Patton Heating & Cooling - Page 4 - Recent Questions, Troubleshooting & Support

MILKHOUSE HEATER "CAUTION LIGHT" SOLUTION: Before I explain, let me clear this myth up: this is NOT an issue with the pendulum safety switch (some mistake that for a "mercury" switch). To begin, unplug the heater. Open it up and clean it out. I mean, buy a can of non-chlorinated brake cleaner and squirt all of the contacts good. Below the fan there is a sensor mounted on the heater element box on the bottom. That goes bad and causes it to trip. While you are there, squirt the motor bushings good with the brake cleaner and dab a drop of synthetic motor oil (just a drop) on EACH of the two motor bushings. Personally, I rewired this and bypassed all of the safety features. You can bypass that sensor without soldering or cutting any wires. All you have to do is unscrew the wires from the holder and then unscrew the tiny nuts and tiny bolts. Then bolt the together at one end (note the position) and put it back in the holder and tighten the screw to hold it in. This method fixes the issue completely as it removes the sensor from the equation. In fact, I just did that on my third milkhouse heater and it has been running solid for the last 15 minutes. Use your modified heater with caution! Let the brake cleaner dry before you energize this device!

Hi,
The 1 setting is a 750watt setting and the 2 is a 1500watt or twice the heat...the light will always be on when you have power...the fan will go on if there is a call for heat and if the room if fairly warm it will be all the way to the top..does the company charge for assistance??? never heard of such a thing...

heatman101

It is typical for the elements to glow. The glowing is caused from the high amount of electrical flow through the coils. It is the same principal of how some light bulbs work.

check that the rocker switch inside isn't stuck, when the rocker swings it shuts the unit off. if it is full of dust it may be stuck. may just be bad.

The red light is in conjunction with a safety. This is there in case something goes wrong, the heater doesn't overheat and possibly catch fire. If its not getting too hot, and its sounds like its not. The safety needs to be replaced. It will be a little disc shaped thing with 2 wires connected to it. If this heater also has a tip over safety, there also may be some type of mercury switch too. If you are so inclined, when you find the safety disc it should have some numbers on it. This indicates the temperature it is made to turn off at. After removing it, connect the 2 wires together and turn the unit on with a thermometer in the spot where the disc was. If the temp. doesn't go higher than the #'s on the disc after 45 seconds like you said, then you know positively that is the problem. If it gets hotter very fast, then the elements need to be looked at for defects. If there are no numbers on the disc or you cant find a replacement, then it may just be easier to buy a new heater.