Dimplex Duoheat Storage Heaters

[lennylegs]

Hi,

I've registered on here as I own a flat with three of these Duoheat storage heaters (DUO500i, DUO400i & DUO300i). At least two of them have problems and I'm having no luck getting an electrician who can repair them so if anyone can give me any pointers to pass onto an electrician I would be grateful.

DUO500i (second hand purchased by us & installed by electrician) - this is in my living room, I'm not sure if there is anything wrong with this one, it seems to be quite cold at the bottom of the heater. Is this normal? the bricks looked a bit battered before they went in,could this be causing it? The heater doesn't adequately heat my front room but I think it is undersized as we have a flat roof and the room is on a slope so is 'hollow' underneath, has three external walls and is 4.5m x 4.5m - as i'm typing this I know it's undersized!

DUO300i & DUO400i (already in flat)- they are both connected to peak and off peak but the finger tip control on neither of these heaters works, does anybody have any ideas about which part may be broken? They both heat up fine but obviously we want to be able to control them.

Thank you for any help you can give me!

 

[Zeespark]

Where roughly in the UK are you lenny? have you looked on the register of electricians here? I only say this as diagnosing faults is not easy on a forum, a visit to examine the offending article can yield much better results.

AndyGuinness

 

[kme]

Concur - TBH there aren`t many things to go wrong in the duoheats; I`ve done a few dozen issues; usually involving spillages onto the controls (blows em up!!)

KME

 

[wozz]

if the lights are not coming on this could be no peak supply.

bottom of heater not warm is normal if your not using the panel heater part, if you was it would be red hot!

id say 'a bit battered' is near normal for these bricks, i always take a few extra packs as they break very easily but i cant see this having too much of a detrimental effect.

id imagine a well insulated room of that size would be ok with a 500 (guess), it sounds like your room is not well insulated, you could check by filling out the dimplex design form and see what they suggest.

You can also knock the heater up to hight usuage, they come set as medium usage.

 

[lennylegs]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, I'm in Portsmouth Hampshire.

With the duo500 i tend to put the panel heater part on only in the evenings because of being out at work all day, the backgroud is set to 10 already, with the panel heater bit off now at 2pm the bottom of the heater is only just about warm. Just had a look on dimplex and it says (with 3 ext walls, uninsulated roof, uninsulated floor) that I need between 5 - 7kw duoheat radiators depending on the temp and type of wall i put into t he calc although i'm pretty sure we do have the cavity wall insulation its the 3 ext walls/flat room/floor that are a pain! So that would be at least 2 x duo500 i think.....with the panel heater bit on it goes red hot all over but not without it.

The peak supply to the other two seem fine so no idea what's going on ...just off to have a look at the list on here, thank you for the help!

Lennylegs

 

[wozz]

you got some windows in there to factor into the equations aswel?

sounds like its working as it should, background heat will not make the bottom of the heater warm, theres plenty of insulation in them to keep the heat in and let it out the top, assuming your heater is working on all four elements id look at adding another heater and improving insulation.