"Miracle" heater teardown - with schematics

could you edit your videos down to 2 or 3 minutes please, as they are it's like watching paint dry, waiting for the grass to grow or waiting for the polish to fade, tiresome, tedious and boring, also if your image is in the viewfinder, please wear clean clothing and appear to be well kempt with shaven face and neat and tidy hair, sweaty T-shirts that double up as bed wear and food crumbs in beards is not acceptable modern times, also what you say, is it based on scientific fact that stands up to scrutinizing as you are dealing with potentially dangerous issues. . many thanks K.S.

My dad sold Philco refrigerators in the 60's. We had a defective one that would not cool. The service people first changed the compressor and the problem. The factory gave the customer a new fridge and the defective one was abandoned at the service center. Somebody decided to look at the fridge again, installed some temp probes and ran the fridge. He saw that the temps came down quickly, but temps rose rapidly once the compressor shut down. Turned out the door switch was defective and the 40 watt inside light was heating up the inside. Now...these little heaters just might warm up a room...if said room was insulated like a fridge.

I'm hoarding PCs and when I want to take the edge off the room temperature I just run Folding@Home. Curing diseases/viruses and heating at the same time, warms your body and soul at the same time. Also seeing the next electricity bill should do a good job of warming me up too.

When it comes to heating your home I recall the wise words of my Grandfather: “If you are cold, sit around a candle. If you are really cold, light the candle”. Another great video, two for one no less. 👍

Don't apologise for the longer video. Your thorough reverse engineering and explanation of the design teach me more than I learned in school. You run rings around my EE professors. Thanks for another excellent video!

Thanks for the video. I've spent an unreasonable number of hours of my life trying to politely inform people that there's no such thing as a more efficient "electric heater" only to have friends and family continue to fall for this stuff. No one pays for ads in order to tell the truth. I'll never understand why people continue to believe the ads that they see once they're beyond the gullibility of childhood. I like "ceramic" (PTC) heaters and have one pointed at my feet at this moment, but they'd gotten smaller and more expensive even before 2020, so now it's even harder to find decent ones. I recently took the heater core out of a new junky one and installed into a 90's model that includes a washable filter as keeping dust out is key to the longevity of these. At some point companies realized that they had no incentive to include the dust filter as removing it made everything less expensive while also hastening the death and replacement of the products. And to further incentivize this behavior, today's customers no longer even realize that these once came with filters, so they simply think it's normal for PTC heaters to fail rapidly. That's how you slowly, but surely, push the consumer market towards lower and lower quality and value. This is a bit like taking the spare tires out of our cars; eventually you've brainwashed the entire population to accept that they need AAA to fix a flat when their parents simply swapped one out with a spare and kept driving. Many consumers will even call this "Progress".

The MIRACLE heater unit designed the the kid to warm up the freezing classroom where all his fellow students were studying for the exams in polar temperatures! Clive, I love you man! Not all teardown mechanics where capes!

If you need a bit of extra heat and are spending an extended period in one spot (e.g. watching TV or working at a desk), an electric throw blanket is worth considering. They use little energy compared to a space heater (100W-300W) and they're surprisingly effective when draped over one's lap. They're also quite inexpensive to buy, many are machine washable and they feel nice.

When Clive says his finger do get cold, you know a glass of water on the bench is probably turned to ice. Thank you for the tear down and explanation of these heating devices.

Only halfway thru, and it’s good to see something not crappy torn down and explained.

I've seen these plug-in heaters in mail order catalogue, and it can heat your house with this one heater. Yes, if it's a very small house and someone like me will forget to turn it off

The black button near the plug pins is for allowing it to rotate 90 degrees to fit some sockets more conveniently and not for changing to different plugs for other regions.

11pm, in a cabin with limited internet, yet this made my week! Thanks Clive! Cheers!!

I've been working with some of these 'spot' heaters due to the insane energy prices. The first one looks to be a good candidate for heating the work desk!

I've seen these touted as the new sliced bread, they're anything but! That said they'd be great for heating a small space, say at a work bench in a garage, greenhouse, shed etc! Another very enjoyable tear down video, thanks Clive 😊

If you ignore the overblown claims for what they can do these actually seem like useful little heaters, and surprisingly well put together! I could see using one to heat a small room so I don't have to heat the entire house.

A couple years ago our furnace died mid winter and in a pinch to try and keep some heat in a 2200 sq foot home we had a couple 1500 watt heaters and 4 of the $20 units from this vid in bathrooms/laundry room (any room that had water pipes) and the house stayed comfortable even while outside was below freezing... these little heaters are good for small rooms and on occasion they still get used, they are surprisingly good for small spaces.

I absolutely love the nonchalant pokes and prods "I cut the insulation off to allow it to reach things that screwdrivers are supposed to reach" 😂👍

I use one of the first ones in my bathroom to help take the edge off of colder times. It's the 120V version, think it's 350W or so(?) Does the job, quiet during heat, louder on cooldown but that's fine. I like a cooldown! I started using this thing when I had to disconnect the heat element in the ceiling heat/light/fan unit so I could run the light and fan from the lighting circuit, which is attached to the critical circuits UPS which is only 400W. (the little heater's plugged into the non UPS wall outlet. No heat on battery system except the electric blanket..:) I've been quite happy with the little heater, except the horribly dim display. (Which yours has as well, I see. Usually blue leds are quite bright, even with a fair resistance.) Thanks for the teardown, good to know what's inside the beastie. Not bad, really. Keep on prying things apart!!

Thank you, Clive, for bringing these extremely educational and fun videos. I learn a lot from them (and you) about electronics and repairing or hacking all kinds of devices around the house! I find myself looking forward to your next video quite often. 😊 cheers from Amsterdam!