[time-nuts] OT: Pace TJ-70 Thermojet problems and a solution

[David C. Partridge]

This is for information in case anyone else hits this problem.

I bought a Pace TJ-70 Mini-Thermojet second hand not long ago, and even
though it appeared hardly used (if at all) from the colour of the heater, it
wouldn't melt solder or burn tissue paper as decribed in the manual even
though it seemed to be heating OK.  Both the heater element and the PT-100
sensor had the right resistance at room temperature.

A few days back I bought a job lot of "stuff" off eBay, and it arrived this
afternoon.

In amongst this lot by chance was an unused heater for a TJ-70!   There was
however a very noticeable difference between the two heaters.

The NOS one had a screw head completely blocking the bore of the heater, and
when I unscrewed it, it turned out to be a flow restrictor that forces the
airflow against the element.

The other one doesn't have this restrictor, and even more strange there are
no threads in the bore of the heater to take one.

The good news is that the heater with the flow restrictor works fine.

I put a call in to Pace UK to try to find out what's going on here.

Dave