the temperature on the external termostat. Been using this system for two years and it still works great. I assume I will have to replace that relay some day, but it will probably last longer than that thermal switch that's built in anywhay.

I'm glad im not the only person who modified these things. at my old job i had one under my desk. I modified it to have a single power setting and I just turned it on and off. it would just make it warmer under my desk without making my legs sweat.

Great Fix, nice to see how these things are actually put together 👍

when I moved into a larger camper, the two oil-filled radiators weren't big enough. It was suggested that I use infrared heaters...they worked! I have 3 infrared heaters for the past 2 years and they're flawless...and are run by a thermostat.

This was very interesting. I have an old oil filled heater and it has always been somewhat arcane. Now its behavior makes a lot more sense.

On our oil-filled heater,it has two switches, one for each element. The switch for the high power element burned through its contacts long ago. I removed the wiring on that switch, and we just use it on low. It's fine... It'll make those oil-ticking noises for a minute or two at power-up after having moved the unit, especially if it's been tipped slightly. Manual says that's normal.

This video encouraged me to hook up my oil filled heater to a power meter. Curiously, the third setting remains at 1325 watts even after it's been on for hours and the room temperature has reached over 70F. I don't know if I should be pleased or concerned, it was the cheapest "1500 watt" oil heater at walmart after all.

This is a great solution.! I keep one of these in My basement to warm the upper floor. But - For those of you who may be uncomfortable with electronic alterations - - Upstairs - I keep My ceiling fan on reverse to force warm air down. That seems to keep Mine from cycling on/off. If I forget the ceiling fan it cycles and reminds Me. -KJ

I have two of those large standup quartz heaters from 1962. I have rewired them so they are safe. They are very quiet with no fans. They are 1100 W and provide good radiant heating.

The way he said "out" he must be Canadian. I really enjoyed this video, very informative. Thank you.

I have a small honeywell fan for general use that I point across my radiator when its in use because little heaters are annoyingly loud and the draw+light cooling makes the heater cycle less. The fan is pretty quiet and also moves air to the side of the room on which I sit, because the heaters cant run on the same circuit as the two computers in that room. Its a little obtuse but it works for me

“Only I can set the temperature” spoken like a true Dad lol

I was super lucky to randomly find a near silent fan heater at Walmart that I also control with smartthings. you're cool.

This will motivate the kids to learn Python earlier in life.

It would be nice to see teardowns of the old Hydrosil electric baseboard heaters, the ones with the gel inside. My gas wall furnace was red tagged as my contractor installed the new furnace wrong, with the old shorter vents of the old furnace. The old Hydrosil has worked well to keep my bedroom area comfortable, with outside temps here sometimes down in the 30's. I did replace the thermostat, as the old one was a bit wonky.

Great informaion. I particularly like the "They have hese security screws... *grind* *grind* - no problem.

I built a sauna using one of these and 6 clamp lamps with near infrared bulbs. Thaks for the video, very useful info .

Thanks for that lesson. I'm sitting right next to mine right now. Now, if it stops working, I'll know wherre to look first.

Matthias, we love those heaters too, although in Australia (at least in our little bit of it) we turn them on only a few nights in winter, then by the end of September, when they haven't been used for a month, we cover them up so they don't get dusty and think about them next May when it starts to get cool again.

"Ah, security screws..." Dremel tool... "Problem solved." I love it - I just bought a "Security screws" set of bits. 🙂

A dad's dream , to be the only person to set temperature!

I like those heaters. I have one. It does an excellent heating job, so I'm not worried about if it only stays at 600 W.

Interesting. I need a ~400W heater for my mud room. I use a thermostat module bought off ebay to control it. I had a ceramic panel but the ceramic started spalling and wires showing. One of these might work well though they are not the cheapest. It might be interesting to swap out the thermostat for a solid state relay and a microcontroller. I bet these are very amenable to being switched on and off quite often that way.

What I did is I bought one for each corners of my L shaped garage. I have been a warm happy camper for many years. I love these.

Our UK ones cut *all* the elements once the overheat protection cuts in. I have a 500W mini radiator which despite having a 90°C safety cutout only radiates about 170W. My 1750W model had a 65°C cutout and even on the 600W setting only heated to about 380W. I replaced both cutouts with 110°C versions, now the 500W heater kicks out 380W without tripping the safety and the 1750W can cope with about 1100W before tripping. I've marked the thermostats accordingly and now they're plugged into smart switches that turn them on at night when electricity is cheaper than gas.

I have a few of these things; one in particular is in the guest room to provide an extra-warm room because my wife, bless her, is not a fan of winter. So we can turn the whole house low and just warm up individual rooms when it's just us in the house.

I have a similar style heater I bought recently. I decided to test it after watching your video. It was advertised as a 600/900/1500 watt heater. It's actually a 400/800/1200 watt. If it runs for 12 minutes the overheat protection kicks in. Interesting though it shuts off the 400 watt element leaving the 800 watt element still going. I think I'm going to wire in a toggle switch to where you can run the 400 watt or 800 watt but never 1200 watts.

Great Vid! I have a couple that only work on one setting. I assumed the element was burned out. I will have to take them apart and do some diagnostics. Thanks for the info!

Hi. I just bought one of these this winter and noticed the same situation (should have seen this earlier). It’s meant to have 3 heat settings but as it can only radiate an amount of heat proportional to the difference between its and the environmental temperature setting it makes no difference (in reality) what power its set on. On level 3 it gets hot quicker but the electrical consumption scales back to an equilibrium. If it was in a very, very cold room or, as you tried, you put a fan on it (done that too), then it can maintain a greater heat value setting. In essence these work great in small spaces, but don’t heat larger ones as they scale back. Cool vid!!

I feel like I’m the only one that likes the popping noise when I sleep lol

One thing to watch out for is oil leaks. We love these heaters to. But keep them on a tray so we can detect oil leaks. If it happens they go to recycling due to fire hazard. Newer happend to us thought, but there has been some fires due to them. As it has from other ovens from dust or covering. Thats why I like these. They dont get so hot that they can ignite dust, paper and such by accident. Gretings from Norway 🖐

The upside of the oil heaters is they are more mellow. Instead of dumping really hot hair every so often you get a steady stream (with a low speed fan) of decently warm/hot air.

The only surprise to me is that Matt has smart home gear he came off as a guy who would resent it

I have one of these exact model... I noticed the same thing you did (that it only drew ~700W continuous) so I added some aluminum fin extensions that by my estimate double the surface area. It pulls full power now if I put it on level 3.

I wonder if an insufficient fluid level in the radiator would cause limit tripping in high power. An air pocket is required for thermal expansion of the fluid at the top but if the fluid does not reach the top manifold it will not circulate vertically during heating which may cause the overheating during high output (fluid boiling). Could this be a mfg cost saving that the purchaser will never notice? Is it even oil? Can the element be removed to check oil volume? Hmmm?

I wondered about these. I have 2. But I never push the 1500w because I'm running them on 15amp breakers. While it would carry it by itself, there are other items on that breaker. Mine click on and off and have not tripped.

I have 4 or 5 (who knows maybe more) old DeLonge oil space heaters that are all probably 30 years old. They are tanks in comparison to the new units.

I still have the Delonghi I bought over 20 years ago. That one turns on and off, and it is one of the features of the model. Once it has reached the set temperature it switches off. I can’t comment on how much power it really draws on different settings, but the only time it makes that ticking noise is when it has been switched off and is cooling down. But I switched to gas heating anyway, because electrical heaters are too expensive to run these days. Those oil heaters are nice, but take far too long to warm up. Plus the gas heaters still work when we have blackouts.

I had an oil heater radiator 30 years ago that worked great and in curiosity I measured the amps it was drawing at each setting and it was doing as it claimed. A couple of years ago I bought a new one and immediately noticed just what you did, so I returned it. I started trying to find one that was built properly and even called one companies US distributor. After talking to a couple of people I ended up talking to an engineer who told me something interesting... He said that they didn't specify how it was wired but that the Chinese manufacturer was complying with a EUROPEAN REQUIREMENT and that to simplify manyfacturing the US ones just got built the same. Somewhat like how California laws drag everyone else along in the other 49 states.

Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative video presentation which is very much appreciated by the people.

It’s fun to watch your analysis and mods with items like this. Could you do an analysis of a fake plug-in electric fire place with flickering lights and a quartz heater?

Wow I have no idea what you accomplished. I'm gonna have to watch again. And heck I'm good at stuff like this.

Good idea with the low power mode. Think i'll do the same mod to my heater - should be easy as i already ground down the safety screws when I was investigating why the settings 2 and 3 were cutting out.

thought i might be able to fix mine. But this is really above my level of understanding and... i dont have the guts to do anything with wires. Luckily mine was only 40 bucks. so getting a new one is cheap enough.

I love how you made those into Flathead screws engineering innovation 👌🏻

My question is how safe is this heater if a kid accidentally puts a shirt on it or throw a blanket on it and can it be placed on carpet?

ahhh this explains why my heater recently started getting hotter and hotter and not shutting off. I've had it for ten years so I'm not surprised.

I'm using an external thermostat/timer with one of these types of heaters. Should I not have the heater on High? The thermostat can handle 1500w.

I specifically went out of my way to buy a 1980s DeLonghi 600/900/1500W that will run wide open, and does not make any popping noises. All it needed was a fresh power cord and one internal connection replaced.

I find this odd.. I have a Delonghi oil filled radiator from 2002 and its still cranking away. And yes. It will out full wattage without stopping. I usually will turn it to both elements to get the oil warm, then kick back to medium or low and set the thermostat when the room is warm enough.

I like these heaters too, but my issue with them is not with the power levels, but with the thermostat controls. I find them highly inconsistent. My solution is a thermostat switch in line with the power cord. I am not needing to get much power out of the heater, so it just sits on the lowest setting cycling on and off with the external thermostat.

I can usually convince the 5 lonely degrees outside that the inside ones are having a bigger party. I've never failed to get them to join, they even bring their own salads to the buffet.

What if you put a ~120mm computer fan on top? Those are almost silent. What if we JB Weld on some more fins? 🤔

my friends heater like this blew up and sprayed hot oil all over the babies room. Everyone was ok and luckily we heard it from downstairs

Pretty interesting indeed, Matthias! Here in Brazil we don't need those... But ACs, on the other hand... 🙄 Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

@Mathias - What type of heating element is there in these radiators? And is it with 1 1/4 inch treads?

Paging Alec from Technology Connections... :)

Can you please do a test of one of the heaters with the overheat sensor jumped out, and using the 1350 watt setting and using thermostat dial to regulate the temperature?

I had the idea of hooking them up to a wall thermostat that can modulate in 25% increment, haven't tried it out yet but will probably cycle less.

Thank you for the info. You're really teaching some great stuff : )

I envy the electricity prices you have in Canada. I'd love to have electric heating. Grüße aus der Heimat

Always thought the modern ones are too small. Had once a very old 1200W (400/800/1200) one that was 3x the size of the larger one you showed.

I like like that there isn't a fan or red hot element for the little ones to get into.

A youtube recommendation that I actually welcome! Great video, subbed!

Put the heater near the coldest spot (like a window) and it trips less often. But I too love these heaters.

have you considered making some radiant panels and put them on the floor in various locations you commonly work? That's something I would try if I had a big shop that I couldn't get warm.

The one I have has the decency to run taking up around 900 watts continuously I think it's because it simply has more surface area than the ones you have, the high power doesn't seem to trip anything (though I haven't checked extensively) but the heater starts smelling a big when run on high power for too long so I keep it on mid or low.

Do you have a video on you smart plug/ thermostat/ python temp control system? I love these heaters too, but I hate the clicking noise. Would love to setup temp control with smart plug/thermostat and a script. Thanks!

I have enjoyed these oil heaters since I bought an RV trailer about 10years ago. I have not had those noise problems except for one instance where the heater was stored on its side. It quieten down with low power use in the late spring and no problem since. My RV trailer is only 25' long and on low or medium power, the trailer gets warm guickly. The one thing to be causious about it modifying the internals. I work withj what I got, as is, so I dont overheat the place. nobody should be modifying nothing!

How much of a difference would it make to paint the fins black?

We have a steam radiator of similar form factor but it uses a steam hydrostatic thermostat and is solid cast iron, 1200W. Thing must weigh close to 100#, made in the 50s. On something like its 4th power cord just from age

Reminds me of the safety features clothes dryers have. There is absolutely no way I would ever bypass or modify them. Use the device within the capabilities it was designed for. And by the way I am a 64 year old certified appliance service technician with a couple decades of experience. If you aren't happy with the performance of an appliance find one that satisfies your needs.

Thank you sooo much for this ! I was thinking about leaving one of those in a house that nobody will be using for the winter. I need to make sure the temperature there will not drop below freezing point as this would broke pipes and also is not good for other elements. Is it safe to leave that heater on unattended for couple of months ?

I have one of these but it has two illuminated flip switches plus the rotary temp selector first switch is 750,and second is 1500 have had it since 2007 and it works flawlessly to this day, have never had to run it beyond 750

I just bought a comfort zone 240 v garage heater, has it own thermostat but it kicks off way before the temperature across the room reaches temp. Can I install a wall thermostat some how? Thanks

I still love these they work awesome. For small rooms

Had one similar, one winter was running it regularly, went to switch on one morning and it went bang and jumped over a foot in the air, stripped it down, the tilt switch ball had caused it to jump, whether there was a short in one of the elements, I didn't check, but wow just that small ball and 240vac did that!

It's strange how often Matthias makes a video about something I was specifically looking for answers about recently.

I have that exact same heater, SAI. I had an older model for many years (not SAI) that I replaced with the SAI one after the cord became worn and in my opinion unsafe. The Sai one quit working after a year, so I took it apart to have a look. All the wires showed signs of overheating, dry brittle insulation, even the extra isolation caps around the connectors were dry and brittle and crumbled. They just don't make stuff like they used to.

Great video! Do you mind sharing the link to the replacement part? I'd like to order a few for my heaters as well. Thank you!

I really would like to know what changed in these throughout the years. I remember when I was a kid encountering them and they are always warm and consistently warm. I purchased a new one 15 years ago now and it shuts off I don't remember the one from my childhood doing that but it also wasn't mine.

I guess I’m lucky I have had one for years that I’ve run on high When ever I needed and it never over heats. I also just got a really nice old 1500watt one that was on sale for $1.00 at goodwill mostly because it had a bad plug 🔌 and then I found a slightly crispy wire from Old age inside the cover and replaced it with high temperature stove wire. I ran it for many minutes and it never truly reaches 1500w even though it runs on all elements.

I have one that had a crumbling switch so it is now hotwired to full 1500 watts with no thermostat control. I think the boiling oil sound is just a startup thing as the oil is becoming less viscous. I'm not advocating that solution but nothing has exploded here.

Al that level 1 level 2 stuff just broke my brain.

We have a Pelonis oil filled heater, Model HO-0211. The level selector switch doesn't work. I disassembled to unit to get at the switch to discovered that it has disintegrated on the inside. It appears that maybe the plastic parts broke apart. I emailed the company two weeks ago and no response. Can that selector switch be purchased after market? Or should I just throw the whole thing in the trash?

Turn the Heater upside down, when it's cold, so that the oil is mixed evenly. (It says do do this seasonally in the owners manual). I recommend placing them on a cookie sheet as the will leak eventually. When they leak, its time to replace them. Overtime, the popping noise goes away and they are very quiet. I like this design, they work well.