80 Ohm / 88 Ohm Heater Elements
We had a lot of people asking this question a few years ago when GHD mk4 fake irons were very common. Generally if someone asked this question back then, it was probably because their irons were fake. These days the full answer to this question is as follows.....
All heater resistances are nominal values. Therefore for all the resistances mentioned below, please assume +/- 10 or so ohms.
The only genuine GHDs that use 80 ohm heaters are some MS4.0 (Mk4 narrow plate irons).
The other genuine GHD heaters are as follows:
- GHD S7N421 Max - 40 ohm heaters
- GHD S7N261 Gold - 40 ohm heaters
- Mk5 / Gold - 60 to 70 ohm heaters
- 4.0B, 4.1B, 4.2B - 60 to 70 ohm heaters
- SS4.0, SS5.0 - 60 to 70 ohm heaters (which are wider than normal GHD heaters)
- MS4.0 - 80 ohm heaters
- GHD3, 3.1B, SS2, SS - 160 ohm heaters.
- GHD MS - 170 ohm
Note that these resistances are only valid when the heaters are disconnected from the PCB. When connected to the PCB the two heaters are in parallel, so you will measure half the resistance of one heater, the exceptions being the GHD Gold S7N261 and GHD Max S7N421 where each element will read 40 ohms in circuit.
If you have a pair of GHDs mentioned above that are using a different resistance heater element, then they may well be fake. Please see our fake GHD page for more details about spotting fakes.
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