Vevor Heating Mantle 1000ml Magnetic Stirrer Heating Mantle 350W Heating Mantle Magnetic Stirrer 0-1600 RPM Lab Heating Mantle for Liquid Heating 1000ml : Home & Kitchen

The temperature is hard to manage which is a big problem for me. Some molecules boil at a lower temperatures when mixed with other molecules and can boil over easily if the temperature is too high. There is a fine line between 70 C and 100 C with this heater. Its not very easy to find the sweet spot I need for distillation of these azeotropic molecules and it really messes things up.Overall though, this is a very nice heater and I would recommend it to others if temperature isn't as fragile of a component as it is for me.

I like that this is a proper heating mantle. No more oil baths or heat element sunk into sand for me! The problem is the stirring, it's not properly centered into the mantle. Furthermore, the rotor magnet isn't very strong. These problems, combined with the fact that my magnetic stir rods are off center, makes it impossible for things to stay synced at anything but idle pace. Other than that it's a solid performing unit. It's a little larger than I was expecting though. My 1L round bottom flask has about one and a half inches of space all around it. Could be that my flask is on the small side for 1L, could be that it's by design. I'd prefer a "fit like a glove" sizing, but I guess that's unlikely, and I keep getting told that it's OK anyway. Whatever, it's definitely an upgrade from what I had, but I feel like I could/should have spent a little more on a better unit.Edit: I discovered today that at least part of the problem was that I wasn't using the proper egg shaped stir bars. So I've added a star. After solving that problem, I set out to solve the off center stir problem. Fortunately there are just 3 screws on the bottom that hold the thing together.First thing I found was that the two magnets are being held in place with a piece of ferromagnetic material bridging across them. This created a "magnetic short circuit" of sorts, significantly reducing the "reach" of the stir mechanism's magnet. I replaced this tiny piece with a similar shaped piece of FR4 circuit board. Hard to tell how much that helped, but it couldn't have hurt.Second. Indeed, the hole that was cut for the stir motor was visibly off center from the rest of the device. nothing I could do about this existing hole, but I could do something about how the motor sat in it. I loosened the screws holding down the stir motor then cocked the motor as hard toward the center as I could manage, and while holding, tightened the whole thing down again. After that I tweaked the motor bracket some to make it even straighter and closer. This worked pretty good and got the stir center much closer to the center of the mantle. Being that it's a hemisphere, the center of the mantle is the lowest part, and therefore the shortest distance to the stir motor's magnet. Since the magnet in the stir has limited reach, this detail is critically important.It's at this point that I'm able to whip up a whirlpool in my round bottom without tossing the stir bar out of sync, which is the limits of what such a system should do any way. I consider it fully functional now, but, since I had to mod it, I'm taking off a star still. Most buyers won't be interested in moding a mains voltage electronics device that is constantly close to conductive liquids, so I think this is fair.

This thing is pretty large 8.5" tall, 10" diameter. It works well. I distilled some water with it with no problem although the rheostat was ~3/4 to the end so it might only go to 130 degC or so. Not sure how high it would go, that is just an impression. Anyway it works as described.

I almost was killed by a runaway reaction before figuring out why this unit won't power ant heat unless the heat controll valve is placed at near maximum.Another reviewer was right in saying that this unit is likely poorly adapted from a 220v model and the circuitry was not changed to make it work properly for 120v.Dangerous pile of garbage.

Despite turning off the mantle, if it is plugged in it will heat up. appears to also have no temperature control.

So, if they had done a better job packaging this, I would probably give it 4 or 5 stars. Does it's job well, didn't stink too much on the first use, and frankly I'm pretty happy with it. Unfortunately, it came damaged. The lower edge of one side was severely bent inwards. Fortunately, I was able to bend it back into close to the original shape, and it's still fully functional. However, the damage is purely due to terrible packaging. It is a heavy object, and was placed in a cardboard box with some thin polystyrene foam pieces placed around it. Nothing below. So someone dropped the package or set it down hard, and that resulted in the huge bend in the lower skirting (the piece where the knobs are). Just plain terrible packaging. Other than that issue, it works very well. great for a distillation experiment, and had enough power that I nearly frothed over my boiling flask (I managed to catch it in time and reduce the heat). Pretty derned satisified. Except for the damage, anyway. :)EDIT: Upping the stars to 5. My seller sent not just the replacement housing I requested, but a whole additional unit. A+ service.

Stirring mechanism stopped working during the first use. Hard to gauge what temperature you’re at.4 Stars not for item but for Customer Service from Morphon. (Would be five if item worked properly)I have to include a remark about the customer service from this company. They were quick to respond, thorough in getting to the heart of my issue and did their absolute best to remedy the situation. Ultimately leaving me happy with the outcome.

Has a long chord and it's easy to use. Seems to work well for the price. Definitely worth buying