Heating Borosilicate glasswares - Is a classical cooking hotplate suitable for beakers or round flasks ?

[Uciocciu]

Hi,

My name is u ciocciu, I am quite well known on the forum, as a young ( even a baby) refiner.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I begun to read and to watch videos dealing with chemicals and refining about 2 years ago.

I like to ask question to people more skilled than I am.

Here is my question: when you heat Borosilicate glasswares, do you use a special
balloon heater ?

Or is a mere cooking hotplate suitable for heating beakers or round flasks ?


Thank you in advance for your responses,

Best,

U cioccciu

 

[FrugalRefiner]

A cooking hotplate works fine. Always put your beakers or flasks inside a pyroceram container to catch any spills in case the lab glass breaks.

Dave

 

[Shark]

For several years all I used were old coffee makers with the top cut off exposing the hot plate bottom. Wanting more heat I started using single burner hot plates. My first one lasted three years, and it stayed outside in an open building year round, without heat or cooling air.. I am now on my second one and am happy with it. As Dave mentioned, those pyroceram dishes make a world of difference and well worth the cost.

 

[Palladium]

With the round bottom flask you can fill a pyrocreme dish with sand and sit the flask down in the sand to keep it from tipping over.

 

[Uciocciu]

@Dave, Shark and Palladium

Thank you very much for your advices.
I will do as you told me.

By the way How is the weather in America ?

Here in Corsica, it's so hot !

up to 45 Celcius today ( 113 Farenheit) !!!

Best,

Olivier

 

[Shark]

@Dave, Shark and Palladium

Thank you very much for your advices.
I will do as you told me.

By the way How is the weather in America ?

Here in Corsica, it's so hot !

up to 45 Celcius today ( 113 Farenheit) !!!

Best,

Olivier

It is hot here in the Southeast, but no where near 113F, I couldn't stand that.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

In southwest Ohio, it has been rainy for months. Average rain in June is around 4 inches. We've had over 8" already this month. It's supposed to dry up for a few days and temperatures going up into the upper 80s to low 90s.

Dave

 

[g_axelsson]

Here in Corsica, it's so hot !

up to 45 Celcius today ( 113 Farenheit) !!!

Olivier, you don't need a hotplate. :lol:

23 degrees C today in Sweden.

Göran

 

[Uciocciu]

@shark Where in the South east ?
@ Dave: in a few weeks, you could find mushrooms !!
@Goran :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Shark]

I am in Alabama.

 

[Uciocciu]

@Shark

so nice to discuss with people so far away from me....

 

[kurtak]

IMO - for the money - you are better served buying a pancake gridle instead of a hot plate

I can get 2) 5 liter beakers on my gridle - & it works good for depopulating RAM as well

Edit to add; - the gridle I have (in the pic) has a ceramic coating rather then a Teflon coating

Kurt

 

[MGH]

While there's no wrong way, I agree with Kurt. I use pancake griddles too.

Also, with larger beakers, you may not have a pyroceram dish that fits them (or the solution contained therein if one does break). I sit my pancake griddle on top of a cat litter pan so that boil overs or breaks drain through the grease drain built into the griddle, and down into the cat litter pan. Yes, I've had to do this. It works .

 

[Shark]

I will admit that I have a griddle also. And it is very handy at times. My largest beakers are only 2000ml and I only occasionally need one bigger. In my case where they really shine is when evaporating solutions, especially waste solutions. I have one just like Kurt's and I have a large pyroceram dish almost the size of the griddle and it speeds the evaporation process quite a bit. What I really need is more room, but I think a new building may be in the near future.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I have both a griddle and hotplates. They're all handy.

So, in answer to Oliver's original question, simple electric heaters designed for personal use, like coffee makers, pancake griddles, hotplates, etc., will all work for most non-professional refiners. I'm guessing that when you said "balloon heaters" you're referring to specialized heaters that wrap around the flask, or what I know as heating mantles. They're very nice, and distribute the heat very well all over the bottom half of the flask, so many people who do this for a living use them because they're more efficient, and time is money. Most members who don't rely on this to pay their day to day bills find personal use appliances to be quite satisfactory.

Dave

 

[anachronism]

I have both a griddle and hotplates. They're all handy.

Yeah those pancakes don't cook themselves huh? :lol: :lol:

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I far prefer French toast. I never was a pancake fan. :wink:

Dave

 

[anachronism]

Good answer.