Upgrading a Wesco electric furnace

[1942 Handymans Special]

On 12/19/2020 at 7:30 PM, 1942 Handymans Special said:

I went ahead and ordered a Restring Kit 2 elements for ~$30. Only 1 element is broken but I will just replace both.

https://www.amazon.com/2-Pack-Napco-Heater-Restring-volt/dp/B0758PCK9Q

I will do my best to check back in after I get the parts and install them. 

Finally got the restring kit in. Completed the restring and it is working great (as good as it ever was anyway).
Restringing or rather getting the old elements out was a bit more time consuming than I had anticipated but was not not a difficult task. This is a great lower cost solution. 
The pictures are post restring. 

[Jim Katen]

Thanks. I appreciate the followup. I'll bet that your post will help a lot of people who want to attempt a re-string but lack confidence. 

[PSI Guy]

For internet's sake/googling help, I am posting this to help anyone else out.

Our 1986 Wesco furnace went out (Model 5131411) the other day and found a broken coil and bad sequencer.

Single coil - 5KW240V, 7434525
Dual coil - 10KW240V, 7434505

Instead of buying a full replacement kit we decided to purchase the restring kit. This is the way to go and should be more well known. I ended up buying 4 coils (2 2-packs) and recoiling all 3 coils since they are 30+ years old. Having a spare one in the end will be a great help in the future.

Restring kit - (2-Pack) Napco 5kW Heater Restring Kit, 240 Volt with Fuse: 

The pictures above are exactly how our coils ended up looking after the recoiling.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Les
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[PSI Guy]

To add to my previous post, here is a picture of the wiring diagram that was on our furnace. Was great help having this on the product. I wish more companies would include wiring diagrams nowadays. 

[J.Doug]

On 12/31/2012 at 7:34 PM, Jim Katen said:

There's no reason to install any kind of upgrade to an old Wesco electric furnace. Everything in them can be replaced with off the shelf parts.

 

 

They're already 100% efficient in terms of how much heat they produced per unit of fuel. They can't be made more efficient with new parts.

 

As John pointed out, a new thermostat will improve the efficiency of the heating *system.*

We put on new wall thermostat.  Where can we buy parts if we figure out what needs replacing?

[hausdok]

Go back and carefully read all of this thread. You don't need to be an HVAC guy to do this, but you do need to be a little adept with your hands and be imbued with a little common sense that tells you to be sure to cut all power to the unit at the breaker box before you start. You'll need some basic tools. Really, if everyone who had a gas or oil furnace could repair them as easily as electric furnaces could be fixed, the HVAC industry would go bust.

[Jim Katen]

On 1/19/2024 at 12:50 PM, J.Doug said:

We put on new wall thermostat.  Where can we buy parts if we figure out what needs replacing?

In the old days, I'd suggest Graingers. 

Nowadays, you can find pretty much anything you need on "the internet."