Pace Thermojet heater assembly smoking

[gkmaia]

I just got a thermojet from ebay and first try it heated well but also smoked a bit. Looking inside the heater assembly could not see any thing burned or melted. And the smoke seems to come from inside the heating element.

I left it on for around 5min. Heating well and smoking a bit. If the element was really shorted it would not provide 5 min of stable heating

I will get back to the seller for sure.

But interested to know if that is how Pace heating elements fail. I never had a soldering iron smoking the element before failing.

[perdrix]

If that was a small amount of smoke and it was new or "new old stock" then it may just have been protective grease or similar burning off.

Does it still get hot?

David

[gkmaia]

Yes gets hot as it should.

It seems to be new as the assembly has no heat coloration, plastic looks new no dirty or scratches.

Maybe should I just let if on for 30 min and see if it burn it off?

[Squoip]

If it's new, it is normal for some smoke to be emitted when it's first heated up. Pace has a burn-in procedure for it. 600F for 10 minutes, then 800F for 15 minutes. After that, should be no smoke.