More heat needed

[madsenshooter]

Anyone know how to get more heat out of an electric hot plate? I bought a 1500W hotplate, figuring if 1500W was enough for old drippy, it ought to be enough wattage in a hotplate. Well the thing only brings the pan up to about 550 when set on max. So I have a pan with a 10lb WW ingot sitting in it that's doing nothing but getting too hot to handle. I imagine there's more than one way used to control temp on various hotplates, this one is a Deni that I got for next to nothing. I was wanting to try ladle casting. Thanks for any suggestions, in the meantime, I may as well unplug it and let it cool, that ingot has been sitting there over an hour, it isn't going to get hot enough to melt.

[docone31]

Plug it into 220?

[madsenshooter]

Ha, you forgot to put the jerking your chain icon in! I got hold of the manufacturer who says it's supposed to get up to 890, but it's kicking off at 600. Maybe I should try the 1000W chinese made one, it probably isn't regulated in any way and might get hotter.

[docone31]

A lot of the chinese stuff is old tech.
I know first hand, in my shop I use the old tech. For example, I have several flex shafts hanging over my bench. The one I use most is the Harbor Freight one. It is old tech and it is very easy to control. The High Tech one is actually jumpy. When I am cutting a bearing for a diamond, I cannot have jump. The burr runs around the prong.
You might need old tech also.

[454PB]

Depending on the thermostat design, you may be able to simply bend the contacts to make it cycle "off" at a higher temperature.

Another option is to bypass the thermostat all together. This is potentially dangerous and definately inconvenient, but it will allow it to get hotter.

[markinalpine]

If you can solve the thermostat problem, you might then add a shroud around your pan, to keep the heat from the hot plate from dissipating.

Mark :coffeecom

[jmsj]

madsenshooter,
I've got a 900 watt Walgreens hotplate that I use. The pot I use holds about 7 pounds, to get it to melt lead I either have to use the lid for the pot and wait quite a while or use a propane soldering torch to help it along. Usually I use the propane torch method. Once I get it all melted and fluxed the hotplate has enough power to keep the lead melted.

[Bret4207]

Is this an open coil HP or is it a smooth/covered HP? The open coils are the only ones tat will get hot enough IME. My 1100 watt units keeps 30 lbs at perfect temp all day long.

[madsenshooter]

It's covered, has a cast iron cover. The Chinese one is open coil. I will however delve into the covered one, see if I can locate the thermostat or get a little more turn to the rheostat. Thanks for the suggestions, no reply from the manufacturer when I asked if there was something I could replace or fix inside the unit.

[bennadatto]

I've got a 1000W hot plate with exposed coils (I think exposed coils is the trick) that just barely gets hot enough to melt lead. The plus side is I can be pretty assured that no Zinc gets melted in my mix. The negative is that it took me almost 2 hours to smelt enough lead for 6 pounds of ingots. BOOO!!

I went out to Wally World and got a duel 10,000 BTU camp stove which does the job expertly! The burner was in the $20 realm.

[Bret4207]

Mine is 1100 watts and an open coil.It;ll take my 30 lbs pots up over 850 easily. I think these low quality hot plates vary a lot as far as how they perform.

Masden, see if you can get the cover off. That seems to soak up a lot of heat.

[Changeling]

Mine is 1100 watts and an open coil.It;ll take my 30 lbs pots up over 850 easily. I think these low quality hot plates vary a lot as far as how they perform.

Masden, see if you can get the cover off. That seems to soak up a lot of heat.


Bret, how long does it take your hot plate (open coil) and your stainless pan to get say 10 lbs of ingots melted and ready to cast, rough estimate would be fine?

[Bret4207]

Rough est? Jeeze, maybe 10 minutes, but I'm not real sure. I tend to lose track of time easily. I know the one time I timed it I went from a cold pot of about 25 lbs to casting in 22-23 minutes.

[Changeling]

Rough est? Jeeze, maybe 10 minutes, but I'm not real sure. I tend to lose track of time easily. I know the one time I timed it I went from a cold pot of about 25 lbs to casting in 22-23 minutes.

Thats fine, thanks for the info.

[Changeling]

Rough est? Jeeze, maybe 10 minutes, but I'm not real sure. I tend to lose track of time easily. I know the one time I timed it I went from a cold pot of about 25 lbs to casting in 22-23 minutes.

Bret sorry to bother you again but do you happen to know the name of the 1100 watt hotplate you have?

I thought I had a good one, but it just doesn't have enough wattage.:-(