Heater life question

[chucksterock]

I am using the electroless nickel kit and have already suffered a heater failure. It sat in the solution for probably a couple of weeks continuously with one session of plating which had about a three to four hour heat up and then an hour of plating. Now it doesn't work. Fortunately they're cheap, but do they need to come out of the solution when not being used to prolong their life? If they are life limited in the solution, what are some sources for the glass heaters? Need 120VAC, 300W minimum. Solution temperature is 195F. I already have a temperature controller so just need a heater. Thanks for the help.

[roger_rogerson]

Yes, as stated in the manual. Caswell recommends to remove all of the heaters, pumps and annodes/Cathodes if your tanks will be sitting for any amount of time. I recommend taking them out immedialty after plating is done every day as I left one in chrome tank overnight and it disolved the rubber ends and contaminated my tank and that was very expensive mistake. It takes some time as you have to wash off each item.

I got a bunch of cheap 3 gal mop pails from walmart and filled with water, one for each tank. and just dropped them all into the clean water to clean them all out. this takes little time. just change out your water after each cleaning.

Hope this helps...
Roger

[gcyeaw]

FYI,
I pretty much did the same. I have seperate plastic pails with distilled water for things from each solution. When done for the day I clean all the items from the solutions in their respective pail. It only takes a couple of minutes. Considering the time it takes to prepare the items for plating, it is really a 'no brainer 'to do do the cleanup on the system at the end of the day.

Gardner