The complete and utter disregard for safety is one thing, slapping some foil and a heating element into a USB fan case to make a dollar is another, but they sent you blue when you ordered pink? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! you had one job China :P
While you breath the fumes from the lead paint that's cooking off, you can go check your fire extinguishers and plan your escape route for when it sets your house on fire.
that's the 200 iq strategy. my 300 IQ strat is as follows: once you receive this imbalanced broken piece of residence igniter , plug it in for the very first time in a public place, it's recommended to have ventilation but not required. e.g. your workplace (on a desk of a coworker you won't miss) or a shopping mall
The Chinese actually have a whole range of different quality products. Many are very good and extremely good value for money, my phone springs to mind, however people usually want their cheapest crap and they on their part are perfectly willing to provide them with exactly that. Meanwhile western corporations are still to this day quite willing to put lead in all sorts of products, including petrol, as long as those products are to be sold in Africa.
1:17 just incase someone asked, the text next to the schematic says "The mini heater series is based off many heater designs and is designed ingeniously. It's beautiful, small, low power and high performance. It's also really convenient, "safe", low power, and is the best heater for homes, schools and offices.
Half way through I realize I’m watching you tear apart a $5 dollar heater. Not because it’s all that interesting, rather because your narration makes it seem like an extraordinary adventure into the unknown. 🌹☺️👍🏼
Jarrod: "Big Clive: "that's an interesting approach" Translation: "this is dangerous and should not be in any product" Translation: "I know nothing about the subject matter and just assume that it's bad because I have to make a funny comment to get those sweet internet points."
@@kelakakku excactly, clive said it too. had they used solder it wouldve probably melted, and they were too cheap to do some wire connections, so they just used screws.
@@kelakakku crazy right, i can't imagine the internet being a place where people speak their mind and try to make jokes that kinda stuff should be banned /s
Yeah they even have them in the US fans using cages like that it's really funny though to see companies have them as their own brand with those cages when the cages are not even their design
@@cdeer17 The factory where I work has different options the customer can request, the suppliers for each of the options is different. But the mounting brackets are made in the exact same factory and are identical. Of course our internal part number for those brackets is different for each supplier for some reason... Our competition also uses the same brackets in their installation because they buy those options from the same suppliers and those suppliers buy their parts from the same suppliers.
I especially like how the plug can go in either way, so that if you put the live side on the side that bypasses the switch a fault would make the exposed metal live even with this switched off
As a kid my brother would take apart all my toys and end up breaking them. He also took apart and broke expensive things of our parents including rare antique type stuff from grandpa that would have been worth a lot.
Helloki My first thought when I saw this, it has the the exact same frame as the cheap fan I’ve got on my desk for soldering which was from Walmart. It was less than $10, I’m pretty sure like $5, but it was definitely one of their private label brands like Mainstays. Funny seeing it doing the reverse function (more hot instead of more cool) lol
@@P7777-u7r Yeah good point. For what it's worth, they are pretty sturdy little fans. That's interesting that you've seen them for USB powered models, the one I got from Walmart just plugs straight into the wall and has a switch on the back (you can see the cut out in the video for the switch). I'm sure you can probably find the exact case on Alibaba if you looked hard enough
but i mean you probably have heard the stories where someone asks Alexa to commit sewer side or to self destruct. and then this happens : echo tap self destruct, initiating thermal runaway in 5 seconds, 5,4,3,2,1 peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhBANG pop crackle crackle BANG!
I have one under the grill/cover in the washroom (replacing the fan they once had in the cavity, long since removed before I moved in). Works fine for exhaust purposes, though, needs cleaning due to dust, and lubrication.
Finally, I needed something to warm up my pile of bedsheets next to my stack of printer paper in my carpeted, soft-furnished lounge with the gas pipes running across the wall.
It is, I've got one of those gadget USB fans, well to be honest, it's like they removed the motor and the blades and slapped in a heating element in it.
Yeah, those cases are used for little desk fans. One of Walmart's in-house brands, Mainstays, sells little $5 fans with that exact case, in multiple colors including that blue, which either plug directly into the wall, or have a USB end. The square hole under the sticker is where the on/off switch goes. They're actually quite nice, last a long while, though they have a tendency to develop a bad rattle after a few years.
@@jimb032 for $3 more his multiplied it's lifespan compared to yours! On the bright side you can take your fan housing and turn it into a desk heater... just don't burn the house down.
We have 1000W version of these "quartz" housed heating elements here in Syria. The housing has the tendency to turn into dust inside. The dust accumulates around the heating element causing over heat and then a huge bang and then off.
I know the Bulgarian ones (800 Watts, in two separate tubes). They work very reliably. Only problem is, if you knock them over, sometimes the glass breaks. But replacement tubes are easily available.
@@girthbrooks7645 oh no. Thank you for your concern. Truly appreciated. It's not the lack of money. It's the lack of the availability of fuel ( Diesel and gas) for heating properly due to current war situation in the region. Most of Syria relies on Electricity for heating all winter which causes planned blackouts through out the season. In my area (near the center of my city) we have 12 hours of electrical power per day. Not to mention occasional power failures due to grid overloads.
This would actually be a quite affordable solution for a 3D printer chamber heater. You would be monitoring the chamber temp anyway, and (presumably) have the system programmed to shut down on over-temp. Just replace the cord and you are good to go.
The only issue I can see with this is that the heat from an element like this isn't very well diffused nor is it able to be turned up/down you might be able to make it have adjust able levels but some part of the enclosure might still be hotter than the rest
@@Teddy-kv5ns it’s just resistive heat, so the heat output is directly proportional to the amount of power supplied. You could run it lower to heat evenly more slowly, although still definitely not perfect
@@zgrb The quartz tube means this would be primarily an IR heater as opposed to primarily a convection heater. This would be worse in the case of heating a chamber. The quartz is used to minimize convection and maximize IR transmission as it's better for heating things directly as opposed to dumping all the heat directly into the room and heating things indirectly. But that is what you want in a heated chamber.
When I see the light refraction of the quartz tube, I immediately think “a string of LEDs inside would look amazing”. Now I want to buy a cheap chinese heater, and repurpose it as a lamp. Fun. 😎
I do kind of appreciate this kind of absolute simplicity. It’s a heater that heats, and that’s the only thing it does. Not a single microchip or sensor, just a switch and a heating element. It really can’t get much simpler. It’s still wildly dangerous, but I suppose it’s slightly safer than starting a camp fire in your room.
What a perfect way to keep your children warm at night. First a nice warm bath with the Baby-cutor, then nighty night time with this hanging over the crib!
Would love to see you hack it to bring it up to your safety standards. Might even be a series of videos. Buy cheap but not so safe Chinese electronics and modify them to make them safe.
I suspect it would be a bit of a ship of Theseus by the time he was finished-- different housing, different cable, different assembly methods. Probably the only part re-used would be the heating element itself.
At least the designer had the sense to relocate the rocker switch from the back of the housing to inline on the plug for the heater (as opposed to the fan design). Much easier to turn it off without burning your hands that way.
I think in the US, space heaters are required to have orientation switches on them so they will automatically switch off if they fall over. Most of them are really stupid simple, like a ball bearing on a track. Others have a momentary switch on the base that depresses when sitting on it's base.
I bought a 4” fan - Made in China - that appears to exactly the same framework and housing even down to the blue color small and small, rectangular cutout on the back that is home to a rocker-type ON-OFF switch. Thanks for all the videos you put together. I thoroughly enjoy watching them!
Thank you for explaining and talking through what you are doing in your videos, I am visually impaired and it really frustrates me when some RUclipsrs don’t explain what they are doing
The square hole on the back at 3:22 is where the on/off switch is put when using the frame for a USB fan.
4 года назад
Once again this man is a valuable asset to the people of RUclips he points have the products the pros and the cons he also points out the safety aspects and likes to inform and help people make decisions on using such devices that could end up up causing fire or injury or maybe even death to some people it is good to have someone who informs the public who is unbiased and gives a balanced view of the products is reviewing
@@deividasrusenas3403 No relay! Just heat expansion in reverse all over the gadget. Living with electrical heating one gets used to the sound of ones own panels.
I used to have a fan that had the exact casing. Can confirm this was originally a fan that got bodged into a heater. You can still get them at WalMart here in the states. And the quality of the fans is on par with this.
When I lived in an apartment I would sometimes lie awake at night terrified that other tenants would be stupid enough to use things like this and burn down my life because of it. Things like shoddy hotplates, heaters etc.
I still occasionally worry about this, but a) renter's insurance is good sense, b) my new landlord banned them (thankfully) with a line in the contract that basically says if you're caught with one or cause fire/damage with an electric heater, you're insta-evicted. This is a building with an old-school boiler for heat, there's really no need for them, anyway.
You get to meet all kinds of people in an apartment. Good and bad. Just shows people don't have the same values as you, something a lot of people just don't get. I got lucky since apartments are so expensive where I lived that most were well educated.
Yeah, and fire travels up, so being on the top-floor is always fun... Then again, i also tend to worry if my apartment is going to be the one to get 'lit', due to all the lithium batteries i've got, and power supplies charging them etc.
I had a big one of these during some freak weather conditions in Beijing. If you use one too close you can end up with Erythema ab igne, a form of burn from excessive infra red.
Word you are looking for to describe the quartz tube appearance might be "chatoyance". Chinese home appliance, dual purpose! Also functions as a cheap, effective urban renewal facilitation device, populations control functions too...
Êtes-vous français? Are you french, or has the word been adopted in English? It's just right. I thought of opalescent, but that implies more coloration. So yep, chatoyant it is, derived from sparkling reflections in a cat's eye.
@@raykent3211 Je suis Americaine, but the word has been adopted across cultures in gemology/geology. English is a bastard language, perhaps 60% of it is "loan words".
I've lived in China since 2010. Never seen a heater like that. What people do use is similar radiant dish heaters 1200W with a tilt safety switch. I think they do have safety switch laws in the country. Usually if you're sleeping outdoors or without insulation, where it's breezy, on bare concrete, you use heaters like this. Lower class people, sleeping in shacks or cots or factories or when standing in their shop in cold weather open to the outside, with no doors. They love natural ventilation and no doors, that's where these heaters are popular. There's nothing combustible around them usually, maybe a soft seat cushion, that's about it. In residential houses they only use convection heaters, also about 1200 or 1600W. Also those oil filled radiators have become popular lately with rich people because they don't make noise. so Lower class: radiant dish heaters Middle class: quartz forced fan heaters Upper classes: oil filled heaters or just install lots of heat pumps and underfloor heating.
2:35 HOLY crap At first I thought you were referring to the "10" people who died in an apartment fire recently due to the COVID lockdowns in China and I thought "WOW. That was SHADY." But then I saw this is 2 years old
Those cable restrainers were known as "Heyco" and we used them on our metal-cased chargers where I worked some years back. They came in at least 2 sizes and I have a couple of pairs of Heyco-branded pliers for inserting and removing them. They are a good design really in that they are so difficult to remove (even with the proper tools). So many cable restraints are ineffective, but not sure how they would deal with prolonged heat exposure e.g. if the heater was covered.
It was a fan case because I have the little fan, in black, that uses this case. Good little fan, hasn't set fire to anything so far, have had it for many years now.
Not only if you clamped the base down, the heater part still swivels vertically, so there would still be a chance to knock it face down, still causing and issue with inadequate heat dissipation, and thus, a good chance of it's ability to start a fire. Remember, Smokey the Bear says " Only you can prevent burning your house down with inadequate heating appliances."
3:25 yes you are right! I have one and it’s a USB desk fan. In the rectangle is the on/off switch. And in the holes screws to mount the motor. It’s from the same factory specialised in heating and cooling I guess :)
Yes! When I saw it I recognised it. Incredible that someone in China has bought the same enclosure for a USB powered fan and made it into a mains-voltage heater. I hope I never live in a tower block where one of my neighbours opts to buy something like this...
"They've designed this for mounting a lot of things, that's interesting." My translation: "they lazily decided to make this one size fits all housing, makes you wonder what else they cheaped out on... that's disturbing."
That's very interesting, I have a small desk fan that uses the exact same frame that your little heater was using, they just mounted the switch in the cutout behind the sticker.
To be honest though, in my opinion, this one is fairly well constructed and safe. People should know they are taking a risk by buying electrical stuff off of Ebay from unknown Chinese sellers. Unfortunately education isn't where it could be though.
I also have one of those USB fans and recognized it immediately. It's barely suitable for the punched aluminum fan blades, let alone a quarts heater... (Also, that switch died so now it's just wired straight because why do you even NEED a switch?)
I've had one of these usb fans on my desk for the last five years and to be honest it's worked flawlessly. As I recall I picked it up for a fiver from Wilko's.
Yeah I get those metal fans at the dollar store, I use them with a limit switch to blow heat off my gas heater lol. The irony when I saw one being used as a heater... HA!
Just while everyone is commenting how dangerous this thing is, actually, attach a fan blowing through the heating metal to 1. stop the metal from going scorching hot and burn your house, and 2. circulate the heated air around your room better
I bought two pet bed heaters from Aliexpress recently, had one plugged in, the dog managed to fold the mat slightly, and when I went to straighten it up, I noticed scorch marks... there was also a crunchy effect, and upon ripping it apart, the insulation had burned back into small crunchy lumps leaving the exposed live element (if it was plugged in). Very much a fire risk, and a good chance of there being an electrocution risk if a damp dog lay on it. I've got the second still bagged up if BigClive wants to do a tear-down.
The Dog-o-cuter... Sister had a repurable dog bed heater, the dog chewed through the mains flex... Dog survived but wouldn't go near it after I'd repaired the cable.
Maybe you could send it into Clive,i'm sure he would love to take a good look at it,sound's like what i use to use to heat up my snakes and lizards back in the day,but they were bear as you had to put sand or some of that wood mulch on top,it didn't get hot enough to burn the mulch but close i'm guessing,never used it in the end because i always worried that the snake or lizard would fall asleep on it and then burn it's self. Used heated lamps in the end,much safer when used right,meaning you had to enclose the lamp inside a wire/mesh guard.
@@joinedupjon - I used to know a cat that liked to run for the old landline telephone when it rang, as if to answer, which was funny enough, but the real reason was to chew on the telephone cord *_while the phone was ringing,_* which means 100 volts AC at 20 Hz. Even in the animal kingdom, _it takes all kinds!_
It seems like that's the typical Chinese plug, very similar to the ones we use in North America, and it could be that one of the pins is wider than the other. Here we have them where the narrow pin is 1/4" and the wide one is 5/16", so you can't plug it in backwards.
2pin plugs aee actually very common here in asia,china and philippines especiaally. here in the phils,sometimes theres a 3rd plug,but its not actually connected to anything,neither in the cable nor outlet
@@udfbino 2 pin plugs are common in north america as well, most devices are ungrounded. Of course, most outlets nowadays have the third slot which is usually actually grounded, because we do have some decent safety codes thanks to a quite litigious culture. You can even find GFCIs in some outlets, which is nice. Generally only in bathrooms and kitchens though, unlike Europe where they're in the whole house.
@@moth.monster yee,ik. switzerland by standard has 3 plug outlets nearly everywhere. ofc you dont need ground for every device,like lights or so, but if theres ground,at least have it connected,hah. like my pc for example: its plugged in to an outlet with ground,but my chassis is charged cause the outlet isnt actually grounded ....
These are very similar to Japanese "Kotatsu" table heaters. They use similar heating elements under tables that have a blanket over the top to keep the heat in. Funny enough, not "too many" house fires reported each year during winter when I lived overseas.
The case looks identical to a USB fan I have. That hole under the sticker is where the on/off switch goes.
Bloody hell! 😂
www.primoproducts.co.nz/promotional-products/technology/fans-usb/nexion-desk-fan/
It looks like the USB fans Asda sells for 5 quid
Yup, I've had them in both USB and mains power.
Same. Mine is a lovely green.
& the fan version probably has a thermal cutoff.
"Automatic house ignitor" sounds like lazy arsonist wet dream.
Meet the Pyro.
Mmmmmmmm
Lmao
this is so specific, great joke ^^
"Lazy arsonists wet dream" More like Arsonists in the unemployment line.
I love the way he says "It scorches them" like that's a design feature
it is
Yeah, it's designed to do that
😆😆
100% intended
Ahaha
Oh gosh, a bit paranoid? This looks perfect to balance on the rim if my bathtub to keep me warm.
Just use a bit of Plutonium-238 in a pie dish, it’ll work just as well and it’ll also emit alpha particles which act as a disinfectant
@@gloop3621 why in a pie dish?, wouldn't it be much more useful in the form of a sphere with critical mass?
Just put it in your tub for extra hot water
Well you know some people like not vaccinating their kids so you do you boss
@@jagermantis i think you might have missed the sarcasm there.
The complete and utter disregard for safety is one thing, slapping some foil and a heating element into a USB fan case to make a dollar is another, but they sent you blue when you ordered pink? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! you had one job China :P
For god's sake, the first point is what we come here for!
Yes I can imagine the sorrow, standing outside the burning house, the man crying "it was blue, it was blue""
Don't pick on the cororbrind
@@KC9UDX 😂
China is asshoe.
While you breath the fumes from the lead paint that's cooking off, you can go check your fire extinguishers and plan your escape route for when it sets your house on fire.
Just dont order them from ebay to.
that's the 200 iq strategy.
my 300 IQ strat is as follows: once you receive this imbalanced broken piece of residence igniter , plug it in for the very first time in a public place, it's recommended to have ventilation but not required.
e.g. your workplace (on a desk of a coworker you won't miss) or a shopping mall
Going deaf from the lead? Won't be able to hear the smoke detectors going off, nice and peaceful, that's the way to go.
@@FarmerDrew the key to using it properly and unaliving yourself is a positive attitude mindset and approach to lead poisoning. good job!
The Chinese actually have a whole range of different quality products. Many are very good and extremely good value for money, my phone springs to mind, however people usually want their cheapest crap and they on their part are perfectly willing to provide them with exactly that. Meanwhile western corporations are still to this day quite willing to put lead in all sorts of products, including petrol, as long as those products are to be sold in Africa.
This thing is perfect I’ve ordered 6 for my in-laws cannot wait till they arrive
I have a slight suspicion you don't like your in-laws very much
Retro Plus as do they
Still waiting on my my pink ones though
Watch it the may move in with you!
I'm searching for a list of everyone in my annuity pool. A free one of these for each should have a good payback.
That’s an identical metal housing as my cheap Chinese desk fans.
X Files sounds intensifies..
Hellar makes some 10cm desk fans with the exact housing, I recognised it too as I have a white one :)
Yep, same here, little USB fan with a button where the label was covering the hole. Same blue colour even.
Well, now you can one to cool off, and one to warm up! :p
Michael Edmunds Yea just set the fan pointing at the heater that way when it tips over the flames will catch much easier.
1:17 just incase someone asked, the text next to the schematic says "The mini heater series is based off many heater designs and is designed ingeniously. It's beautiful, small, low power and high performance. It's also really convenient, "safe", low power, and is the best heater for homes, schools and offices.
god, the good ol' thesaurus trick
Is "safe" really in quotation marks?
@@bbgun061 not in the original text
Thanks for the translation, 2 years later.
However, I just saw this item today 9-23-2022
great for insurance claim
I don't know what could have caused the fire I only use "safe" appliances
Chinese automatic house ignitor? No thanks.
Also comes in pink? Well that changes everything.
Good luck getting pink
@@Dudemon-1 Just order it in blue
@@Dudemon-1 to get pink, you just simply order a blue one. He got a blue one cause he ordered pink.
@@supersmashbghemming6445 ahh, we think alike, lol.
But you get blue
What a fascinating mix of clever design solutions for individual elements and terribly unsafe overall design
Half way through I realize I’m watching you tear apart a $5 dollar heater. Not because it’s all that interesting, rather because your narration makes it seem like an extraordinary adventure into the unknown. 🌹☺️👍🏼
With many Chinese products it IS an extraordinary adventure into the unknown.
@@bigclivedotcom 😂✌🏼
Big Clive: "that's an interesting approach"
Translation: "this is dangerous and should not be in any product"
Jarrod: "Big Clive: "that's an interesting approach"
Translation: "this is dangerous and should not be in any product"
Translation: "I know nothing about the subject matter and just assume that it's bad because I have to make a funny comment to get those sweet internet points."
@@kelakakku excactly, clive said it too. had they used solder it wouldve probably melted, and they were too cheap to do some wire connections, so they just used screws.
@@kelakakku You nailed it. They should just go back to Reddit with their shitty "quips".
@@kaikart123 you two are miserable as fuck, ay? we can see you're sad in life but no need to take it out on other people
@@kelakakku crazy right, i can't imagine the internet being a place where people speak their mind and try to make jokes that kinda stuff should be banned
/s
This casing was in fact designed for a 4" fan. These started off as typical mains voltage fans, then as a USB powered fan.
Yes but they weren’t completely useless when they ran in the mains
Yeah they even have them in the US fans using cages like that it's really funny though to see companies have them as their own brand with those cages when the cages are not even their design
Makes me wonder if they wanted a USB 3/5/10 watt mini heater for a small cubicle setting but it didn't sell well so they upped the wattage.
Ngl this looks like something 5 minute crafts would make
@@cdeer17 The factory where I work has different options the customer can request, the suppliers for each of the options is different. But the mounting brackets are made in the exact same factory and are identical. Of course our internal part number for those brackets is different for each supplier for some reason... Our competition also uses the same brackets in their installation because they buy those options from the same suppliers and those suppliers buy their parts from the same suppliers.
I especially like how the plug can go in either way, so that if you put the live side on the side that bypasses the switch a fault would make the exposed metal live even with this switched off
@@Quadflyer1 This is why it is a good idea for switches to disconnect both wires.
As a kid I would dismantle everything that I could get my hands on. I find watching these videos extremely helpful and therapeutic. Thanks!
i can take apart my remote control, and i can almost put it back together
Me too, I would disassemble about anything. I built cool stuff too
I still do that, just seeing it work is not enough for me. I always want to know what's inside
And most of all, it is much less painful than the slap on on my bottom from my father for disassembling the TV set.
As a kid my brother would take apart all my toys and end up breaking them. He also took apart and broke expensive things of our parents including rare antique type stuff from grandpa that would have been worth a lot.
I have a couple of desk fans I bought at Walmart that have this exact frame, rectangle cutout if for an on/off switch
Helloki My first thought when I saw this, it has the the exact same frame as the cheap fan I’ve got on my desk for soldering which was from Walmart. It was less than $10, I’m pretty sure like $5, but it was definitely one of their private label brands like Mainstays. Funny seeing it doing the reverse function (more hot instead of more cool) lol
Yeah these are cases for USB powered fans. They’re quite decent favs but must have had a quite a bit of extra cases they sold to whoever made these
@@P7777-u7r Yeah good point. For what it's worth, they are pretty sturdy little fans. That's interesting that you've seen them for USB powered models, the one I got from Walmart just plugs straight into the wall and has a switch on the back (you can see the cut out in the video for the switch). I'm sure you can probably find the exact case on Alibaba if you looked hard enough
Poundland sells fans like that too. Bigclive's favourite shop sells these fans.
yup. same. actually as a fan it's solid, had mine for 3 years now. wonder what else they use it for...
I need one that works with Alexa...
"Alexa? Burn down my house..."
"Okay, burning down your house."
Just leave it always on and have a smart socket connected to the Alexa. Perfect house igniter!
Alexa would probably just start playing the song by Talking Heads
@@kennethney4260 yes, yes it did
but i mean you probably have heard the stories where someone asks Alexa to commit sewer side or to self destruct. and then this happens : echo tap self destruct, initiating thermal runaway in 5 seconds, 5,4,3,2,1 peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhBANG pop crackle crackle BANG!
Alexa? Burn the house down.
“Now playing Burning Down The House, by The Talking Heads.”
So there we have it : a heating element containment pie dish.
That's what it's use for, heating up small pies. 😳
This was a fan in a previous life. I have the actual fan on my desk in black, same style right down to the stand. You can purchase them in Walmart.
I have one under the grill/cover in the washroom (replacing the fan they once had in the cavity, long since removed before I moved in). Works fine for exhaust purposes, though, needs cleaning due to dust, and lubrication.
Greenshot user spotted
I had one similar to this that ran on mains power that I found at a garage sale. Worked for a couple years and then died. No burned house, either
Finally, I needed something to warm up my pile of bedsheets next to my stack of printer paper in my carpeted, soft-furnished lounge with the gas pipes running across the wall.
I find it works best when placed on the cardboard box it came in. For circulation.
@@JoeOvercoat face down?
Of course @@georgewills-ek1gg
That case is 99% identical to the generic USB fans ;D
I was going to say that I have got one.
Yes, my fan has the exact same cage and stand! Crazy! That helps to turn costs down but is very dangerous.
Yep.. I got one off those too
It is, I've got one of those gadget USB fans, well to be honest, it's like they removed the motor and the blades and slapped in a heating element in it.
I bought my USB fans that use that same cage from the Dollar Tree and 99c store respectively.
"I think it was described as a 4 inch, that's not really what I'd call 4 inch" that's what she said :(
It looks more like 9" to me
The sad face at the end turned this from a silly dad joke to a poignant missive
@@JasonHenderson that's what she said
If you turn that to a smile suddenly it’s a good thing
the fan is 4 inch
Yeah, those cases are used for little desk fans. One of Walmart's in-house brands, Mainstays, sells little $5 fans with that exact case, in multiple colors including that blue, which either plug directly into the wall, or have a USB end. The square hole under the sticker is where the on/off switch goes. They're actually quite nice, last a long while, though they have a tendency to develop a bad rattle after a few years.
You overpaid. I got mine for $2. Of course jokes on me because mine sized up after a couple months.
@@jimb032 for $3 more his multiplied it's lifespan compared to yours! On the bright side you can take your fan housing and turn it into a desk heater... just don't burn the house down.
We have 1000W version of these "quartz" housed heating elements here in Syria. The housing has the tendency to turn into dust inside. The dust accumulates around the heating element causing over heat and then a huge bang and then off.
I know the Bulgarian ones (800 Watts, in two separate tubes). They work very reliably. Only problem is, if you knock them over, sometimes the glass breaks. But replacement tubes are easily available.
I loved the Diesel heater we had in Syria, every now and again you'd get a gust of wind forcing itself down the chimney, and soot goes everywhere
@@PodeCoet At least the house got warm. The last time I felt the warmth of a well heated house was back in 2010.
Paul NJ you want money or something ?
@@girthbrooks7645 oh no. Thank you for your concern. Truly appreciated. It's not the lack of money. It's the lack of the availability of fuel ( Diesel and gas) for heating properly due to current war situation in the region. Most of Syria relies on Electricity for heating all winter which causes planned blackouts through out the season. In my area (near the center of my city) we have 12 hours of electrical power per day. Not to mention occasional power failures due to grid overloads.
This would actually be a quite affordable solution for a 3D printer chamber heater.
You would be monitoring the chamber temp anyway, and (presumably) have the system programmed to shut down on over-temp. Just replace the cord and you are good to go.
The only issue I can see with this is that the heat from an element like this isn't very well diffused nor is it able to be turned up/down you might be able to make it have adjust able levels but some part of the enclosure might still be hotter than the rest
@@Teddy-kv5ns it’s just resistive heat, so the heat output is directly proportional to the amount of power supplied. You could run it lower to heat evenly more slowly, although still definitely not perfect
@@zgrb The quartz tube means this would be primarily an IR heater as opposed to primarily a convection heater. This would be worse in the case of heating a chamber. The quartz is used to minimize convection and maximize IR transmission as it's better for heating things directly as opposed to dumping all the heat directly into the room and heating things indirectly. But that is what you want in a heated chamber.
When I see the light refraction of the quartz tube, I immediately think “a string of LEDs inside would look amazing”. Now I want to buy a cheap chinese heater, and repurpose it as a lamp. Fun. 😎
My suggestion would be to put an LED on up each end of the quartz tube (after removing all the guts) and use it for a pretty little light :)
I just spent several hours watching a maestro casually explaining basic electronics in such a wonderfully entertaining way. Thank you so much, sir!
I do kind of appreciate this kind of absolute simplicity. It’s a heater that heats, and that’s the only thing it does. Not a single microchip or sensor, just a switch and a heating element. It really can’t get much simpler. It’s still wildly dangerous, but I suppose it’s slightly safer than starting a camp fire in your room.
What a perfect way to keep your children warm at night. First a nice warm bath with the Baby-cutor, then nighty night time with this hanging over the crib!
Make a man a fire and he will be warm for the night. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
Give your baby a nice tan in no time.
Would love to see you hack it to bring it up to your safety standards. Might even be a series of videos. Buy cheap but not so safe Chinese electronics and modify them to make them safe.
I suspect it would be a bit of a ship of Theseus by the time he was finished-- different housing, different cable, different assembly methods. Probably the only part re-used would be the heating element itself.
At least the designer had the sense to relocate the rocker switch from the back of the housing to inline on the plug for the heater (as opposed to the fan design). Much easier to turn it off without burning your hands that way.
Oh good, I was hoping this thing might appeal to my feminine sensibility while I choke on noxious fumes from the burning paint on my desk.
Honestly, you have one of the most relaxing voices of any RUclipsr I've seen.
The Sean Connery of Electronics Teardowns
I think in the US, space heaters are required to have orientation switches on them so they will automatically switch off if they fall over. Most of them are really stupid simple, like a ball bearing on a track. Others have a momentary switch on the base that depresses when sitting on it's base.
The quartz tube is pretty! Reminds me of pulled sugar.
I'd probably jam it full of LEDs to see how that'd look. 🤩
Hmm pulled sugar LED fixtures might be a thing actually?
@@sounduser and add a bunch of high power resistors so it still gets warm
. . . a real U-tube . . .
@@frogz . . . it is a REAL HIGH POWER RESISTOR . . .
Ah my favorite color, incandescent set-fire-to-everything-nearby mid-bright orange.
It's like having the sun in a tiny cage on your desk. Happy Ignition!
I bought a 4” fan - Made in China - that appears to exactly the same framework and housing even down to the blue color small and small, rectangular cutout on the back that is home to a rocker-type ON-OFF switch. Thanks for all the videos you put together. I thoroughly enjoy watching them!
I like how you have a perhaps a...sinister...tone when you say, “That has some.. *other* ...uses.”
These are banned in the US. Anything that doesn't have tip switch or thermal overload protection can't be sold here.
Thank you for explaining and talking through what you are doing in your videos, I am visually impaired and it really frustrates me when some RUclipsrs don’t explain what they are doing
Same
I'd rather take my chances with a garbage can fire.
You'll wind up with flames either way.
just take a couple meters of 30gauge wire and stick it in an outlet.
@@GeorgeTsiros better than a garbage can fire OR the heater
@@GeorgeTsiros you would just get molten copper do you even know how thin 30 gauge is
@@Probable.Orange if you knew copper wouldn't work, why did you even choose it, you fruit?
I respect the clever person who made this and really hope someone teaches them basic health and safety
That quartz tube is just begging to have some kind of LED filament installed... ;)
The square hole on the back at 3:22 is where the on/off switch is put when using the frame for a USB fan.
Once again this man is a valuable asset to the people of RUclips he points have the products the pros and the cons he also points out the safety aspects and likes to inform and help people make decisions on using such devices that could end up up causing fire or injury or maybe even death to some people it is good to have someone who informs the public who is unbiased and gives a balanced view of the products is reviewing
There is a word for that tink sound that cooling metal things make - crepitation .
The sound in this case is the sound of a relay clacking
@@deividasrusenas3403 No relay! Just heat expansion in reverse all over the gadget. Living with electrical heating one gets used to the sound of ones own panels.
My knees, being very arthritic make creaky sounds called "crepitus". They are very decrepid. Good language English.
i prefer 'contractions'
then I would rather stick with "tink" instead :)
WOW that circuit diagram was something pulled from my high school physics homework.
I got C in that too
Idk what else you expect lol. You want a resistive load you get a resistive load. The switch is bonus.
I used to have a fan that had the exact casing. Can confirm this was originally a fan that got bodged into a heater.
You can still get them at WalMart here in the states. And the quality of the fans is on par with this.
When I lived in an apartment I would sometimes lie awake at night terrified that other tenants would be stupid enough to use things like this and burn down my life because of it.
Things like shoddy hotplates, heaters etc.
This is why I never want to live in an apartment.
I still occasionally worry about this, but a) renter's insurance is good sense, b) my new landlord banned them (thankfully) with a line in the contract that basically says if you're caught with one or cause fire/damage with an electric heater, you're insta-evicted. This is a building with an old-school boiler for heat, there's really no need for them, anyway.
You get to meet all kinds of people in an apartment. Good and bad. Just shows people don't have the same values as you, something a lot of people just don't get. I got lucky since apartments are so expensive where I lived that most were well educated.
personally i just use a couple wires out the wall to heat my soup, gotta do what you gotta do when your landlord doesn't do anything about the stoves.
Yeah, and fire travels up, so being on the top-floor is always fun...
Then again, i also tend to worry if my apartment is going to be the one to get 'lit', due to all the lithium batteries i've got, and power supplies charging them etc.
12:08 We are just writing history here when Clive solves a calculation without a calculator!
I had a big one of these during some freak weather conditions in Beijing. If you use one too close you can end up with Erythema ab igne, a form of burn from excessive infra red.
Word you are looking for to describe the quartz tube appearance might be "chatoyance".
Chinese home appliance, dual purpose! Also functions as a cheap, effective urban renewal facilitation device, populations control functions too...
Êtes-vous français? Are you french, or has the word been adopted in English? It's just right. I thought of opalescent, but that implies more coloration. So yep, chatoyant it is, derived from sparkling reflections in a cat's eye.
Well spotted, nice one: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatoyancy
@@raykent3211
Je suis Americaine, but the word has been adopted across cultures in gemology/geology. English is a bastard language, perhaps 60% of it is "loan words".
"While browsing for other things"
That describes almost everything i buy of ebay lately
You tell me!
I have bought 3 cassette decks this year browsing for "other things"...
@@badscrewold3162 What were those cassette decks, by any chance?
@@FSM_Reviews cheap crap fortunately :)
TEAC 430, Akai CS f-11, and Something-Sony from the 90's
This will make a perfect gift for my sons! One wants to be an electrical engineer and the other wants to be an architect.
That quartz tube is just beautiful. I would buy that just for the tube and have it as a precious stone, throw away everything else.
Add some leds, use as a necklace.
The quartz tube and some colored LEDS would make an interesting light
I've lived in China since 2010. Never seen a heater like that. What people do use is similar radiant dish heaters 1200W with a tilt safety switch. I think they do have safety switch laws in the country. Usually if you're sleeping outdoors or without insulation, where it's breezy, on bare concrete, you use heaters like this. Lower class people, sleeping in shacks or cots or factories or when standing in their shop in cold weather open to the outside, with no doors. They love natural ventilation and no doors, that's where these heaters are popular. There's nothing combustible around them usually, maybe a soft seat cushion, that's about it. In residential houses they only use convection heaters, also about 1200 or 1600W. Also those oil filled radiators have become popular lately with rich people because they don't make noise. so
Lower class: radiant dish heaters
Middle class: quartz forced fan heaters
Upper classes: oil filled heaters or just install lots of heat pumps and underfloor heating.
"Two terminals one cup."
I pray for your salvation.
Legit...
People should upload reaction videos while watching this clip, that would be a great hit I reckon. 👍
"That's hot." (tm)Paris Hilton
@codey morganti *shudders*
Yes, it was a repurposed USB fan cage. I used to have that USB fan.
2:35 HOLY crap At first I thought you were referring to the "10" people who died in an apartment fire recently due to the COVID lockdowns in China and I thought "WOW. That was SHADY." But then I saw this is 2 years old
I also did a double take hahah
It uses a RUclips heating element. It is scorching the place, not to worry :)
I also heard RUclips heating element xd
Me too... lol :)
Next week's policy change.... All videos must use the official RUclips heating element.
Have to be careful. RUclips heating elements are notorious for burning down democracies.
RUclips hahah
Stick a LED strip through the quartz tube, could make for an interesting effect.
Add a controller, and nice effects!
Love this channel! I can see Clive working in the morgue . . . "quite interesting to taking apart" . . . 'may have some useful bits' ... :-)
Those cable restrainers were known as "Heyco" and we used them on our metal-cased chargers where I worked some years back. They came in at least 2 sizes and I have a couple of pairs of Heyco-branded pliers for inserting and removing them.
They are a good design really in that they are so difficult to remove (even with the proper tools). So many cable restraints are ineffective, but not sure how they would deal with prolonged heat exposure e.g. if the heater was covered.
It was a fan case because I have the little fan, in black, that uses this case.
Good little fan, hasn't set fire to anything so far, have had it for many years now.
Not only if you clamped the base down, the heater part still swivels vertically, so there would still be a chance to knock it face down, still causing and issue with inadequate heat dissipation, and thus, a good chance of it's ability to start a fire. Remember, Smokey the Bear says " Only you can prevent burning your house down with inadequate heating appliances."
"Uses a Quartz youtube element"
Lol
Can I get these quartz RUclips elements on eBay.😳
I really wish someone would comment if they own a USB desk fan anything like this.
Oh wait....
Plot twist, the heater cage was repurposed to use as a fan shroud
Hello thought police
Just kidding lol
3:25 yes you are right! I have one and it’s a USB desk fan. In the rectangle is the on/off switch. And in the holes screws to mount the motor. It’s from the same factory specialised in heating and cooling I guess :)
Clive, I have that exact enclosure ... as a fan. Mine's red, BTW. Good call.
I have two. One is black, and the other is silver.
Yes! When I saw it I recognised it. Incredible that someone in China has bought the same enclosure for a USB powered fan and made it into a mains-voltage heater. I hope I never live in a tower block where one of my neighbours opts to buy something like this...
9:50 - "That diffused mother of pearl look..." is called chatoyancy. Just FYI.
How do you pronounce it?
@@Stettafire shuh-TOY-uhn-see, hope the sound-spelling makes sense. It's the French "chat," I'm guessing cause of cats' eyes when they reflect light.
Laurel
@@cameroneridan4558 yep - in fact one of the most notable chatoyant stones is a form of quartz commonly known as tiger's eye.
"They've designed this for mounting a lot of things, that's interesting."
My translation: "they lazily decided to make this one size fits all housing, makes you wonder what else they cheaped out on... that's disturbing."
LEDS In the Quartz sounds good to me
rbg
That's very interesting, I have a small desk fan that uses the exact same frame that your little heater was using, they just mounted the switch in the cutout behind the sticker.
I just bought this as a fan from Wally world last week. YES it's a modification of a USB fan, it's the EXACT same housing as my fan... cool
Guess everyone got the fan version... Lol
Upload a ten-hour loop of the heater's "tink" for the ASMR crowd, hahaha!
or his "aluminum, aluminium"
Thanks, I've been looking to get rid of my house...
To be honest though, in my opinion, this one is fairly well constructed and safe. People should know they are taking a risk by buying electrical stuff off of Ebay from unknown Chinese sellers.
Unfortunately education isn't where it could be though.
2:35 - I'm a bad person. That made me laugh rather guiltily. I think it's just how annoyed Clive sounds.
Pretty handy in case you really need a good structure fire without using any accelerants for some reason...
Hmmmm
I have no idea why you buy this stuff just to pull it apart - but it makes for an interesting vid! Thanks for making it.
"Where they don't give a SHit if people burn their house down" HAHAHA
Read that as He Said it.
"If this started off as a fan case". Yes. i'm sure it did, i have an usb fan with that exact case.
This guys voice (in places) is just wowwww 😍😍😍 so soothing and deep, but then also funny cos he says things weirdly sometimes 😂😂😂
Jesus China this the housing of a small desktop usb fan. Holy smokes
That square cutout was the switch
There's certainly going to be some holy smokes in this use.
I also have one of those USB fans and recognized it immediately. It's barely suitable for the punched aluminum fan blades, let alone a quarts heater... (Also, that switch died so now it's just wired straight because why do you even NEED a switch?)
Yep my first thought was it is a fan housing and a place for a slide switch on the back.
Yup. Note the hole pattern in the second picture: www.amazon.com/BigClive-house-ignitor/dp/B07BRWTZ6R/
I've had one of these usb fans on my desk for the last five years and to be honest it's worked flawlessly. As I recall I picked it up for a fiver from Wilko's.
Nice to see they included the schematic. Not enough products do that anymore.
Yea a piece of wire, switch, metal slinky, wire. Very complicated indeed
This is a fan case with a heater in it. We have fans at work with the exact case this torch is housed in.
That quartz tube can be used for some interesting lighting devices, just add the "gummy" filament LED.
Yeah I get those metal fans at the dollar store, I use them with a limit switch to blow heat off my gas heater lol. The irony when I saw one being used as a heater... HA!
Just while everyone is commenting how dangerous this thing is, actually, attach a fan blowing through the heating metal to 1. stop the metal from going scorching hot and burn your house, and 2. circulate the heated air around your room better
I have one of these but it’s a usb fan 😂😂 definitely reuses the same case.
I have one of these, but it's a mains voltage fan... Chinese reuse at work.
I have the same fan. I got mine from walmart for about $5 usd.
I have this as a usb fan from poundland 😂
The boss at my previous work has it as a USB fan. I think it came from eBay. I thought it was plastic until I picked it up.
Came here to say that - this is the pound shop fan for £2.
I bought two pet bed heaters from Aliexpress recently, had one plugged in, the dog managed to fold the mat slightly, and when I went to straighten it up, I noticed scorch marks... there was also a crunchy effect, and upon ripping it apart, the insulation had burned back into small crunchy lumps leaving the exposed live element (if it was plugged in). Very much a fire risk, and a good chance of there being an electrocution risk if a damp dog lay on it. I've got the second still bagged up if BigClive wants to do a tear-down.
The Dog-o-cuter...
Sister had a repurable dog bed heater, the dog chewed through the mains flex... Dog survived but wouldn't go near it after I'd repaired the cable.
Maybe you could send it into Clive,i'm sure he would love to take a good look at it,sound's like what i use to use to heat up my snakes and lizards back in the day,but they were bear as you had to put sand or some of that wood mulch on top,it didn't get hot enough to burn the mulch but close i'm guessing,never used it in the end because i always worried that the snake or lizard would fall asleep on it and then burn it's self.
Used heated lamps in the end,much safer when used right,meaning you had to enclose the lamp inside a wire/mesh guard.
@@joinedupjon - I used to know a cat that liked to run for the old landline telephone when it rang, as if to answer, which was funny enough, but the real reason was to chew on the telephone cord *_while the phone was ringing,_* which means 100 volts AC at 20 Hz. Even in the animal kingdom, _it takes all kinds!_
@@YodaWhat um, no hate, but go back to electrical school... telephone wire is ' low voltage. '
John Smith Wrong. Ringing voltage is, in fact, 100v 20hz, most places in the world. Talk battery on the line is 48vdc.
Metal casing and no protective earthing? "Interesting approach" too.
"The switch breaks the live, that's neat"
Looks at simple two pin plug
Hmmmm...
It seems like that's the typical Chinese plug, very similar to the ones we use in North America, and it could be that one of the pins is wider than the other. Here we have them where the narrow pin is 1/4" and the wide one is 5/16", so you can't plug it in backwards.
2pin plugs aee actually very common here in asia,china and philippines especiaally. here in the phils,sometimes theres a 3rd plug,but its not actually connected to anything,neither in the cable nor outlet
@@udfbino 2 pin plugs are common in north america as well, most devices are ungrounded. Of course, most outlets nowadays have the third slot which is usually actually grounded, because we do have some decent safety codes thanks to a quite litigious culture. You can even find GFCIs in some outlets, which is nice. Generally only in bathrooms and kitchens though, unlike Europe where they're in the whole house.
@@moth.monster . . . poor GFCI usage . . . poor health care . . . poor infrastructure . . . too much military . . . poor America . . .
@@moth.monster yee,ik. switzerland by standard has 3 plug outlets nearly everywhere. ofc you dont need ground for every device,like lights or so, but if theres ground,at least have it connected,hah. like my pc for example: its plugged in to an outlet with ground,but my chassis is charged cause the outlet isnt actually grounded ....
I really want to see now how the quartz "youtube" looks when lit by LEDs from the inside or at least the ends!
These are very similar to Japanese "Kotatsu" table heaters. They use similar heating elements under tables that have a blanket over the top to keep the heat in. Funny enough, not "too many" house fires reported each year during winter when I lived overseas.
I like that Clive looks like a caveman, but always orders pink when available.