Purging with a unstable griddle

Should I hit a room temp purge or should I take a risk into the crappy 20 dollar griddle that doesn't stay stable? I was thinking of floating the chamber in water thats warm but I'm not sure of the safety or efficiency of this. Anyone have input? I'm trying to achieve stable temperatures so please share what you use to keep a constant heat. Thanks all.

You can do it with a crappy $20 griddle, if you use a water or sand bath and stand over it like a hawk with a optical thermometer, unplugging it when it starts to go over.

Most griddles don't have good heat control around 100/150F, as they are made for much hotter temperatures.

Consider picking up an Omega or Briskheat silicone heat mat and controller.

i have marked my dial on my presto griddle so i know right where 130 is

I use my stove double boil pyrex.dish on it dont go over 1 on heat dial usualy doesnt go over 140

Dannoo93

Like FD said....

Use sand to dampen and dispense the hot spots evenly....

Give a nice layer below and nestle your chamber into the sand, pack some up the outer-wall of the vessel for even more dispersion.

Them damn coils get super heated and create” vertical” or un-even heating, so even obtaining a consistent temp the purge would be incomplete due to cold spots.

The sand/water bath is your best bet with cheap griddle.

To reinforce: watch it and monitor temps with laser thermometer.

I can't stop smiling over the stand over it like a hawk comment, back when i was pulling 6 hour overnight shift's as a hawk in both sand and water mode. What made the difference for me back when i slept in the bathtub was a bbq temp thermometer with alarm. Oh man during those dangerous times that thing saved my oil a million times over. Their digital and you can set them to alarm at any temp you like. Mine went off once my sand went past 107 because I knew when it hit there it would be at 120 in 10 mins, so i had 10 mins to wake up/pause the movie/take a dab/sleep... How i did it by just eyeballing a thermometer before is beyond me.

I always keep my eye out for a scientific hot plate. They are about $150+ on Ebay. Of course the ones I want are close to $400. It would be nice to control the temp like that. Some also have an agitator built in. Wonder if it could help with the purge somehow?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Corning-PC-620D-Digital-Hot-Plate-Stirrer-/231090970932?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35ce186134

For now I just use a griddle w/ a laser thermometer. Not too hard to keep heat constant.

Ok cool, I got some awesome replies! I literally have been standing over my griddle like a starved hawk, however this will change when I get the sand a flowin. Thanks for the help. I will hopefully no longer have to perch on the handles of my vacuum chamber. lol

We are actually testing a hot plate made by Cat Scientific, that is extremely stable and has a magnetic drive that will actually spin the stir bar in cold glycerin in a stainless container. Most hot plates have poor control around 100/115F, but I set this one on 46C, and it sat for two days at 46.0C without ever even fluctuating to 45.9 or 46.1C. It also comes with an immersion thermocouple. We are loving it so far.

Hee, hee, hee, CAT Scientific is the company that makes the strap on delta wing jet pack. Sure wish I could get one of those to test........................