300W Ceramic Heater

[jbrink]

Any got these heaters to succesfully bring water to a boil?

I used one in 4 gallon aluminium pot and it wouldn't get the water above 140F.

I also tried it in a 5 gallon bucket with only 2 gallons of water in it, and it wouldn't get the temp about 130F.

Please let me know your results.

[M_D]

I have one 5-gallon aluminum sealing tank and with three 300W heaters it gets to 200-205º maximum and boils (2300' elevation). Using one heater in the same sized cleaning tank will get 150º or so. If you seal larger loads (enough mass to drop the temp significantly) four may be better in my opinion, because it would recover better from the drop in temp after dipping the parts. The tanks I am refering to are not insulated, it could help quite a bit I think to insulate them.

[jbrink]

I was thinking of running multiple heaters in there, but the product description for the 300W heater reads:

"These ceramic heaters have no thermostat and will rapidly bring solutions to a boil. Their design allows them to fit right down into the solutions, eliminating problems hanging glass heaters over the tank edge.

They won't break or shatter like glass heaters and heat up much faster.

Because they have no thermostat, they should only be used when the solution requires boiling"

Reading this one is lead to assume that one of these heater will bring a solution to a boil, I wish I knew it took up to 4 of these heaters to bring a solution to a boil before I purchased one.

Thanks for your input MD

[neilfj]

Your talking about the white heaters with black rubber endcaps, right, and not the clear glass 300 watt heaters?

I haven't had any problem getting them to heat up the tanks with 1-5 gallons of solution, both insulated and uninsulated. One heater can take up to 5 hours to bring 4 gallons of sealer up to boiling. 300 watts isn't a huge amount of heat considering that most hairdryers are 1000+ watts. Multiple heater will reduce the time required, as will insulating the tanks. An insulated 4 gallon tank with 2 heaters takes about 2 1/2 hrs when the room temp is 56F.

[1983shovelhead]

Using multiple heaters should only bring the chem. up to temp. faster. The white ceramic heaters will produce a boil when given enough time. I use the buckets supplied in the kit and double wrapped them with bubble wrap....a 60'x1' roll will do them all 2x with some to spare...it will save you money in energy spent to warm and keep at temp. The blue heaters will with time get to the temp they are supposed to. But I have lots of problems with these blue heaters. Over the course of one weekend I've managed to lose both of the blue heaters. Does anyone use an alternate means of bringing their chemistry up to temperature? Are there other heaters out there?

[M_D]

Yesterday we had the 5 gallong tank with 1 300W boiling heater on for 12 hours, with a lid most of the time. It reached 165º. I am going to try some insulation and see how it does. It takes a lot of heat to boil that much water. The plastic buckets probably loose a lot less heat than metal containers.

[1983shovelhead]

M_D let me know how that works out. A buddy of mine is supposed to get me some actual real-deal foam tank insulation to try. I'll reply to this post when I get and try that stuff.

[rwizinsky]

I've had major problems with both glass heaters - the ones that were made for the dye tanks with the probs and the others. In the short time I've been using them I've gone though 4 or so. The few jobs I had just paid to replace the heaters. The ceramic ones I haven't had any issues with. Does anybody have any other ideas for the dye tank heaters?
Russ