WARNING: THE
TIP OVER SAFETY SWITCH OF SOME Portable Space Heaters MAY NOT FUNCTION
Electric oil-filled space heaters
are popular because they can allow people to save money on their heating bill. If a person uses one of these heaters and
turns down their central heat, the space heater can easily be used to heat only
the rooms where the person needs heat. Electric oil-filled space heaters work
by using electricity. The power from the electricity activates the heating
element within the heater and this causes the temperature of the heater to
rise.
Most electric oil-filled space
heaters are portable, which means that they can be moved from room to room very
easily. Many people use these heaters
specifically for heating the bedrooms in a house. One of the main dangers of
these heaters is that they present a fire hazard if the heater is tipped over
on the control panel side, face down. If
the heater is tipped over and is covered with some type of combustible
material, such as a bed sheet or clothing, the heater may start a fire.
Usually, these types of heaters have
a switch which shuts the unit off automatically if it is tipped over on either
side. The problem is that this switch
does not automatically shut the unit off if the heater is tipped over on its
control panel side or on its back. Most
of these heaters have a 180-degree tip-over switch and this switch does not
automatically shut the unit off if it is tipped over on the control panel side.
It has been shown that if an electric
oil-filled space heater is manufactured with a 360-degree tip-over switch, this
configuration will allow the unit to automatically shut off if it is tipped
over on the control panel side.
The
tip over switch of this space heater is located at the bottom of the unit. This heater is equipped
with tip-over safety switch located underneath the base of the heater (see
figure above). This switch must be
pressed inward for the heater to function properly. Some soft surfaces such as carpet may not be
able to fully press in this switch. For
some soft surfaces, a hard flat object will need to be placed underneath the
heater for it to function properly.
Unfortunately fires have been caused when some space heaters tipped over
and the switch was not activated because it had not been placed on a hard
surface.
Generally, there is a risk with any
electric heater, but if properly placed, it should not have caused a fire.
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