DewBuster™

DIY NICHROME HEATERS

This information is provided for those with the proper electrical knowledge to build 12 Volt telescope dew heaters using Nichrome wire. If you do not have such knowledge then you should build heaters using 330 Ohm resistors . These heaters can produce almost twice the required watts of heat so they must be used with a controller to regulate the amount of heat. They are intended to be used with a 13.8VDC Power Supply or 12V Battery (13.8V when fully charged), higher voltage will overheat and damage them, lower voltage may not produce enough heat. I will offer no advice on modifying these heaters for other voltages or applications, try searching the internet for alternate heater plans.

Building Nichrome Wire Dew Heaters

Building Nichrome wire heaters involves calculating the desired resistance and then using parallel lengths of Nichrome wire to obtain that resistance. You can obtain Nichrome wire out of an old blow dryer, toaster, heating pad, etc. It can also be purchased from companies such as Do not cut any pieces of Nichrome wire until you get to step 7. These instructions deal with very low resistance values so it is important to subtract the resistance in the ohmmeter leads from the reading on the meter. Touch the meter leads together to measure the lead resistance. Subtract this lead resistance from every measurement taken in the following instructions. For example if touching the leads together reads 0.5 ohms, then a piece of Nichrome wire that reads 15.0 ohms is really only 14.5 ohms. It is also important to understand that the smaller the wire gauge (diameter) the higher the resistance (Ohms) per Foot. So if you have several different gauges the smallest gauge will allow shorter lengths for the heater wire.

Building Nichrome wire heaters involves calculating the desired resistance and then using parallel lengths of Nichrome wire to obtain that resistance. You can obtain Nichrome wire out of an old blow dryer, toaster, heating pad, etc. It can also be purchased from companies such as Jacobs These instructions deal with very low resistance values so it is important to subtract the resistance in the ohmmeter leads from the reading on the meter. Touch the meter leads together to measure the lead resistance. Subtract this lead resistance from every measurement taken in the following instructions. For example if touching the leads together reads 0.5 ohms, then a piece of Nichrome wire that reads 15.0 ohms is really only 14.5 ohms. It is also important to understand that the smaller the wire gauge (diameter) the higher the resistance (Ohms) per Foot. So if you have several different gauges the smallest gauge will allow shorter lengths for the heater wire.