Broken internal wire

There are no replacement parts for these devices. the parent company that distributed these units are no longer servicing the units. Sharper filed for bankruptcy two years ago.

How are the wires attached?
I am going to try repair with stainless guitar string .005"

I have the broken wire problem and did the following. First I mic'd the wire to determine its size (0.0050" or 36 Gauge). Then I measured the resistance of a salvaged foot of it which measured close to 27 ohms. These are the kind of specs that define Nickel-Chromium (Nichrome) wire. I went over to eBay and bought a 30 ft coil for a couple of bucks and rewired the unit. (This is not a job for the faint hearted or the ham fisted and you had better have a soldering station available.) I turned the unit on and it worked........for about a week and then the wire snapped again. Thinking the piece of wire I used might have been flawed I redid the wiring (with another piece from the same coil - you need about 4 feet to do the job) and again the unit worked for a bit over a week and failed the same way. Considering that this wire is fed from its center point by a high voltage very low amperage source (similar in style to the high voltage flyback/rectifier found on CRT monitors/TVs) and is unterminated (i.e. its an antenna generating an electrical field) I don't know why nichrome should fail; after all its common use is as a heating element and can turn red hot without breaking. Heat is not an issue here. Could the wire itself be faulty which seems the most likely explanation and if so, how? Would the problem be addressed by using a heavier (smaller gauge) wire? Doing that would significantly lower its resistance per foot and besides this was not what was originally provided. So in the end here is what I believe to be useful information about the wire but no lasting solution. Anybody know where to to get factory spec on the wire (ha ha) or know anybody who might have a spool of it?

Greensal,
Good post on the sharper imagae ionic breeze corona wire. Mine also broke, I measured it that same as you did and confirmed the same measurments (0.0050" or 36 Gauge). When I took the resistance measurement, and reconfirmed, I got 2 ohms per foot.
Nickle wire in 36 gauge is 2.4 ohms per foot.
304 stainless in 36 gauge is 17.5 ohms per foot.
Nichrome 80 in 36 gauge is 26 ohms per foot.
Nichrome 60 in 36 gauge is 27 ohms per foot.
Manganin in 36 gauge is 11.6 ohms per foot.
Tungsten in 36 gauge is 1.6 ohms per foot.
This says the wire I have in mine is probably steel.
I would use Tungsten in a .006 or 34 gauge wire due to it's superior properties.

Due to the fact that this wire is basically a high voltage antenna with a corona field around it, the resistance should not be a significant factor. A larger diameter wire such as 32 gauge would offer a greater resistance to breaking and only a slighltly diminished corona field, but should again not be a factor in the overall operation.

The nichrome wire is a very old type of wire. One unusual problem that it has always had is a tendancy to break over time if you touch it. The salts/oils from your fingers corroded the places where your fingers have touched it. A form of corrosion. WEAR CLEAN COTTON GLOVES OR PLASTIC GLOVES WHEN HANDLEING THIS WIRE. The same problem happens when handling high intensity Halogen light bulbs, the finger print salts and oils will cause the bulb to fail when the high heat of the bulb contact the salts/oil that you left behind. ALWAYS WEAR CLEAN GLOVES.