# Looking to bypass thermostat on space heater



## Richo (Dec 6, 2007)

I have a space heater that's used in the bedroom for sleeping and the internal thermostat, as expected, is not accurate and it either gets too hot or too cold. 

I decided to install a 120V thermostat on the adjacent wall of the room and have it control the outlet that the heater is plugged into. Only problem is that the heater has an electronic control and anytime the power is cut and restored you have to manually power it back on.

What I would like to do is bypass the electronics so when the heater gets power it's immediately active. In this photo the red wire is always hot (120V), the black is neutral and the 2 blue wires are hot (120V) when the heater is activated by the internal electronics.









Further down the line from the red wire are 2 switches like this.









Does anyone foresee a problem with just bypassing the electronics and sending 120V directly to the blue wires for this purpose?


----------



## poiihy (Aug 18, 2015)

Since your heater has overheat protection, it should be safe to run without the thermostat control. But make sure the power goes through the overheat protection, not connect directly to the element, or the protection won't work!

In your first pic the overheat protection is in the bottom right corner.

I can't see what is going on, can you get a better picture? zoom out a bit
Also take a picture of the electronics if you can


----------



## dmxtothemax (Oct 26, 2010)

If this heater has electronic control ?
Then there will be a relay somewhere,
That is what you need to find !
As this will be where you can interface.


----------



## poiihy (Aug 18, 2015)

Ok so the two blues are for the two elements (one for low, two for high). What you need to do is connect the red wire to the overheat protection (if it is not already connected), then connect the other side of the thermal cutoff to the two blue wires.

I am not sure what those "switches" are but I suppose they are for turning the element on and off. Usually if it has electronics the switching would be done in a relay ont he circuit board.


----------



## poiihy (Aug 18, 2015)

BTW, since this is a very hot location, you need to use wire connectors that can handle the heat. Don't use typical wire connectors and electrical tape! Or it would stink really bad and you will feel sick! 

How hot does it get near the heating element?
There are black wire connectors rated for 302°F (150°C).
If it gets hotter than 200˚F then you would use ceramic connectors.


----------



## Richo (Dec 6, 2007)

Thanks for the replies. Here are some more photos.









Obviously the relays on the board feed the blue wires.



















I do not know what those red wires and switches that run along the bottom are for, and that is where I am concerned.


----------



## poiihy (Aug 18, 2015)

I think this is what is going on:

Hot wire connects to red wire, red wire goes in and connects to the thermal cutoff, other end of thermal cutoff connects to another red wire which connects to orange wire which goes to the electronics, then goes through relays to the two blue wires to the elements.
Neutral wire connects to two black wires, one of which goes in to the element area, and the other goes to the electronics, supposedly just to power it.

But there are two more red wires that come out of the heating area, and they look like they are connected together.

Can you trace where each wire goes? Then we can figure this out!


----------



## Richo (Dec 6, 2007)

OK, the red wire marked A goes from the power cord to an anti-tip safety switch. The other end of that switch has the dark red wire marked B that comes out and ties to a wire of the same color. That wire goes to the far end of the thermal cutoff. The bright red wire that connects to the brown wire from the board (marked C) goes to the close end of the thermal cutoff.


----------



## poiihy (Aug 18, 2015)

Richo said:


> OK, the red wire marked A goes from the power cord to an anti-tip safety switch. The other end of that switch has the dark red wire marked B that comes out and ties to a wire of the same color. That wire goes to the far end of the thermal cutoff. The bright red wire that connects to the brown wire from the board (marked C) goes to the close end of the thermal cutoff.


Oh ok thanks very much! Ok then, to make it stay on, just connect brown to the two blues and it should be ok. The black is probably neutral just for the electronics to work. You can cap it off, and remove the electronic board completely if you want.

So, snip off the wires from the board, connect brown to both blues with a wire nut, and cap off the black wire with a wire nut as well. That's the easiest way to do it.

Since this is in a separate housing from the heating elements and it is cooler, you can use regular wire connectors; no need for high-temp connectors.

So after this modification, your device will stay on whenever plugged in, but it still has the safety features which are the tip switch and the thermal cutoff.


----------



## Richo (Dec 6, 2007)

Awesome. I will give that a try. Thanks!


----------



## Richo (Dec 6, 2007)

Just to be sure, when you say to connect the brown to the 2 blues, the brown from the board is the same as the red wire going to the thermal cutoff, so essentially we are connecting the blues to that red wire?

Thanks


----------



## poiihy (Aug 18, 2015)

Richo said:


> Just to be sure, when you say to connect the brown to the 2 blues, the brown from the board is the same as the red wire going to the thermal cutoff, so essentially we are connecting the blues to that red wire?
> 
> Thanks


Yes

To make the work neater with less clutter you can remove the old crimp connections and connect the wires directly down there, instead of connecting the wires that used to go to the board.


----------

