In this video you will see a safety test and an autopsy of a cheap portable electric water heater element (immersion boiler) from Ebay. You can support me on Patreon: / diodegonewild
How come you haven't tested and taken apart an electric hurdey gurdey? I'm sure it would be of much interest to many as no one on RU-vid has really taken apart one
It's a common practice, manufacturing resistance heating elements, to fill the pipe with compacted dry silica sand before bending. The problem is that the sand, in your case, was not compacted and appeared to be humid - probably the leak was the humidity in the sand - poor manufacturing quality and control (no high voltage leak test), as one expects with these cheap Chinese appliances.
But once you bend it, the coil will become un-centered. I suppose if you properly compact the sand, it should hold it in place, but then China is not known to do things properly (their buildings are literally crumbling: ru-vid.com?search_query=china+falling+down+apart ). ¬_¬
The white powder is meant to be magnesium oxide, if you ever burned magnesium ribbon at school then this is the white ash left over. and I think the coiled wire could be an alloy of tungsten.
I previously thought that the weird white powder is salt. Because salt is an "ionic compound made up of two groups of oppositely charged ions". And ions are "atoms with an electrical charge."
The cat goes behind the door and not just to protect it from electrocution. It needs to be protected from fire and explosions the Chinese devices typically produce.
I died at 3:29....'bloody heeeell, ceeeiriosly' 👍👍😊😊😂😂 But I would most probably have had similar reaction to a 'dead short cerquit! ' 😂😊 we love you, keep these vids coming!
Ow er, bastards arnt they, not even a high temprature woven covering to insulate the nichrome wire :-(. Not even an earth. Big clive calls that plug a DeathDaptor :-D You don't have earth leakage or rcd fusebox protection. Yep keep puss safe :-D
Well, sand is the cheapest insulation :). They don't care about earthing either. They just use the "don't touch it when it's running" logic. My wiring has an RCD, but only for the bathroom. Other rooms only have a 16A breaker and no other safety. Wirings from a certain era are like this. The cat was in a safe place, no worries ;).
It is like this because if you would connect your entire house to the RCD, it would need to allow more leakage margin to avoid getting activated when not desired, reducing the safety. Therefore they were restricted to high-risk rooms. Nowadays we can manufacture them cheaper (in China :) ), so it is no problem to install as many of them as needed and we can protect the entire house.
My guess is that in the middle part where the "sand" is not compacted well, the heating wire has enough "wiggle" room due to thermal expansion/contraction to get close to the metal pipe, and create an electrical leakage. While it's true that most bathroom trippers will trip before it gets too dangerous (50-100mah), the mere fact that they didn't even try to isolate it better is a total disregard of quality and safety.
Well, it might be more of a production problem than a design problem. Often Chinese devices are somewhat okay designed, produced by many different producers, who are in their price wars fuck it up. We can see a production error here: The "sand" was only solidified near the ends of the tube. If the sand was fully solid, you would have isolation between live wire and the tube covering the heating element. Now there are questions to be asked about the design: There is no ground plug, is just the sand enough etc. However, the theory that the design might be compliant with Chinese electrical regulations (that are not so strict as ours) and the production being fucked up, due to price pressure and inexperienced manufacturers, sounds plausible.
I took apart the heating element of a coffee maker once, the heater was constructed exactly the same as this one, so unfortunately this danger might not be uncommon.
The powder is normal, it is also present in high quality heating elements, it is usually magnesium oxide, which is a refractory material and a good insulator, I went on a tour in a heating element factory, and yes, the manufacturing process is pretty much just that I believe the problem is on one if the two ends considering your measurements
I think that in good heaters the powder material should be at least a bit more solid. Maybe just more compacted, maybe soaked with something to make it solid.
@@DiodeGoneWild Yes, it is indeed a finer powder and more compacted, I din't see the powder up close, but I remember seeing a section of a different style of heating element that was rated class II and the powder didn't come out like that, it stayed compacted, so yes, that could also be another sign of cheapness on that dodgy heating element
Thanks for the interesting autopsy and important safety information! Its really horrific how they treat these safety issues in China. You cant be careful enough with those things...
@@pirateman1966 - so, first you say that China doesn't have safety laws.... then you agree with me that China DOES have safety laws? ROFL. The safety laws that are being broken are those of the (export) country where the product is being used. People should not import things that are non-compliant, and it is lack of enforcement in the OTHER countries that causes the problems.
@@pirateman1966 No need to be rude. YOU were the one trolling these RU-vid comments with your inaccurate bullshit. You should be more graceful and apologise when somebody catches you out.
I think it's not asbestos. Asbestos is soft and it consists of fibres. Asbestos is used as a thermal insulation. The material in a heater is supposed to conduct heat.
At some truck stops in the USA, you can find a 12V version of this device made for coffee mugs. The heating element is surrounded by metal and makes no contact with the water, so there's a small chance of electrocution. But there is no overheat protection, so it can boil away the water and become a fire hazard. Also, it plugs into your cigarette lighter plug. The current it draws is excessive for that kind of plug. It will (and really does) slowly melt the plug down. Not only is this a fire hazard, but can get hot enough to burn your hand when you go to unplug it. The big problem with it is that the connection at the lighter plug forms a voltage divider network with the heating element. Thus, the plug and socket becomes almost as much a heater as the heating element. To stop this, one has to reduce the resistance at the plug. This means replacing the plug with something else entirely. My solution was to install a pair of RCA jacks right next to the socket, and wired them up to hot and ground. Then I replaced the plug with RCA jacks. This left a small 13.5V shock hazard, but the resistance dropped so low that the heavy lamp wire became the next highest resistance. The wire warmed up more than the RCA jacks. But at no time was the wire too hot to touch, so I deemed this an acceptable solution.
@@drobotk Not so. A guy I knew was working on an F-4G with the jet engine running on a very hot day. A running jet engine produces an enormous amount of current - both 120VAC and 12VDC. When he got hit with 12VDC, it put a hole right through his thumb and simultaneously cauterized the wound. His thumb looked and smelled like a burnt hot dog. Lucky for him, he didn't lose his thumb, but there was some nerve damage. You should also know that arc welders are low voltage, high current devices.
Great job. You continue to inspire me to get rid of four decades of gear and learn again how to use a DMM. Thanks. Hey, my wife thanks you for getting me to think of unloading 5 ton of gear in her basement.
Your Earth-leakage Circuit Breaker (ELCB) should go off. This video shows not only Chinese crap product, but also poorly executed electric installation in your house.
Of course the tube isn't grounded. If the tube was grounded the heater would trip the buyer's mains breaker and the buyer would complain and ask for a refund. The odd dead buyer isn't a problem as dead buyers neither ask for refunds nor give bad feedback.
with a normal immersion heater, would i get electrocuted if i were to touch a titanium rod which is in contact with the heating element? (the titanium rod end inside the coil of the heating element?)
Its funny how while watching his videos about scam like fuelshark one. When chinese see another buyer they think they fooled another idiot and if they knew who that buyer is they would think OH NO
They could isolate the resistive wire with glass dust and it could be a bit safer to use, but Minecraft said: you make glass out of sand, glass is not conductive so you can just put stupid sand from the beach
correct! every turn increase the current 1 time: 2 turn double current, 3 turn triple current and so on. So, make turns an divide by number of turns to obtain the correct value (in a perfect world)
I love all of your videos and I think you should keep doing it and some of the dodgy Chinese electronics You get are really bad even your cat doesn't think it's safe to do pleas be safe because here in Scotland ware I live the plug sockets are different and you can only pout it in one way or you will brake the socket and what' you plugin it will brake
I might be guessing that the weird white powder is salt. Because salt is an "ionic compound made up of two groups of oppositely charged ions". And ions are "atoms with an electrical charge." But if it's really salt, what is it's purpose on the heater?
Hello Mr wild. I'm thinking about using a SSR to switch mo well pump. It is 120v and I think 7amps. I am thinking the zero crossing switching will be easier on my Inverter. I am off grid. And need to care for my inverter. Will this help inrush current spikes? Thanks man...
They don't ground most devices in the United States, but they probably provide better insulation practices. Please don't snort or lick that "sand" stuff. Even if you knew what it was, it came from China and is likely contaminated with poisonous materials like asbestos, arsenic, or babies.
Tubular heating element are usually made of, magnesium oxide and not send. Because magnesium oxide has very high melting point 2,852 °C (5,166 °F), and it's also much finer powder compare to send. It can be packed more densely compared to sand.
Hello Mr wild. I'm thinking about using a SSR to switch mo well pump. It is 120v and I think 7amps. I am thinking the zero crossing switching will be easier on my Inverter. I am off grid. And need to care for my inverter. Will this help inrush current spikes? Thanks man...
Probably, the sand is pressed at the ends and so it is such "solidified". I had a bitter experience with one of these heaters ( 1500w, bigger version), it was running on mains while dipped into water.... suddenly the pipe leaked and the powder(sand) was thrown up all over the room, the whole room became foggy! Though it was of an unknown brand, then I bought a new one from Bajaj, it is working till now....all perfectly grounded and so on.
