IR Heaters

[JW]

Hi All, I have these IR heaters. They run like 6hrs per day. In about a year the wire in the quartz or glass tubes will burn out. These heat lamps operate on 220vac.

I am looking to find a source to replace the element wire.

I have now used up all the spare elements that I have, I scrounged what I had from simular heat lamps, but now I am out.

My question is this, Does anybody sell this coiled (ni-chrome?) wire element by the spool, say 50 or 100ft? The ends look easy enough to deal with, and my quartz tubes and ceramic end insulators are all in good shape. All I really need is the element wire itself.

I have the spare housings that I srounged the elements from, these dont have the quartz tubes. I figuire the source of the wire element would have those as well. But I cannot use the old housings because of some minor differences in wiring, from what I using. They look real nice and are clean, perhaps would be good for a homebrew system, for heating purposes.

Here's the pictures of them there are six total.

Any help with a source of this heating element wire would be lots of help for me.

-JW

[TomW]

JW;

Not sure if they have that size exactly but almost any pottery supply house sells kiln wire in either rolls or pre cut lengths for electric kilns.

Cheers.

TomW

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Also try appliance repair supply stores - especially those catering to people who repair electric clothes dryers.

[richhagen]

sOME LINKS FOR SUPPLIERS OF NICHROME WIRE:

http://www.aeroconsystems.com/electronics/nichrome.htm#25

http://www.demandproducts.com/wire.html

INFO FROM NATIONALELEMENT.COM website (also a parts supplier)

Coil Elements

By far the greatest number of heating element designs involve the use of round wire close-wound on an arbor or mandrel and then stretched to form a helix of at least twice the close-wound length. Having selected the proper NIKChrome® alloy, the next step in designing such elements is to choose a size of wire which will operate at the desired temperature and which can also be coiled to fit within the physical space limitations of the device. In most cases, some precedent will have been established as a basis for determining the proper wire size. Lacking prior experience, the data presented in the following tables will be helpful. To use them, proceed as follows:

Calculate Wattage-The approximate wattage required to operate a given device at various temperatures can be determined from the Current-Temperature Relationship Tables which list current carrying capacities of NIKChrome® resistance alloys in most commonly used wire sizes. First, select a test wire size that "seems" suitable for the application. Then, knowing the voltage on which the device is to operate, calculate the wattage by multiplying volts times the amperes shown ( W = E X I ). These tables may also be used to estimate amperes required to heat coiled Chromed elements to different temperatures.

Determine Wire Size-From the design established for the device, check the space dimensions allowed for the element to find out (a) the approximate coil diameter or size of arbor to use, and (b) maximum lineal distance available for the element. When these factors are known, refer to the Wattage-Wire Size Relationship table above for the voltage to be used-115 or 230 volts. From this, select a size of wire that will provide the wattage required and note the number of feet of straight wire that will be needed to make the coiled element.

Determine Close-Wound Coil Length-Having selected a suitable wire size-and knowing the lineal feet of straight wire required to make a heating element of a given wattage, refer to the Coil Winding Graph at right that applies to the size of arbor to be used. Check the point at which the vertical coordinate representing the feet of straight wire intercepts the diagonal line shown for the wire size selected. Then follow the horizontal coordinate to the left hand column and read off the inches of close-wound coil obtainable. For example, using a 1/32" arbor, 40 lineal feet of 33 gauge wire will produce 30 inches of close-wound coil.

Calculate Stretch Ratio-To determine the "Stretch Ratio" of the finished coil, divide the inches of close-wound coil into the maximum lineal inches of space allowed for the element in the device. For best results, the stretch ratio should be between 1.5-to-1 and 4-to-1. If the ratio does not fall within this recommended range, check the possibility of changing arbor size or selecting a different wire size-larger or smaller as required-and recalculate the coil element design data.

Hope this helps, Rich Hagen

[JW]

Thanks for your input guys. This definitly gives me a direction to find some materials now. Great link Rich, this could be exactly what I was looking for.

-JW