Repair broken heating elements instructions

In appliances like waffle irons and toaster ovens, these are usually welded. This is necessary to withstand the high temperatures and it is cheap and reliable as well. Welding is not normally an option for the doit yourselfer. However, if you are somewhat suicidal, see the section: Improving sensitivity of garage door openers receivers for a more drastic approach.

I have used nuts and bolts, say 6-32, bolt, wire, washer, wire, washer, lockwasher, nut. Depending on how close to the actual really hot element it is, this may work. If you are connecting to the coiled element, leave a straight section near the joint – it won’t get as hot.

The use of high temperature solder or brazing might also work.

The best approach is probably to use high temperature crimp connectors:

(The following from: szxsf@szxsf.com ( Joanna Deng)

You can connect heating element wires with high-temperature solderless connectors that are crimped onto the wires. Be sure to get the special high-temp connectors; the ordinary kind will rapidly oxidize and fall apart at high temperatures. If you want to join two wires to each other, you’ll need either a butt splice connector (joins the wires end-to-end) or a parallel splice connector (the wires go into the connector side-by-side). To fasten a wire to a screw terminal you can use a ring or spade connector (though as noted above, a screw, nut, and washer(s) should work fine — sam). If your waffle iron has quick disconnect terminals you’ll need the opposite gender disconnect (AkA Faston). These come in both .187″ and .250″ widths.

Your best bet for getting these connectors in small quantity is probably a local appliance parts outlet that caters to do-it-yourselfers. If you can’t find what you need there, try Newark Electronics (branches all over the place). I have an old copy of their catalog which lists SPC Technology Voltrex Brand High Temperature Barrel Terminals in several styles: ring, spade, disconnect, and butt splice. The prices were around $10 to $12 per 100 (this catalog is a couple of years old) for wires in the 22-18 or 16 to 14AWG size ranges, almost twice that for the heftier wire gauges. (Be sure to determine the wire gauge of your heating elements so you can get the right size terminal.)

You can spend a lot of money on crimp tools, but for occasional light use you can probably get by with one of those $10 gadgets that crimp, strip & cut wires, and cut bolts–the sort of thing you’d find in your local home center or Radio Shack.

The thin stainless steel strip found spot welded to multicell NiCd batteries make good crimps for joining breaks in heater resistance wire. Form a small length of this strip around a needle or something similar to make a tight spiral with enough clearance to go over doubled-up heater wire. Abraid or file the cut ends of the broken wire. Crimp into place with a double lever action crimper. If there is an area of brittle heating element around the break then cut out and splice in a replacement section with two such crimps. Such a repair to my hot-air paint stripper (indispensable tool in my electronics tool-kit) has survived at least 50 hours.

Another old trick for nichrome repair is to make a paste of Borax, twist the two broken end together, and energize the circuit. A form of bond welding takes place. I’ve have used this on electric clothes dryer heater elements with good luck.

Here’s a “quick fix” that sometimes works for a long time and sometimes fails quickly (depending, I think, on just how old and brittle the nichrome wire is).

Mix some ordinary “Boraxo” powdered hand soap with a little water to make a thick paste — and you don’t need much.

Take the broken ends of wire, bend a small loop into each, and interlock the loops so the wires stay together.

Pack the Boraxo paste around the joint, and turn on the heater.

Keep your eyes on that joint. As the coil heats up, the hook joint will be the worst connection, so it’ll naturally get the hottest.

When it gets hot enough, the nichrome wires will melt, and, being fluxed by the borate, will fuse together into a blob. The blob, now being larger than the rest of the wires, will immediately cool down, and will never again get as “red hot” as the rest of the heater.

Allow the coils to cool down and, using pliers, carefully crush any glassy flux deposit that remains on the joint.

If the joint doesn’t behave as I describe, or if the wires are too brittle to be formed into hooks, the wires are likely too old to produce a long-lasting joint. If the joint behaves as I described, it may last for a good long time.

See Also

Electric heating element information center

3 basic types of heating elements

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