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1 Electric Baseboard is Out, advice?

3K views 18 replies 6 participants last post by  agentphish 
#1 ·
Noticed the other day that our baseboard electric heater is out in our living room. It's a 10' baseboard.

I did some reading online about potential causes. It sounded like a thermostat to me based on if I touch the terminals on the breaker for that heater (it's on it's own circuit as far as I know) I get good power, 240V, with my multimeter and when I touched the terminals on the thermostat I was getting about 20V.

I checked the terminals on another of the baseboard thermostats in my house and it was giving me the 240v I should be seeing.

So I took the thermostat completely off, and checked the actual wires coming out of the wall, and not just the terminals on the thermostat, I still only see about 20V.

Advice?

Thanks very much!
 
#3 ·
It's separate on the wall. It has one red wire and one black wire. I can't seem to find another one like it at lowes or hd. They are all 4 wire versions that say they work with 2 wire setups.

Anyhow. I guess I need to check all the connections on the heater and the thermo.
 
#6 ·
Did you mesure the voltage at the theromast location first ?

You should be able get 120 volts either black to bare or white ( remarked to red ) to bare ?

If so then you have bad thermosat.

The thermosat you have there as you describe single black and single red that is single pole thermosat which it do not have off marking on it.

When you make the testing just watch which pair of NM cable you are testing so you know which one is incomming source.

Merci,
Marc
 
#8 ·
Gotcha with the good photo you posted.

Here what ya have to do at the moment this will rule out the heater issue is take your voltmeter and have one probe touch either black conductor and bare conductor ( ground ) you should find one of them is " line " or supply and make a note which one if not getting any voltage then do the same thing on white conductor repeat the test as you will do on black if you get both 120 volts on supply then the thermosat is toasted.

With the thermosat you should hear the click sound.(They useally are not very loud.)

That is pretty much straight foward there. If you are not getting anything then you may have to check other location which it have bad splices so check other thermostat location. Belive or not there are some case you may find two thermosat / baseboard heaters on the same circuit.

Merci,
Marc
 
#10 ·
Before you do something with baseboard heater hold that tought for a moment did you actually test at the thermosat location as I tell ya above ?

Retest that again but take your voltmeter probe at one of the two black conductor and second probe at bare copper conductor you should read 120 volts ( you may want to test the other one to make sure which one is incomming source ) If you are not getting any voltage then repeat the test with white conductor you should able get it.

If not you may want to dig in and trace the conductor like if ran under the floor or in the attic. If in attic you may ran into some critter eating the romex cable which I have see it from time to time.

Merci,
Marc
 
#11 ·
I tested the left black wire above along with the bare copper (ground) wire. I got 110V. I then tested it with the white wire inside the same romex cable (pictured back inside the electrical box) and got 240V, so it looks like the flow from the breaker to the wall here is good.

Though when a thermostat is hooked up (brand new or original), I get no reaction at the heater.
 
#12 ·
Ok then do you understand what ohm function is ?

If so do the testing without the power and have the black and white conductor unhooked at the heater then use the ohm function on heater side not the white and black wire at the moment you should get about 22 to 25 ohms somewhere in that range if good element but bad element or thermal switch is out then it will not read anything at all.

Just make a note that most thermal switch on baseboard heater useally are not resetable but few do so if the thermal switch kick out you may have to replace it or replace with new baseboard heater.

Hope that help ya.

I know it take little more time but I rather do this in the correct way to make sure we cover the bases.

Merci,
Marc
 
#15 ·
Were you able to measure 240 Volts at the heater between the incoming black and white wires?

The thermostat should be connected with it set to call for heat.

IF you can get 240 Volts AT the heater, then the heat unit may be bad.....
 
#16 · (Edited)
Ok... Next step...
I turned off the breaker.
I removed the wire nuts in the photo attached. I did not detach the wires from each other as I did previously.
I turned on the breaker.
I turned on the thermostat, set it to 80ºF.
I tested with my multimeter. Touching the black probe to the left set of wires (black/black) and the red probe to the right set of wires (black/white)
I got 240V as I believe I should.

So this means the heater itself is no good, if no heat is coming out and there is good power to that spot. Correct?
 
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