This winter I discovered that blocking up the fireplace makes the living room much warmer and cuts down the gas bill substantially. All good for the Conner Labs carbon footprint. 🙂 However I guess an open fire has some sort of primeval appeal. Before I knew it I had bought this “vintage retro” piece of junk on Ebay.
I immediately regretted it in case it turned out to be full of asbestos.
It was :/
As it was also caked full of dust, and to be honest smelt a bit suspect, I decided to take it outdoors and wash it down with soap and water. Everything including the wiring, to get the asbestos wet for safe removal.
It was hardly the most complicated assembly so I stripped it down to the last nut and bolt and cleaned everything. The reflector was polished using T-Cut.
Rewiring with bare copper wire in modern high temperature fibreglass sleeving. The switch marked X had somewhat melted contacts. I couldn’t find a replacement so I retensioned them as best I could and used that switch on the lowest powered heating element.
Modern toggle switch doesn’t have 1/10 of the vintage mojo. Doesn’t fit the panel hole anyway.
Red fireglow lamp is arguably the most important part 🙂 25W filament ones are still available.
About now I realised the error of using WD40 to free off the nuts holding the heating elements in place, as great clouds of WD40 flavoured smoke belched forth. 🙂
Once the fumes had dissipated it turned out to heat the living room better than the old gas fire and cost less to run.
Just read this, very interesting!
Very similar fire to one my dad had.
Bit worried about the asbestos though.
I’m assuming it was safe to use in the fire
The amount of asbestos is tiny, probably nothing to worry about in normal use. My concern was that I was taking it apart and rewiring it.
these fires are far better than their modern counterparts they were built to last and they have .the asbestos parts are fine if left alone .you wont find a better fire than a Belling
Yes not a lot to go wrong, and anything that does is easily fixable. Replacement elements still available on eBay.
I have an identical Belling fire in daily use but top 1kw element in ceramic and wire needs replacing. I cannot find an element of correct length on eBay . The length of the element appears to be about 12 inches plus end prongs. Can you suggest where I can send to for a replacement element please.
Hi Madge, the elements are 11.5 inches, I have seen them pop up on eBay from time to time, but as you say there are none just now. Might be worth sending a message to this eBay seller: https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/moorgoodsuk If he asks what model of fire it is, I believe it’s a Zephyr 855 (edit: 854) from late 50s to early 60s.
How is the fire? Still ok?
Yes, not a lot to go wrong with it really! I haven’t seen replacement elements for sale for a while, so that’s my biggest worry.