Heating HCL mixture

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kroutonz

Active member
Joined
Nov 21, 2010
Messages
36
Hey I'm looking for a cheap solution to heat HCL/clorox method. I bought a 1000w bucket heater that is made of stainless steel(all aquarium heaters that would work have temperatures governed at around 90 f). I was wondering what would be a good material that is cheap to coat this heater in. I was thinking epoxy but I'm not sure if that will hold up to expected temperatures of 130-140f. I know PTFE would but thats really expensive to coat even just a small heater and defeats the purpose of me buying this cheap heater. I also thought of teflon plummer paste but that has a "soft set" and may work but i'm worried about it eventually dissolving/falling off due to the soft set.

Any info would be greatly appreciated :).
 
It would help to know what kind of pot you are trying to heat up. Plastic, metal, glass? A hot plate, a bucket within a bucket. We don't know what you are heating in, some info would help.
 
Sorry I'm heating it inside a plastic 5 gallon bucket I got at home depot. It's inside a 10 gallon gateraide dispensor type bucket. second is to contain the fumes/help contain some of the heat and for spillage. I'm coated the second in epoxy/plugged the drink hole with teflon paste.

also link to the heater I have.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=2E87C5D7-7B6A-11D5-A192-00B0D0204AE5&item=11395&ccd=IFH003&utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=free&utm_content=11395
 
Get you a SS container larger than the bucket and warm the pan with a hot plate or burner till the water bairley keeps a boil to it and that shoud acomplish what you are trying to do. Get a lid for your bucket and put a brick on it to help keep the fumes in.
 
Barren had a good approach, but if you want to use that heater I suggest you need a third bucket containing water. That could be a smaller bucket to go inside the 5 gallon with your chemicals or it could be a larger bucket that your 5 gallon goes into. You could use your gatorade container in that way and in a sense it would provide some containment with dilution, but you will have lost your air gap insulation. The jug should have pretty good insulation, but you could add more outside.

As I understand that heater it has a built in thermostat that will never let the metal exceed 140 degrees so I guess it won't melt through a plastic bucket, but centering it in the bucket would probably be a good idea. If you use it to maintain 140 degrees for hours and days it's internal thermostat is going to be doing an awful lot of cycling that it normally wouldn't be doing for heating up buckets of water where you stop when you have a bucket full of hot water. Ideally that heater it is self regulating without a thermostat. I actually own a heat tape I inherited that works that way, but I don't see them in the stores any more.

FrugalEE
 
Thanks guys. I've thought of that and may have to go that route. I've drawn a picture of what my setup would look like going that route. It's definitely less efficient than directly heating the concentrated HCL. I'm not opposed to having to recoat the heater every couple times. If the epoxy will contain the HCL for 2-5 days that would be good enough. Or possibly teflon paste inside a teflon tubing to disperse the heat enough so it wouldn't damage the heating element or tubing.

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Why not get a band type bucket heater and drop the bucket in a bucket plan?

http://www.bayteccontainers.com/15galstdrhe.html

http://www.powerblanket.com/Bucket_Pail_Heaters-c-21.html

With the bucket in a bucket plan your heater will be eaten away as the HCL mixes in with the water.
 
If you want to immerse your heater in acid solutions the only one I know of is a quartz heater, and I'm not to sure that will last too long. It's not the quartz that's the problem but the connections, remember were dealing with highly corrosive liquids that will eat most metals. The best approach is to heat outside of the acid solutions and to protect your heater, it's not going to be possible to have a cheap heating element that will withstand the corrosive actions of the acids in direct use, if the heat doesn't cause problems the acidity will, and the combination of the two is almost always catastrophic...
 
Hmm I'm not sure what to do then if the HCL is going to form in the water. Could I put a little something to neutralize whatever HCL may form in the water, or is there going to be more than just a little bit of HCL forming in the water?
 
The HCl gas forming acid in the water never occurred to me when I made my suggestions earlier. I'm sure you could monitor acidity and make corrections with baking soda or lye solution. I take care of some boilers and weekly I check pH with test papers and occassionally add some NaOH solution (lye) to the boiler water to keep pH near 7.

I wrote a post earlier advising you that 1000 watts seems a bit much. I would try to reduce power input externally by lowering voltage, putting a power diode in series, or using a duty cycle control like used on electric ranges or hot plates. Those are all cheap solutions. The ideal way would be to use a variac to set voltage to anything from 0 to full 120 volts, but those are expensive.

FrugalEE
 
use a glass jar with the crock pot im assuming and just do less at a time? maybe 2gal glass jar. Would that suffice? Also I'm processing cats thats why i'm trying to do alot at a time. The honeycomb takes up a decent amount of area.
 
Im at a loss as to why you wouldnt use something like the band bucket heater. Is there any specific reason you want to use a reaction vessel inside an outter vessel?
 
because 170$ isn't ideal. But it looks more and more like I'm going to end up going that route. Best to just do things right the first time anyway probably. Anyone have any experience with those band heaters?
 
I use them all the time. Be sure to get one that has an adjustable thermostat or you may end up with a melted bucket or barrel. Also check the specs of your bucket/barrel to see what the maximum working temperature of it is.

Steve
 

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