Kolster Brandes Fan Heater

[crackle]

I thought you may be interested to see this heater made by KB, a change from radios but still a nice addition to the KB Museum, to go along side the smaller 2kW Theroma heater we have had in the family since I was young boy.
The white knob on the top left of the heater is where perfume can be added to freshen the room. It can be floor standing or hung on a wall, and has a substantial cloth covered mains flex, which is still in good condition.

Has anyone seen a controller like the top one seen on the second photo.
It has a motor driving some sort of timer switch but I cant tell what it is supposed to do. I took the controller apart as it seemed to not be working at all. But the motor does actually rotate fairly slowly, and drives through about 10 reduction gears, so I could perceive no movement on the final shaft which operated the contacts.
The power to fan motor and heat control is off in when the blue part between 0, and ON, is uppermost. Turning the switch clockwise to 1, 2 , or 3 turns it on, beyond 3 then it turns the power off, the markings go up to 20. Making it appear that you can set it to automatically turn on up to 20 hours ahead.
If the switch is turned anticlockwise to ON, it comes to an end stop and the fan and heat works.
I am not 100% certain I have reassembled the switch correctly, hence my asking if anyone has seen a timer controller like this, and hopefully you can explain the correct operation.

Thanks
Mike

[Heatercathodeshort]

What an unusual fan heater and well constructed into the bargain. I use to repair huge numbers of electrical appliances but never came across one of these.

Thinking about it there were not many KB dealers in the London area. My uncle in Thornaby on Tees purchased a KB ER30 radio in the late 40's and later a KB television.

Would I be right in thinking that during the 40's and 50's KB were more popular up North. Just a thought but it may have been the connection with the Queen Mary built on Clydebank.

[I wonder if there was a perfume that cancelled out cat pee. It was a very common aroma when doing house calls in the 60's/70's.] Happy New Year, John.

[McMurdo]

Is it maybe a runback timer?

I've got something similar on a garage battery charger that lets you run the booster section for up to an hour then it runs back and drops down to trickle charge indefinitely.

So for example you might want to set it so it switches off once you've fallen asleep

[crackle]

Hi
Thanks for your replies, I did some more testing and it would seem I was correct. The timer switch can be set to turn on the heater up to 20 hours in advance, and then it will work for 3 hours before turning off automatically. So you could set it to automatically switch on to say warm the office, if you set it to 12 (hours) when you left for home in the evening. Or you can switch it to continuous by turning the switch anti clockwise to ON.

Mike

[julie_m]

That certainly looks like a well-made heater. And at 3kW, it should warm a room up nice and quickly as well, especially if it was mounted on a wall -- the downward-firing fan would prevent the freshly-warmed air from just rising straight up to the ceiling.

In the days before ubiquitous instantly-on central heating, when open fireplaces were still the main form of space heating, the delayed start timer must have been a useful feature -- it means you should never have to step into a freezing cold room just to turn on the heater in there!

Is the other control a variable thermostat?

[crackle]

Hi Julie
The lower control is the fan and heat control, and allows you to select OFF, COOL, LOW, MED, or HIGH.
The red panel is back lit with a 30w 284mm tubular lamp which is on all the time the heater is plugged in. These lamps are very difficult to replace these days, I didnt particularly want to use an LED type.
Mike

[Heatercathodeshort]

I don't fancy leaving a timed unattended portable appliance capable of giving 3kw of power loose in a home or office environment. It could be pushed up against papers or other inflammable objects with the inevitable results. Fine if wall mounted.

That may have been why so few were produced.
Could it have been withdrawn? John.

[crackle]

The large red illuminated front panel would help warn that it was connected to the mains and may turn itself on, but as you say hung on the wall would be best.

Mike