Whether you’re casually sipping your morning coffee or enjoying a warm shower, chances are that you’re reaping the advantages of industrial heating elements without even realizing it. A heating element plays a major role in our daily lives, offering a diverse array of uses spanning multiple sectors. Within this article, we shall delve deeper into the realm of industrial heating elements, understanding what they are, how they work, and their different types. 

Moreover, we’ll also explore common issues that can crop up, and guide you through diagnosing and rectifying these problems. So, read the complete blog post to find some insightful tips and tricks to troubleshoot and fix heating element issues.

Heating Element – What is It?

Imagine you want to make water hot in a kettle or maintain the right temperature in an oven to bake something. Industrial heating elements are important parts that play a major role in creating heat in these situations. They convert electricity into heat to make heating systems work. These parts are usually made from strong materials like metal mixes, ceramics, or special plastics that can handle really hot temperatures without getting messed up or melting.

The Working Process of a Heating Element Explained!

The science behind industrial heating elements is pretty straightforward. When electric current flows through these elements, they offer resistance to the flow of electrons. This resistance creates a natural byproduct: heat. Just like rubbing your hands together generates heat due to friction, the resistance of electrons in the heating element generates heat. The more resistance an element has, the more heat it produces.

This heat is used to make things warm such as water. You can find heating elements in lots of things we use every day, like coffee makers, Electric Heaters, irons, heaters, and more.

These heating elements are usually made of a special mix of metals called nickel and chrome. When electricity flows through this mix, it doesn’t like it and gets hot instead. It’s like turning electricity into heat. How strong the heating element is depends on how long and thick the wire is, how much electricity it can handle, and how much power it needs from the electricity.

Types of Heating Elements:

Resistance Heating Elements: These are the most common type. They’re usually made of materials like nichrome (nickel-chromium alloy) or iron-chromium-aluminum alloy. These elements heat up quickly and are used in appliances like toasters, ovens, and hairdryers.

Radiant Heating Elements: These are found in heaters that emit infrared radiation, warming up objects and people directly without significantly heating the surrounding air. They’re used in outdoor heaters and space heating.

Convection Heating Elements: These elements heat up the air around them, creating convection currents that circulate warm air throughout a space. Baseboard heaters and convection ovens use this technology.

What Issues Can Occur with a Heating Element?

Heating elements are pretty straightforward. They’re either functioning or they’re not – there’s no in-between. Sometimes, heating elements can stop working, burn out, droop, or get bent out of shape. When heating elements break, they usually can’t be fixed, but you can usually swap them out for new ones. If you can’t take out the old heating element to put in a new one, you might have to get a whole new appliance.

How Do I Figure Out If There’s an Issue with My Heating Element?

If your appliance that’s supposed to make things hot isn’t working, check its heating element that’s responsible for heating. If it’s broken or damaged, then replace it with the new one. You can get a new one from the company that made your electrical appliance or from well-known Heating Element Manufacturers in India. If it’s not damaged, you can follow the below tips to fix your heating element.

Tips & Tricks to Check the Heating Element Issues & Fix Them:

• To start, switch off the appliance by pushing the power button to “off”. If it’s connected to the wall, pull its plug out of the socket. For things like ovens or electric heaters connected directly, go to the main electrical panel and turn off the circuit that’s powering it.
• Disassemble the appliance to get to the heating element. You can follow the instructions in your appliance’s manual guide to disassemble it. Some heating elements, like the ones in electric ovens, are easy to remove.
• Set the multimeter to “RX1” or the resistance setting.
• Touch the multimeter’s probes to each end of the heating element.
• It’s a positive sign if the multimeter reads a high value (measured in kilo-ohms or thousands of ohms). It indicates that the heating element is in good functioning order. However, if it displays an “infinite” reading, the element is broken.
• Replace the damaged heating element with one that is the same size, power rating, and resistance as the previous one.
• Put the appliance back together and turn it on or plug it in to test if it’s working again.

How to Get Rid of Limescale on a Heating Element?

When hard water combines with hot temperatures, it creates solid stuff called calcium carbonate minerals. These minerals stick to the surface of a heating element and make them dirty. This happens even more when it’s really hot.

Those elements in boilers and radiators can get covered in this stuff. And that’s not good. Why? Because this stuff makes it harder for the hot parts to work well. It’s like putting a blanket on them that they can’t shake off. So, even though they use up a lot of energy, they don’t give out much heat.

This can cost you more money because you’re paying for lots of energy but not getting lots of heat. But don’t worry, there’s an easy way to clean up the heating elements and get rid of this stuff.

If you’ve installed an electric heater, their radiators come filled with glycol, which is like antifreeze, and chemicals that stop limescale. However, if you have a hot water radiator with a heating element, you may need to clean the limescale. Here’s how to repair it:

• Empty the radiator.
• Unplug the thing from the power.
• Take off the heating part.
• Mix vinegar or soda ash with water to make a cleaning liquid.
• Use the liquid and a soft cloth to clean the heating part.
• If the heating part is too rusty to work well, you can change it without changing the whole radiator.

Key Takeaways

Heating elements are one of the critical components of any electrical appliances that efficiently convert electricity into the heat we rely on. Though heating elements can break or wear out, diagnosing issues and replacing elements is often straightforward. By following simple steps, you can troubleshoot problems, ensuring your appliances function efficiently. 

When it comes to heating elements, Shiva Products is the top pick among companies that sell heating devices in India. As leading Heating Element Suppliers in India, they offer many kinds of industrial heaters as per the exact specifications provided by clients. Visit our website to explore our range of heating elements now.