Found this old guy at a garage sale years ago, I suspect it dates back maybe 80 years or so. Still worked like a charm, but as you can see, it was very dirty and the wiring was obviously very old. I am NOT an electrician, as will probably be obvious in a minute or two, but when I took it apart, cleaned it and re-wired it, I swear I wired it as the original, with the exception of adding a ground. Only the top ceramic element works...in the back view, it is the one furthest from the inlet. Obviously, I have something bass ackward, and any help will certainly be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Antique Heater
- Thread starter Mart
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From what I can see, it is indeed wired correctly. You did a nice job by including the crimp-on wire terminations, many people just wrap the conductor around the termination screw.
Do you have a volt meter.....even a cheapy? The meter needs to have a resistance setting, that is "ohms".
If you do, by touching the meter's leads to the elements screws, do the following. NOTE: It does not matter which of the meter's test leads are touched to the element's screws, either way will work.
1) Take the conductors off the heater (black, whites and gnd (grn/yel)).
2) Measure your resistance on the "known good" element (top element). Record the "ohms" value.
3) Move down, and measure the resistance of the "dead" element (bottom), Record.
If the lower element's ohm value is showing no reading (or infinity, as we call it), your lower element is "dead". if your unsure about the readings, post them in here, and I will check back online shortly.
Too, just to be safe, take one additional reading. With all the conductors connected (as shown in your picture) to the element's termination screws, take one reading between any of the wires. That is, either black or either white and the new ground you added. With this test, your testing the continuity between ALL the wiring in both elements AND ground. It should be infinite (open circuit). Its quite likely you did it correctly, otherwise, the overcurrent device would have taken the circuit out.
If unsure, post it in here, and I'll take a look.
Do you have a volt meter.....even a cheapy? The meter needs to have a resistance setting, that is "ohms".
If you do, by touching the meter's leads to the elements screws, do the following. NOTE: It does not matter which of the meter's test leads are touched to the element's screws, either way will work.
1) Take the conductors off the heater (black, whites and gnd (grn/yel)).
2) Measure your resistance on the "known good" element (top element). Record the "ohms" value.
3) Move down, and measure the resistance of the "dead" element (bottom), Record.
If the lower element's ohm value is showing no reading (or infinity, as we call it), your lower element is "dead". if your unsure about the readings, post them in here, and I will check back online shortly.
Too, just to be safe, take one additional reading. With all the conductors connected (as shown in your picture) to the element's termination screws, take one reading between any of the wires. That is, either black or either white and the new ground you added. With this test, your testing the continuity between ALL the wiring in both elements AND ground. It should be infinite (open circuit). Its quite likely you did it correctly, otherwise, the overcurrent device would have taken the circuit out.
If unsure, post it in here, and I'll take a look.