Tube Heater Problems

[jmc]

I've used the 60W tube heaters from toolstation in my 2 garage brewing fridges.


On 1 fridge this heater died within a year and was replaced with no fuss (under warrenty) and then warrenty replacement died in under a year (and was replaced FOC)

On other fridge the heater purch Jan 2011 (26 months) has just died. Its out of warrenty so will need replacing.

I'm wondering if this is par for the course or I've just been unlucky.

PS: It would have to die when I'd just brewed a saison, with Saison Dupont yeast (which is tempramental and likes it warm)

[Dave S]

I wonder if being in a confined space affects them.

[OvenHiker]

I've used a 60W tube heater from TLC in my fermentation fridge for several years now. Mine is hooked up to a TC-10 with the heating hysteresis set to a degree or so. I wonder if these heaters are not happy to be cycled too often?

[jmc]

I've used a 60W tube heater from TLC in my fermentation fridge for several years now. Mine is hooked up to a TC-10 with the heating hysteresis set to a degree or so. I wonder if these heaters are not happy to be cycled too often?

Thanks for feedback.
Tolerance of my STC-1000 set to 0.5c (default), so if temp set at 20C, heater will switch on at 19.5C and off at 20.5C.

Probe is in padded pocket taped to FV so I don't get excessive overshoot of FV temp.

[Jocky]

They're not expensive - why not wire in two, so you have some redundancy in there the next time one fails?

[Naich]

That's pretty poor. There's not much in a heater that can go wrong - no moving parts or anything. OK, you've got thermal cycling but it is a heater so it should be designed to cope with that.