I know it's not cold enough yet but, to lessen my idle time by the house this winter (baby) so I plugged in heater to make sure it worked and everything was normal. 

 

I plugged in the cord for the first time in 2 yrs and the plug ark welded itself to the power cord, and where the plug goes into the heater element started to smoke an make gurgling noises. 

 

Is is there a way to test the cord or the element to figure which part is faulty? As far as I know the element and cord are factory.

1 hour ago, Towrigdually said:

Is is there a way to test the cord or the element to figure which part is faulty?

 

Put a ohm meter to the prongs of the plug it should show like 20 ohms if I remember correctly. 

 

If shows infinite then remove the cord from the block heater and then ohm test the element if you show 20 ohms or so then the element is good and the cord is damaged. If it shows infinite then the element is burnt out and requires replacement. I would buy both together if you get an element. 

 

The element is 750 watts, 6.25 Amp load at 120 Volts AC which makes it 19.2 Ohm element.

Edited October 15, 20186 yr by Mopar1973Man

2 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Put a ohm meter to the prongs of the plug it should show like 20 ohms if I remember correctly. 

 

If shows infinite then remove the cord from the block heater and then ohm test the element if you show 20 ohms or so then the element is good and the cord is damaged. If it shows infinite then the element is burnt out and requires replacement. I would buy both together if you get an element. 

 

The element is 750 watts, 6.25 Amp load at 120 Volts AC which makes it 19.2 Ohm element.

Awesome I'll to test it tomorrow after work!

and figured on buying new stuff, cheaper than what I expected honestly. So both parts will be getting replaced regardless, and likely hold on to the good parts for in a pinch type moments. 

Typically the cord fails.

Yup bad cord, thanks again for the help.