Question About Cable Heaters

[Bloo]

phew - I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't just look at the pic and goes "

yeaaaah I get it !!"

 

[littleimp]

I can understand how it works, I was just wondering ifg i really needed it.

Here's a quick diagram of how the circuit would probably be.

 

[Bloo]

OK I must be thick, because I really don't get it at all

 

[prankster705]

Me neither, before this sketch I thought I had a clue, but now I don't. I tought, that the heater was somehow conected to where the cable would get electricity, and because of the thermostate the heater would turn off and there wouldn't be a complete circuit, I belive the sketch is tring to tell me how, but I don't get it.

 

[littleimp]

I believe the heater is removed altogether & all you are doing is using live mains across the thermostat like a switch to switch power on & off to the socket.

The black blob where the 2 wires meet is just a connector joing the wires together inside the socket.
The brown & blue boxers represent the terminals in the plug where the wire would normally be connected too. I'm only showing the connection between the 2 wires inside the socket as this is how they are wired up in the photo of the made up one.

If you follow thr circuit through as below you will see.

First of all you strip the heater down, dump the heater part & take the thermostat & wire the 2 wires straight across it. (like a switch)

Standard 2 way cable comes from the plug & goes into the socket, the blue(-) is wired to the socket as normal but the brown wire is connected to the modified wire coming from the the modded thermostat. The other wire from the thermostat then just goes into the live terminal in the socket.

So...........positive starts at the plug travels down the wire to the socket where it is joins to one of the wires coming from the stat, power then flows down this cable to the stat which goes on & off depending on temp. Power then travels from the stat back to the socket through the other wire & cannects to the live terminal.

So plug your cable heater into the socket & the stat then controls it's temp but cutting the power on & off as necceassary.

 

[emo]

Thanks for clearing that up littleimp! Also, big thanks to simonbrown403 for forwarding me the PM from smithrc.

Here's a slightly more detailed picture of how it works...

Here are the insides of my heater/thermostat. The two prongs at the bottom which were connected to the heater element are removed, and these two prongs now must be connected. (I just used wire from standard electrical cable)

So, as littleimp said above...
Connect the neutral (blue wire) from the plug directly to the neutral connection in the socket.
Connect the live (brown wire) from the plug to the brown wire from the thermostat's cable (after removing the thermostat's plug, of course)
Connect the blue wire from the thermostat's cable into the live connection in the socket.
To make things neat, connect the live wire from the plug, and the brown wire from the thermostat inside the socket, wrapping the exposed wire in electrical tape (marked in red).

Hope this makes things a little clearer!

Oh... and for UK people, this is the sort plug/trailing socket you are after... £4.99 from maplin or A single socket for £1.99 then use a spare plug and electrical cable. But remember to check fuse ratings!

 

[littleimp]

At least I had it right then. Yours is just a better picture.

Oh & another thing, make sure you do a damn good job of re-sealing it back up if anyone is going to attempt anything like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[anvil63]

That's good then, won't have to worry about adding a heater. Hi aqua essentials, didn't realise you were on here. Funny that, buy a piece of equipment & get replied on the forum by the person who sold it!

I'm always funny about heat, that's what keeping marines does for you!!!!

Hi Littleimp

You'll still need a heater though becasue you cannot rely on a cable to heat the whole tank.

Hope this helps and the web makes it an even smaller world...!

Not necessarily disagreeing with this, but my family and I ran a 150gal. with a low wattage cable heater for about six years and ended up getting rid of our conventional heater.

We found it wasn't needed with the heat from the cable combined with the heat the lights put out. (72F-room temp, 80F-tank temp, full glass hood)

Carl

 

[Bloo]

thanks littleimp & emo for clearing that up ! I think if anyone has a few moments, it should be made into a pinned topic !