DēLonghi Steel Elite HVS3032 fan heater (Australia/NZ but may also be available in Europe in some form)Since it's an appropriate enough season and I needed an activity to keep me going while alone in lockdown, I decided to check out a few more heaters.
(With my dual thermocouple thermometer, I'm now another step up in the game.
)
I got this model because it's locally available (at RetraVision) and has a few features above typical fan heaters (3 heat settings instead of 2, with also a reduced fan speed on low heat). With a suggested retail price of $119 (though discounted to $89), it better be well-built, so here goes.
I'm posting this one in advance of photography; since most of the interesting details are conveyed fine by text or numeric measurements, and this heater is presently in use by my sibling at Mum's office. Photos will come when I get the opportunity.
ExteriorAs implied by the name, it has a steel (mesh) front grille; the mesh isn't of impeccable quality (some roughness in places, and a visible defect near the top) but it does the job. (It has some give but as long as you aren't downright
brutal, it won't foul the fan and will spring back.) The front trim is steel with either enamel paint (I chose "pearl" white, the box also shows red and blue options) or chrome plating (too shiny for my taste
) available. The switch and thermostat knobs are in a concentric arrangement (although their pointing ranges don't overlap). Low and medium power aren't specified in the manual (and the
website strangely says "800W" + "1400W" which don't even add up to 2400), but the measured resistances (see in the interior section) confirm them to be the common 900+1500W (for an overall 2400W heater with 3 power settings). The neon lamp, somewhat unusually, stays on as long as the unit has a live input and the tip-over switch is pushed in (since the 2 fan speeds + 900W and 1500W elements use up all 4 channels on the main switch, none of those 4 being directly powered on
all settings; but it will age the lamp sooner if you don't unplug or switch off at the outlet when not in use).
The base has four foam feet to prevent wobbles; unfortunately one was misplaced and another fell off when I took the heater out of the box, but I managed to put them back.
The cord (1.8m long) is 1.5mm² as DēLonghi are fond of using on their full-size (2kW+) heaters, otherwise standard H05VV-F.
(Not that the normal 1.0mm² gets that warm at 10A anyway.) The flex itself (which once straightened out, feels flexible enough for its size) is made by I-Sheng and the plug by Lian Dung (not a typo or pun; and possibly accurate unfortunately, ever since these China/Taiwan cord manufacturers took over and the details of how to make durable connections seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle).
The fan mounting screws (which go through the heater mounting frame to secure it too), while not covered by rubber plugs, are recessed deep enough to prevent casual contact. Unlike in many fan heaters, the casing keeps the back bearing well-shielded from dust.
The unit weighs about 1.7kg (excluding cord) which is quite heavy for a fan heater without an oscillating base.
InteriorTo get inside, four T20 "security" screws need to be removed (two on the back near the top, and two on the base) as well as the switch knob, then the front panel can be lifted off (you can just let it pull the switch knob off as it's removed). The front panel by itself weighs 554g, so obviously the majority of mass is in the back. The trim steel is 0.77mm thick including paint, the mesh around 0.6mm.
The rear housing is made of nylon 6-6 with 25% glass fiber (more like what you'd expect on power tools than most home appliances
), the control panel is ABS, and the front fan shroud (+ grille support) is polycarbonate. The internal piece used to mount the controls doesn't appear to state what plastic it is (but as long as it's self-extinguishing and structurally sound, should be fine there).
The neon lamp is under its arc-shaped bezel; unfortunately I couldn't get easy access to check the resistor value or bulb size.
(If you wanted to run the neon lamp just while the heater is actually
on, I see two ways of doing so in a design like this one: Either connect to the full-speed fan terminal and accept the brightness reduction on 900W mode; or reduce fan speed with a series resistor instead of a 2-speed motor, and arrange the switch to shunt across that resistor for full speed.)
The thermostat is turned by a gear arrangement (with grooves indicating the correct alignment at assembly) which is why the external knob rotates in the reverse direction.
The tab receptacles are mostly latching types (except on the thickest wires) and seem secure. The tip-over switch is your standard 16A (or 10.1A depending which rating you believe) clicky microswitch with a stainless-steel lever and button on the base. The thermostat is also nicely rated for 16A, although I did find a few little bits of polystyrene foam stuck in the thread grease
(the product package doesn't contain any so I wonder where it came from).
The power switch is of the standard box design with a 16A/circuit rating (or 6A/contact for 50,000 cycles, which is only slightly below the 6.25A drawn by the 1500W element), although the sequence is unusual enough that obtaining a replacement would pose difficulty; its terminal tabs are plain brass (would be better to be tinned like the receptacles).
The thermal cut-out is a
Klixon TH11CA091 (trips at 90±5°C and has an integral heating resistor to provide a self-holding feature until after power is switched off), and the thermal fuse is set for a typical 121°C (its leads are terminated with eyelets, crimped and then soldered on top).
The rivet connecting the thermal fuse to the input does go through the plastic frame for mounting, but the hole
has been reinforced with another metal piece beforehand so that's something; elsewhere they've applied the same caution as Kambrook (dedicating each rivet to mounting
or connection, not both).
The fan wires (3 of them since it's a 2-speed motor; black for fast, white for slow and blue common) are
UL AWM 1430 (300V, 105°C XLPVC) in 22AWG, the other internal wires are
UL AWM 3135 (600V, 200°C silicone) in 15AWG for the main blue neutrals, 16AWG to the individual elements and 20AWG for the thinner wires in the fan and neon circuits. (They had to double-over the fan wires to fit in their terminals, but as long as it's done carefully that should be OK; certainly more reliable than solder-dipping the conductor before crimping.) However, they
did run the active wire of the cord (ordinary 75°C PVC) to the heater assembly, somewhat negating the benefit of the silicone internal wires (not that this is necessarily a big problem in a
fan heater, as opposed to fanless types which should always use high-temperature internal wiring). The cold resistance of the motor coil is 688Ω on fast and 916Ω on slow. The text on the motor core claims it to be thermal class F (155°C) which would be pushing it quite far with the wires chosen (perhaps the motor manufacturer is just referring to the magnet wire itself), though I doubt it ever approaches that hot anyway (barring seizure, and even then it would only remain powered if on the fan-only mode given that the heater's thermal protection also cuts off the fan as in the current Kambrook). The motor has decent-sized oil felts around the bearings (not that I can really check the amount of oil
in them without taking the motor apart, which I can't easily do given it's riveted together; but I can always use my Zoom Spout if necessary
), suggesting it's better quality than average. The 2-blade impeller is made of 0.7mm aluminium (so it won't rust, and spins up quicker than steel), oddly coated in white on the back (with the usual black on the front), measuring 160mm in diameter.
The heating elements measure at 62.3Ω (front) and 38.6Ω (rear), calculating to 925W and 1492W respectively at 240V; added together, they're pretty much spot-on to the rating (<1% over when cold, will settle marginally under as the heat raises their resistance ever-so-slightly). The 900W element is made of 0.47mm (or thereabouts) FeCrAl wire and the 1500W element of 0.6mm wire; if it's Kanthal AF or AE (which look like the best fits for its form based off the examples shown by Sandvik), their length can be estimated at 7.8m. Surface loads work out to about 10W/cm² for the 1500W and 8W/cm² for the 900W (it's on this basis that 1500W mode still runs the fan at full speed, with a modest slow-down on 900W which can be considered more of a 'bonus' than a feature designed in from the beginning). The mica rings are supported at 6 points instead of 8, but this should still be plenty robust enough (the 1500W wire weighs maybe 16g calculated).
Functional testingWell, it works as expected. My aural estimate of the fan speed is about 2250RPM on full speed and 1900RPM reduced (low heat), so a rather modest reduction; sound level and pitch are accordingly lowered, though noise "signature" remains basically the same. Spin-up to full speed is 2 to 3 seconds; at full speed, there seems to be less broadband noise but more tonal "roar" than from the KFH6x0.
With about the same fan speed and the same rated (though slightly more actual) power as the KFH6x0, the air temperature on high is predictably also similar. The steel grille does pose a little more of a burn hazard to touch than with plastic, although nowhere near as bad as many heaters using passive convection or feeble airflow (the latter being typical of heaters using PTC ceramic elements with their dense heat exchange fins, plus designed as compact as they can get away with). Temperature delta with my new thermometer (placed in about the hottest point of the airstream) measures around 64K on 2400W, 40K on 1500W, and (with the slowed fan) 30K on 900W; all reasonably safe overall.
The 1500W element does glow enough (mainly on the inside of the mica ring, as usual) to see in a dark room (a little hotter than I remember from the KFH6x0's elements, perhaps because the wires are spaced from the inside of the ring in them but flat against it in this one); I don't see this from the 900W element (even with the reduced fan speed). Either way, we're only dealing with a barely-perceptible sliver of heat radiated out the back (a few watts worth?).
Like the KFH6x0, it can stay on continuously (including full power) even while heating a room to
toasty levels (30°C+ according to my thermometer).
(Although in both heaters, I've observed this to cause oil leakage from the motor; so I don't recommend >25°C for appreciable lengths of time.)
When covered in front with a towel, the Klixon takes about 2 seconds to trip on high, 7 seconds to trip on low; medium takes the longest (about 8 seconds) since the 1500W element is at the back (and it does start glowing visibly in normal lighting), but still easily passes the test. (This explains why the front element is given priority in 2-heat designs.) Since the Klixon TH11 series are self-holding, you will need to switch off and give it a few minutes to cool before restarting (although for testing purposes, I find using a hair-dryer on cool-shot to be a handy fast-cool technique
but make absolutely sure to ONLY use the cool-shot as many higher-power hair-dryers can get hot enough to blow the thermal fuse); on the plus side, that enables this heater to withstand being covered
indefinitely without damage.
(On that note, I'm
really not sure how thought-through the modern tip-switch mandate for fan heaters was; every half-decent one I've tested laying over has had responsive enough thermal protection to avert damage. In convectors on the other hand, the convection currents will be totally defeated causing the elements to glow quite brightly and casing to get very hot before tripping the thermal cut-out; so if anything
they need a tip-over switch more, despite not getting the mandate
. Radiators need them most of course, but many better models have had one even as far back as the
1960s. I do think the original electrical standards efforts from the beginning into the 1980s were better thought-out in general, than many recent amendments have been. By the way, small SMPS
really can be ruined when covered, so if anything require the DO NOT COVER warning much more than a competent fan heater does; of course, covering an old linear PSU would likely just blow the transformer's thermal fuse, rendering it useless but at least harmless. If anything, the tip-over switch's inclusion on
this unit just adds more of a failure point than meaningful further protection…)
Grades:
Build quality: B. The foot misplacement was mildly annoying, but otherwise it's easily the best-built modern fan heater I've seen.
Heat distribution: C+? (The airflow pattern is a bit more chaotic because it doesn't have horizontal slats like the KFH6x0, but it still fares well enough for most rooms you'd use it in)
Airflow (fan setting): C−. While the volume of air is probably about the same as the KFH6x0, the flow pattern again puts it at a disadvantage here.
Fan noise: D+. While the reduced speed on low heat is somewhat nice, at full speed it's about the same level as the KFH6x0.
Warranty: D. (1 year for home use, reduces to 6 months for "commercial")
If you have a decent budget, this looks very good for a fan heater; only that foam feet annoyance stops it short of getting a Bronze award from me.
I still have plenty of admiration for
Kambrook's model, though (if anything Kambrook still win on the non-cost details).
Between DēLonghi and our 3 local Australian brands (Breville, Kambrook, and Sunbeam
Australia), I've seen ample evidence that heaters and other small home appliances
can be built at reasonable prices without getting the short end of the stick from quality control (as the American brands do willfully since they have a gullible enough public to tolerate it; and the British since
they seem to have royally lost the plot as in my experience with
Dumbplex
).
And it wasn't a dirt-cheap Chinese import either – according to the text on the back of the case, it was actually made in Australia (albeit with imported components). Shame on our country, then. 
)
)
They look OK otherwise, made of 0.6mm phosphor-bronze (L+N) and brass (earth).
).
Especially for the finned arrangements, they would be 
), and touch up the soldering… Its output lead ain't the most flexible either, but what can I do?