Heating Mantle with Magnetic Stirring, 500ml, 0-1600rpm, 110V, 250W

I do not have a lot of experience with organic or non-organic chemistry but I am a student of the craft. I bought this to make heating a 500ml boiling flask much safer and more uniform along with having a stirring function. I found that boiling off solvents can be interesting and having a stirring function is critical with some of the lower boiling point solvents like hexane and ethanol.

As others have stated, the potentiometer for heat is almost completely uncontrollable... I tried to calibrate it by associating a set of given dial positions with their respective temperatures, and the data showed basically no heating above room temperature within the first 125° of rotation (so thats basically 1/3 of the dial rotation that has no measurable effect on temperature).Beyond 125° of rotation from the "off" position, the heating element begins to produce measurable heat. After one hour of heating at 145° of rotation, the temperature increased from 24°C (room temperature) to about 33°C. Since I was using distilled water as the test medium in the flask, the theoretical maximum measurable temperature should have been around 100°C, beyond which no increase in temperature would be measurable due to the phase change of the water (however, the actual maximum measured temperature ended up being 110°). Therefore, I figured I would at least be able to plot the data between 24°C and 110°C and use that to extrapolate the dial positions necessary to produce higher temperatures.Unfortunately, the data from this temperature calibration test revealed that the temperature increased non-linearly (though, also non-logarithmically) from 33°C to 110°C over a relatively tight range of dial positions, to the point where it became clear that any intended temperature within that range (below 110°C) would be too difficult to achieve.At this point, I decided it would be a better idea to return the product and spring for a more expensive, more accurate heating mantle. I strongly suggest that anyone considering this purchase do the same.

Great heating mantle. I even spilled water on it once and the it was making electric sizzling sounds so I thought it was broken but after letting it dry over a day, it was back and working perfectly. It provides even heating to the boiling flask. Even comes with a nice sized magnetic stir bar

Reaches high temps and the stirring function works all the way to max. Saved me a ton of headaches with bumping due to not having a stirrer with my last equipment.The only problem I see is that some 500ml flasks won't fit properly. The flask diameter must be 4 inches or it won't fit.

Works well. Stirring works, and heat is consistent throughout range. Has helped me through a few essential oil extractions already!Other guy sounds like the idiot who cranks the heat to max, sees the liquid start to boil, and complains when his solvent boils off even after he hastily dials back the heat to 0%. Have patience y'all.For reference, cranking the heat dial to the "L" in faithful is enough to distill ethanol alcohol.

Runs either way too hot or off. The temperature dial does nothing until set over 50%, then heats way way too hot for most solvents unless trying to boil off as rapidly as possible. The stir-bar magnet is off center so can only be used at the lowest, almost useless setting. Not worth buying.

I only used this mantle for 48 hours total, and now the stirring doesn't work anymore. Also, the heating dial is quite useless, it's on/off, so I now control the entire apparatus unmixed on a temperature controller to manage my distillations.