Lucky I still have a shop?

[Rick Moyer]

Not to sound rude, David, but have at it. I have no idea who the CPSC is, and you seem to already be enlightened by them. Feel free to forward this thread to them. Good idea.

Gee Mike, looks like they're in Bethesda. You could take yours right there and show them!

Actually, it probably would be prudent to notify them of this, in hopes of possibly preventing someone (who would not see it here) from a problem.

[Mike Cruz]

Again, not to sound rude, but why is it being suggested that I (or someone) contact the appropriate people instead of just doing it themselves? I mean, if the reason for contacting the appropriate offices is for saving others, why post that someone should do it? Why not just, well, do it yourself? Again, I don't mean this angrily or snidely. But I am curious...

[Dan Hintz]

Mike,

It's probably being suggested because they will ask you questions about the item/problem that are more easily answered by someone who actually has one in front of them (serial number, specific part damaged, location of part, etc.). Someone posted another thread up here recently about a Wal-Mart stocked heater that had a recall... that would never happen if someone didn't complain.

[Mike Cruz]

Point taken. But, there really isn't any more info for me to give than what I've written here. The pics show whatever serial numbers are on the thermostat.

I will add notifying whoever it is that I am supposed to contact, along with mailing in the defective part, and paying shipping for it to my list of newly acquired duties. Anything else I should do?

Makes me kinda want to keep your mouth shut next time...

[Bob Riefer]

Geez, like pulling teeth here.. and needlessly so.

Whatever.. I emailed Marley about the concerns we were all having. I have received a detailed reply from one of their engineers. I had a follow up question, and as soon as he replies, I'll post the content here for everyone. I'll also post it to the other forums that I frequent. Stay tuned.

[Bob Riefer]

And, on that note, I have the reply from the engineering manager at Marley (they brand the FUH54 by Farenheat, same unit as the Dayton G73). I've spliced his two emails into one message here, but have not changed, added, or removed anything other than combining them.

SUMMARY (according to Marley engineer): Not a fire hazard. Supplier issue has been remedied, so it is unlikely to occur at thist stage. If you are concerned about proactively catching the issue to avoid inconvenience, cut the power and open the bottom cover periodically to inspect for discolored wires leading to the thermostat.

Your email was forwarded to me. To address your questions and
comments, we have seen a few heaters over the years that have had issues with the
thermostat wire connections, but not a large number by any means. A
few years ago we experienced a higher number of failures where the crimp
connection of the wire to the thermostat was incorrect allowing the
connection to heat and fail. Since resolving this with the supplier
at that time, I am not aware of but a hand full of failures.

The thermostat and wire connections are all located within an all
steel wiring compartment. Our experience is that the failure of this
connection has resulted in no hazard due to it being totally contained with this
grounded steel compartment. It is unfortunate that any failure would
occur and we have taken appropriate corrective action with our suppliers to
help make sure this problem is corrected. However, if a thermostat happens
to fail within the warranty period, we will gladly replace the
thermostat at no charge. If it happens to fail after the warranty has expired, we
generally will provided a free replacement thermostat anyway as a
customer accommodation.

Since we see so few failures and they are random, I can't provide any
specific model or date code. The only thing I might suggest would be to
periodically shut power to the heater, open the wiring compartment door and
inspect the wire to see if it has begun to discolor. This would be a early
sign of the connection heating and should give you a chance to obtain a new
thermostat before the heater quit working.

I understand that you are concerned with the safety of this heater
and that this failure might pose a hazard. However, our experience is that it
is an unfortunate event, but that it should pose no hazard or risk for
fire. If you have a problem with your heater, please contact our toll-free
technical service hot line for assistance at 1-800-642-HEAT (4328).

[David Hostetler]

Again, not to sound rude, but why is it being suggested that I (or someone) contact the appropriate people instead of just doing it themselves? I mean, if the reason for contacting the appropriate offices is for saving others, why post that someone should do it? Why not just, well, do it yourself? Again, I don't mean this angrily or snidely. But I am curious...

I posted the recall on the Walmart heater, and the reason YOU are being asked to turn this in Mike is because YOU own one, and have experienced the problem. I have never even seen one close up so I don't have any frame of reference to answer their questions about the device... So to sum it up, I can't give them the info they are going to need, YOU can. I'm sorry if you feel this is too much to ask you to do. I am sure there is somebody else out there with one of these units that is experiencing the same problem that can be bothered with doing the right thing.

Would some owner of one of these units that has experienced the problem PLEASE just fill out the report form?
https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.aspx

[David Hostetler]

And, on that note, I have the reply from the engineering manager at Marley (they brand the FUH54 by Farenheat, same unit as the Dayton G73). I've spliced his two emails into one message here, but have not changed, added, or removed anything other than combining them.

SUMMARY (according to Marley engineer): Not a fire hazard. Supplier issue has been remedied, so it is unlikely to occur at thist stage. If you are concerned about proactively catching the issue to avoid inconvenience, cut the power and open the bottom cover periodically to inspect for discolored wires leading to the thermostat.

Not a fire hazard? Now if they can say that with a straight face I will be impressed! I guess since he's an engineer he must be right... Jeeze...

[Bob Riefer]

Hey David, If you disagree with any of the statements made by the engineer, I'd be happy to continue corresponding with him. Just let me know what issues you'd like me to bring up, and how to phrase it, and I'll do so. Or, if you PM me your email address, I can copy you into the email thread to avoid any "whisper down the lane" issues. I'm just trying to help.

[Mike Cruz]

Done.

Wow, now I know what they mean by "Let no good deed go unpunished"...

[Rick Moyer]

Really Mike, I don't see why you are taking this so personally. Take yourself out of this scenario and look at the circumstances alone: Someone has had an issue with a product. They (admirably) notify their friends, et.al., of their issue. Their friends suggest they notify the mfgr, or whomever.

It would be like me telling Ford/Firestone about someone-I-knew's issue with their Explorer tires, or Toyota about the guy-down-the-street's sticking throttle. Neither would put much stock in my heresay, they would want the facts from the person with the issue. We all appreciate the time you took to relate your circumstances, and if you want to leave it at that, it's OK. No one is suggesting you're a bad guy for it. I read the responses as saying that notification of the problem to the parties involved would be best from someone who had the issue, whomever that may be. I'm sorry you were offended.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Mike... nobody's punishing you man. Deep breath...

You posted this thread to help others avoid the problem, myself included. I really appreciate it. Reporting the issue to cpsc is just another way of making sure nothing terrible happens to others... not sure why that's such a massive burden...

[Robert Torkomian]

It sounds awful familiar that happened to me last year. It is a great little heater but you might think they would send out a warning that could happen.

[Mike Cutler]

Mike

Nice catch, and thanks for the info. You did the right thing. Let the electrical/electronic geeks, me included, postulate 'til the cows come home. It's cold outside and we don't have a lot to do

Not to seem cavalier, but I see this problem a lot in the day job. Trying to narrow it down to a single mode failure is a little pointless.
That "crimp" is not a "gas free crimp", ergo it could be subject to moisture intrusion from day one.
Soldering the crimp isn't always the solution and companies like AMP, Sta-Kon, and Thomas and Betts, will void their liability for their crimped lugs if you solder them after the fact. Soldering crimped connections leads to other failure mechanisms.
The 14AWG wire may not be an issue either. It's stranded wire, not a single conductor. Heat dissapation and insulation resistance for stranded wire is different than solid conductor.
Single thermostats like that have an internal contact and a load balance circuit device to preclude "arcing of the internal contacts. A internal failure could have resulted in the same external symptom.

Rod is correct though. The fault was internal to a metal enclosure that is grounded. Had the conductor "got free" somehow, the breaker would have faulted.

Bruce has what I consider to be an optimum solution. Put the heater on a 240vac "line voltage controller", or thermostat. Honeywell/AUBE makes a 7 day programmable model, I think "TH 240", or "TH115", That are really nice. They are a self tuning, pulse width modulated, PID device. They cost about $60-$70.00.

[Phil Thien]

Bruce has what I consider to be an optimum solution. Put the heater on a 240vac "line voltage controller", or thermostat. Honeywell/AUBE makes a 7 day programmable model, I think "TH 240", or "TH115", That are really nice. They are a self tuning, pulse width modulated, PID device. They cost about $60-$70.00.

Do those require running the 220 to the now external (wall-mounted) thermostat? Or do they have a low-voltage remote unit?