Aurora FS100: 10yrs old, still going strong - repaired three times – I read the other reviews which are either: it broke, I can't get a good repairer, or, it works great and never broke down. Both love the efficiency, which I agree is great.

My Archer FS100 has been repaired 3 times for 2 problems in 10 years.

First, the convection fan has had two capacitors changed because they failed. They make the fan run on low and med speed, high does not need one. So if one fails the fan wont start or wont go to med speed. The service guy fixed these with higher grade ones.

Second, the inlet gas solenoid just failed recently due to two dry solder joints under the plastic cover (electrical problem only).

If your gas keeps shutting off randomly, won't relight or lights and then clunks off, you can bet the gas solenoid has dry solder joints on its internal circuit board.

The valve code is Brahma E8/S*GMO and is easily repaired. It takes 30 mins to fix:-

-unplug the cord and turn off the gas line valve,

-pull off the front lower panel,

-locate the solenoid and remove the spring washer,

-slide off the coil and bring it outside the heater,

-unscrew the cover and remove,

-locate and re solder the two dry joints,

and reassemble and reinstall in reverse order.

Both failures I think were due to old age (heater not me) and heat.

Hope you find the repair tip helpful.

I found it hard to get the local Canberra guy to come in a short time, he was busy fixing heaters.

My parents-in-laws Brivis ducted heater fan motor just failed after 7 years = $640.00. Personal experience of failed heater, not Archer, after 10 yrs of owning a Vulcan 40MJ Quasar wall furnace, the service guy turns up for a safety recall job and fits heat shields, so my wall studs wont catch fire and now the house wont burn down! Nice, but we ran 5 yrs without shields!

I think we all know that mechanical appliances fail and regularly but don't think it will be us.

The cost of the servicing? You get your car serviced every 6 or 12 months, pay $200 - $400 each time, and accept it as normal. Do you get your heater serviced annually? The Quasar costs $99 pa for servicing.

Disclaimer: Mains voltage and gas are dangerous. If you are not qualified, don't mess with it.

But if you are keep it clean annually: unplug the heater, get out the vacuum, and suck the dust out of the fan (use a toothbrush), lift off the top/unscrew the top plate and defluff the heat exchanger inside, make sure the flue pipes outside don't have spider webs in them, etc.

Happy heating. Pumps out the heat, efficiently, saves $500 in gas pa over the Quasar. Logs realistic like wood. Has broken down, but the parts were not dear. It's a space heater and they have noisy fans.