I have an old hairdryer I had for doing heatshrink, etc. It seemed maybe the fan was starting to fail and I wanted one with a non-heat function too for blowing dust so I replaced it. I decided to have some fun with the old one just to see what changing the air intake opening size would do. I had it on high I covered up a large chunk of the air intake and noticed the elements glowed red. Then I let the inlets open completely and it went dark. I noticed though near the areas where the wire bends around the center form it still glows a faint red where it never did before.
I'm now kind of curious why a small portion of wire went from never glowing before to glowing after this. My only guess is that is like a weak point and the wire stretched perhaps or had some kind of oxidation or chemical change at a temp where this wire will glow.
I'm now kind of curious why a small portion of wire went from never glowing before to glowing after this. My only guess is that is like a weak point and the wire stretched perhaps or had some kind of oxidation or chemical change at a temp where this wire will glow.