Sciencemadness Discussion Board

hotplate performance

Keras - 26-8-2019 at 02:09

Folks,

so that may look as a noob question (that's why I post it here), but I have that new hotplate/magnetic stirrer which is supposed to reach 280 °C. However, I can't even bring 200 ml of water in a open beaker to boil while working outside. Is that par for the course (thermal loss is such that even at 280 °C, the inner water cannot reach 100 °C), or is the doohickey defective?

Thanks!



Ubya - 26-8-2019 at 02:25

how many watts is the heating element? maximum temperature is not really a good parameter when talking of power

Keras - 26-8-2019 at 02:39

Quote: Originally posted by Ubya  
how many watts is the heating element? maximum temperature is not really a good parameter when talking of power


500 W

Sulaiman - 26-8-2019 at 04:17

I see your problem ... judgng by 48,2 you live in a field :D

Even a small breeze can have a significant cooling effect,
try making a windshield / heat shield / insulation layer of aluminium foil
(or use anything convenient such as wood, metal or glass)
example;


foil.jpg - 702kB

Keras - 26-8-2019 at 04:38

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  

I see your problem ... judgng by 48,2 you live in a field :D

I don't, but my mother, at whose place I do my experiments, does indeed! Or rather, a small village surrounded by an ocean of corn fields. But you can see a picture on the other message I posted this morning, about the chlorine generator.
Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  

Even a small breeze can have a significant cooling effect,
try making a windshield / heat shield / insulation layer of aluminium foil (or use anything convenient such as wood, metal or glass)

Thanks. You're right, I was thinking about that, but before giving in to such kludges (aluminium foil around a beaker?) I just wanted to know if that was common or if my hotplate was just faulty.

vmelkon - 27-8-2019 at 19:01

I don't have a hot plate but I use to use a halogen bulb, 300 W, to boil water, in a RBF, 500 mL or 1 L in size. It took maybe 30 min to start to boil. Using 2 halogen bulbs helped a lot.
For your hotplate, you could measure the current it uses.
The math is simple:
W/V = A

500 W / 120 VAC = 4.17 A

500 W / 240 VAC = 2.08 A

Infrared water heating information

Sulaiman - 27-8-2019 at 21:46

These two diagrams show the emission spectrum of heaters vs. temperature and the penetration depth of water vs. wavelength;

Emission Spectrum.jpg - 78kB

Absorbtion Spectrum.jpg - 147kB

So a halogen lamp (c3000K) works, but not as well as a dull-red heater.

Almost all of the infra red of a heating mantle is absorbed in the first millimetre of water.

Yttrium2 - 6-9-2019 at 18:40

Hey, I thought my iirc. 180watt hotplate couldn't boil water, turns out the dial did infact move past the marking that I thought was the max...
A duh moment