defroster heater, calculating resistence of replacement

Jun 19, 2005 2 Replies
K

hi there,



my fridge is icing up and when i looked inside i found its 23" defrost glass tube heater shattered. it had a sticker stating 400w



i found a 12" replacement of around 30ohms for a few bucks which i fitted. it iced up again and checking the heater i found it fused. part of the element coil broke from excessive current.



what could be the problem? defrost thermostat? timer? resistence in replacement heater too high? how can i calculate it properly? does length of replacement heater make any difference to why it blew?



thanks



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N

You need to use the right voltage heater to prevent that and the right wattage to prevent melting the fridge.

N
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J

30 ohms is 480W assuming 120v. The resistance probably goes up a bit when it gets hot, so it's reasonable to assume that the new one is also 400W. I've never seen one of these shatter, though it stands to reason that the thermostat is probably defective and likely killed both the old one and the new one since they obviously got too hot.
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