troubleshooting habistat thermometer / radiator

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mikey_mike

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I'm moving south so I pulled my old habistat thermostat & reptile radiator out of the cupboard (after 2 years of storage). Set it up and gave it a trial run - it was working perfectly. Unfortunately a few hours later it stopped.

The habistat thermostat light stays on when the heater is disconnected, but then goes out all together when I connect the radiator. The radiator no longer pumps out heat when I plug it directly into the mains, so it seems likely the problem is the radiator.

I'm still confused though. Do the radiators have an inbuilt fuse? Otherwise if the device was shorting surely my kill switch would trip (just like when a green tree frog tried to live in my toaster).

If the radiator has a fuse why won't the thermostat try to control it?

If someone could help before I start ordering new hardware I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
 
If the radiator has a fuse it will be an open circuit. So wont trip your earth leakage.
Do you have a multi metre?
If so use it to check resistance across the two angled pins on the power cord.
Obviously with it unplugged.

Try Google for your radiator model number to see if it has a fuse.
Failing that. The power cord may well have a internal break in the wire.
If thats replaceable it would be my second thing to check.
Always check the cheap obvious things first.
 
I'll buy a multimetre today. I found some information about the radiator unline - it said that there was a 3A fuse in the plug, so I tried replacing the plug. This made no difference.
I still don't get why the thermostat behave differently when I have nothing plugged in vs when I plug in the radiator - if it's an open circuit isn't it exactly the same as plugging in an extension cord with no appliance attached?

With nothing attached the thermostat has a very soft amber light, with a soldering iron attached to represent the radiator a bright light flicks on and off. With the radiator attached absolutely no light comes on. The thermostat can somehow detect that the radiator isn't working.

I think it's time to buy a new radiator. Perhaps one of the proherp ones as they look slightly easier to fit.

One further question, I drive down in 10 days & it may take longer than that to get a new radiator. Will a Darwin Carpet python tolerate a few days of cold weather without any heat?
 
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