I contacted the manufacturer in Hong Kong about getting a replacement heater element, and they came back with $7 + $13 dollars postage (not sure if this was US or HK dollars). After asking them the price in £ as I can't write a cheque in $ they have decided to send me one free
for good customer relations.
Anyway, enough gloating, I'll get to the point. In the (excellent full colour pictures) instructions and info they emailed me for replacement fitting, they say that the heating element no longer has the thermostat (still has the thermal fuse) as this has been causing problems, and was not really necessary.
It looks like the stories about people not being able to get hot enough to roast properly are not only true, but enough of them to cause a change. What this means is that for those (like me) who have bypassed the thermostat there is no safety issue. Also anyone who has this problem could get a new element for not too much money, and cure it without any re-wiring. Although if you are going to take it apart you might as well just bypass it as I did.
I hope to have my Imex running again soon, I have some new thermal fuses coming to replace the motor one I blew (I wont run it in a cardboard box again
), and now have a chaff collector thanks to "You Know Who" 
. If only all companies were this good on customer service!
