some help here

[cheapgoose]

Hey all you techies, have a question here about rheostats. first of all, the only rheostat I'm able to find around here is the radioshack 3 watt, 25 ohm rheostat. now I have a tornado, it's rated at 9 watts. obviously, the info suggests that the rheostat would be overloaded. I was curious and hooked it up anyway, now the rheostat itself did get kinda hot, not burning hot, but pretty hot after a few mins. the fan (tornado) is at the perfect noise level, so what I'm wondering now is that are there any of you out there with experience in overloading a rheostat, what would happen if you do for a LONG period of time, and what if I glue on a heat sink to the rheostat, would it help.

tks inadvance. I do realize there rheostats out there that can handle the tornado, but at that price, I might as well get another YSTech adjustable.

 

[mechBgon]

Considering that the case around the rheostat is getting pretty warm, that means that the tiny contact area that transmits the amperage must be very hot indeed. I'd get a bigger rheostat from somewhere. Maybe digikey.com?

 

[cheapgoose]

yea, I kinda looked into that, the cheapest rheostat that can handle 10 watts is about 12 bucks a pop.

the reason why I asked this question is because of this quote I found on bi-tech.

" The rheostat should be rated at least 3 Watt, (for fans up to 10Watt), a..." I take that as a 3 watt can handle up to 10 watts, what do you guys think?