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Other Vintage Household Electrical or Electromechanical Items For discussions about other vintage (over 25 years old) electrical and electromechanical household items. See the sticky thread for details. |
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3rd Oct 2020, 6:47 pm | #1 |
Diode
Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 1
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Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Looking for information about my Belling electric fire.
Thanks. |
3rd Oct 2020, 9:27 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 16,536
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
It'll cost about 45p per hour to run on full power
You can do toast in front of it (don't poke the toasting fork prongs through the minimal element guards!).
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4th Oct 2020, 10:52 am | #3 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Southport, Merseyside, UK.
Posts: 646
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
The elements would make a good source of resistance wire.
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4th Oct 2020, 11:38 am | #4 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Warminster, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 682
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Nice quality fire . I would guess mid 60s.
Andy
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4th Oct 2020, 11:55 am | #5 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Posts: 5,554
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
I have a later 2 bar plus convector from the 1970s that was covering a dis-ued fire place when I moved into the house. It still works on all three settings and the plastic coal still lights up too.
I have retained it for those times when the central heating needs fixing. |
4th Oct 2020, 2:00 pm | #6 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,347
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Funnily enough, only yesterday I dug out my early 1960s-vintage 3kW Belling (with coal effect) from the depths of the garage to use as a radiant heater under our verandah for use when we have socially-distanced visitors. It cleaned up nicely but now only has 2 bars as one fractured many years ago and was removed. Little point buying a special patio heater that would do exactly the same job, as it is used under cover and out of the rain. I had replaced the original mains lead with a new one about 10 years ago. Mum used to have the 2kW version: one bar was too powerful for the small room she did her sewing in, so I strapped a power diode across one of the On/Off switches to give a 500W setting that was just right. That was nearly 50 years ago. One of our cats used to bask in front of the coal effect when it was lit but none of the bars were on.
Last edited by emeritus; 4th Oct 2020 at 2:24 pm. Reason: Typo photo added |
8th Oct 2020, 9:56 am | #7 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,007
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
With a suitable fork, those fires are also really good for toasting crumpets! I recall many a winter sunday evening doing so in the 1960s, then being berated by my mother for dripping melted butter on the rug.
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9th Oct 2020, 7:03 pm | #8 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Co. Durham, UK.
Posts: 1,117
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
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9th Oct 2020, 8:25 pm | #9 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
Posts: 9,147
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Belling A21 11 1/2"elements I seem to remember. Sold huge numbers made by Micaramic Elements of Cowleaze Road Kingston Upon Thames. That was 54 years ago! John.
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11th Oct 2020, 11:33 am | #10 |
Nonode
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Aberaeron, Ceredigion, Wales, UK.
Posts: 2,887
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
I have coal effect one, still working with old type bulb in my shed/ workshop, I love the coal effect on a cold winters day. Karenbelling, any connection with Belling?
John |
13th Oct 2020, 9:02 pm | #11 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 902
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
belling fires are bomb proof .I have a belling Zephyr [think thats spelt wrong ] two bars and a convector in one unit bought new in 1961 and still in use today .here it is some 18 months ago .Just moved into this house that has no central heating so the fire is a god send
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13th Oct 2020, 11:36 pm | #12 |
Triode
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Bristol, UK.
Posts: 22
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
A use I have found for them is recording in cold churches/cathedrals - the Tallis Scholars I saw record with three, so I bought four vintage ones to show how much better I am than what they are. This is very satisfactory though sometimes they have to be switched to one bar depending on the supply capacity. The advantage is that they are both radiant and silent, though in recording flute there was the odd ssss as the condensation descended from the instrument. I even had a nice Belling pinched (I think it was the Bishop given the orange glow in his house).
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The music goes round and round... Last edited by BristolHoxa; 13th Oct 2020 at 11:55 pm. Reason: photos |
14th Oct 2020, 7:40 am | #13 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Portland, Dorset, UK.
Posts: 874
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Talking about radiant heaters and churches, St. Peters Church, the ex. prison church at The Grove on Portland, had wall mounted radiant heaters installed to heat the place, hate to think what the electric bill on that was, noting that each of the heaters was on it's own MCB and there was a large 3PH consumer unit just for the heaters (and that didn't even do all of them!).
Given they were switched on/off by contactors it always seemed funny to me that all that power was switched by a small industrial panel mount type rotary switch. Would have been at least 30-40kW of heating installed! This picture, https://c2.*****************/2/1022/8...3ab730fe_b.jpg shows a couple of the heating units, a 2 bar off to the front left and two 3 bars at the back, |
14th Oct 2020, 7:54 am | #14 |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 1,654
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Don't leave one of these on with young children about! I met a lady the other day who put her hands through the bars when she was 1 years old. She was burnt and electrocuted at the same time. She spent the next 16 years mostly in hospital with skin grafts etc, trying to recover some use of her hands. She is now 64 and still cannot hold a pen, or use a keyboard. She has enormous difficulty holding a cup. Permanently disabled in effect. These fires are obsolete for a reason.....
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14th Oct 2020, 9:08 am | #15 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
Posts: 9,147
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Great fires but never to be used in bedrooms, the elderly or where children are around. It's only too easy for bedclothes to fall on the fire. They could also be plugged in accidently with obvious consequences. I used to sell Belling products in my shop but always enquired where the fire was going to be used. A fireplace is the only really safe place to operate one of these fires. John.
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14th Oct 2020, 12:04 pm | #16 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,347
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Although the filament is wound in a spiral, I guess the load is almost purely resistive, so a rotary switch would be adequate.
My understanding is that your feeling of comfort is determined, not by air temperature, but by the ratio of the heat radiated from your body to the radiated heat received from your surroundings. Radiant heaters can therefore keep you feeling warm without having to heat up the structure of the room you are in, or the air it contains, that is necessary with a convector heater. Last edited by emeritus; 14th Oct 2020 at 12:12 pm. |
14th Oct 2020, 1:53 pm | #17 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Preston, Lancashire, UK.
Posts: 632
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Not to be used for attempting to light sparklers
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14th Oct 2020, 2:32 pm | #18 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,273
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Those look like Wandsworth switches, beloved of 1960's hospitals everywhere!
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Kevin |
14th Oct 2020, 6:44 pm | #19 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,007
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
Quote:
Growing-up I remember we had portable a 2kW electric-fire whose element was flat-mounted into a porcelain 'slab' and which only had a single metal rail as protection against inadvertent contact by loose clothing. Our cat once wagged his tail a bit too close and the house was filled with the smell of burned-fur. How we weren't all collectively burned-to-a-crisp back then I really don't understand! |
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14th Oct 2020, 11:38 pm | #20 |
Octode
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Rotherham, South Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,724
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Re: Belling electric fire, all three bars work.
When money was tight in the 50s my dad actually built a portable 2 bar electric fire! It was made out of folded and curved aluminium sheet and looked very professional. We had it for years but dad must have got rid of it during his last house move. I wish I still had it, many fond memories of being warmed by it in those cold, pre-central heating days. Ah the joys of living effectively in just one room, the one with the fire!
Peter Peter |