Vacuum Chamber Heating Options

[BagAppeal]

Dear SkyHighLer

I hope I am not of topic, but I think a sous vide water circulator is a great product to use as a heating device for a vaacum chamber. That is except the price.. It is not to great.
Do you think it could be done cheaper, DIY, with a heating coil, and a water pump, and some temp controller??
You seem to have the technical know how..
Respect..

All the best

BagAppeal

 

[LiquidJunglist]

I have been looking at there coils and d-nail.

Those are some things I didn't know you had to calibrate at a lower temp. You can do that on huge Auber PIDs?

 

[LiquidJunglist]

You can do that on the Auber PIDs right?

 

[SkyHighLer]

Dear SkyHighLer

I hope I am not of topic, but I think a sous vide water circulator is a great product to use as a heating device for a vaacum chamber. That is except the price.. It is not to great.
Do you think it could be done cheaper, DIY, with a heating coil, and a water pump, and some temp controller??
You seem to have the technical know how..
Respect..

All the best

BagAppeal

First way I tried heating my vacuum chamber was to place the stock pot in the kitchen sink and keeping a change of warm water flowing. The stock pot 'floating' with the lid off needs to be dealt with, I moved on to heat mats instead.

A remote water reservoir, with a bucket heater, a fountain pump, and a temp controller feeding via a couple of hoses whatever you want to evenly dump energy into seems simple, cheap, and practical to me.

 

[SkyHighLer]

Auber's 'come in all shapes and sizes,' but if the manual says it can be auto-calibrated, then you can auto-calibrate it at whatever temperature you want. Much of Auber's lineup seems to be specific as to what sensor they accept, and you're paying dearly for someone to wire the box with fancy connectors.

 

[LiquidJunglist]

Well I was reading about the auto tune offset setting in the SYL-1512A2 manual. They say something about a limit of 1000 F on the oil coil website.

 

[LiquidJunglist]

Auber's 'come in all shapes and sizes,' but if the manual says it can be auto-calibrated, then you can auto-calibrate it at whatever temperature you want. Much of Auber's lineup seems to be specific as to what sensor they accept, and you're paying dearly for someone to wire the box with fancy connectors.

That's how I feel about these ones online! Something I can make for 135 to 175. The nails are coming down too. Domeless.com and the Crane nail is a good price too

http://coilworks.co/?product_cat=coilworks-nails

 

[LiquidJunglist]

Oil Coil store still has some coils in stock, some good info to be gleaned concerning putting a setup together yourself, no matter where you buy the components.
http://www.oil-coil.com
http://www.oil-coil.com/faq/
http://www.oil-coil.com/support/

Seems to me they're saying to never power up the coil without a nail in place, and that the coil's running at near maximum temperature, so don't auto-calibrate the PID controller at normal temperature, as the deliberate overshoot of the controller (to find the rate of heating/cooling) is enough to burn out the heater. Should be simple enough to run the auto-calibration at a lower temperature and then dial it up for use. Once you run the auto-calibration you'll have seen how high your PID controller overshoots during auto-cal and can then do an auto-cal much closer to your normal operating temperature.

Had to ready my manual a few times and what you said. So I should not auto calibrate off the start because it will over shoot the heaters temp ability. Your saying set a temp first that's low and then auto calibrate? Sorry I'm asking lots of questions just REALLY READY for a enail!

Also, I'm using Auber because I'm in GA and there out of Alpharetta, GA so I could call maybe if I have a issues and get someone that speaks English lol

 

[SkyHighLer]

Had to ready my manual a few times and what you said. So I should not auto calibrate off the start because it will over shoot the heaters temp ability. Your saying set a temp first that's low and then auto calibrate? Sorry I'm asking lots of questions just REALLY READY for a enail!

Also, I'm using Auber because I'm in GA and there out of Alpharetta, GA so I could call maybe if I have a issues and get someone that speaks English lol

"So I should not auto calibrate off the start because it will over shoot the heaters temp ability. Your saying set a temp first that's low and then auto calibrate?"

Yes

 

[BagAppeal]

First way I tried heating my vacuum chamber was to place the stock pot in the kitchen sink and keeping a change of warm water flowing. The stock pot 'floating' with the lid off needs to be dealt with, I moved on to heat mats instead.

A remote water reservoir, with a bucket heater, a fountain pump, and a temp controller feeding via a couple of hoses whatever you want to evenly dump energy into seems simple, cheap, and practical to me.

Dear SkyHighLer.

Thank you for the reply.
Do you think a frame system attached to the tank with the water, holding the vaacum chamber in place would do good?
Or is there any problems I might encounter that I am not seeing??

All the best

BagAppeal

 

[Kcar]

$30 Turkey Roaster from Target full of water, works great...

 

[SkyHighLer]

Dear SkyHighLer.

Thank you for the reply.
Do you think a frame system attached to the tank with the water, holding the vaacum chamber in place would do good?
Or is there any problems I might encounter that I am not seeing??

All the best

BagAppeal

A water bath is the smoothest way to get the bottom of the pot evenly heated, but it's going to require some thought to make it work slickly. My stock pot has a concave outside bottom surface, if you trap a bubble under there you can't conduct much heat. The uneven surface also makes it difficult to get even heat transfer if you place it on a griddle or hotplate...the heat mats address this problem by conforming to the depression if you place some padding/insulation under them.

 

[BagAppeal]

Dear SkyHighLer

What do you think about using a similar system like the vortex brewers to maintain water flow, and no dead zones in the tank holding the vaacum chamber??

All the best

BagAppeal

 

[SkyHighLer]

Very creative!
http://vortexbrewer.com

 

[Scalawag]

Would it be the worst thing to use a 10x10" square silicone mat on a 12"-diameter aluminum chamber? In reality, 10"x10" is likely the dimension of the square of parchment within the chamber so I feel like it's kind of inconsequential.

Just picked up these - though I do not need two (But for $45?! Who cares!). And a Dorkfood DSV.

These still serving everyone well? It's still significantly cheaper than an oven.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181415448013

 

[moyse]

So does one NEED to install a controller to use a silicon mat? For instance those Omegas? just to control the heat i am assuming? I have installed a speed controller on a fan.. is it much different? Thanks

 

[SkyHighLer]

So does one NEED to install a controller to use a silicon mat? For instance those Omegas? just to control the heat i am assuming? I have installed a speed controller on a fan.. is it much different? Thanks

A lamp dimmer will do...

"Temperature Control: In the majority of applications for silicone rubber and Kapton insulated heaters, some form of temperature control must be used. See Section P for temperature controls. In some applications, electromechanical thermostats or other types of
temperature control may be used. (See section P.)"

http://www.omega.com/toc_asp/frameset.html?book=Heaters&file=Intro_flexheaters

 

[Dab Strudel]

Would it be the worst thing to use a 10x10" square silicone mat on a 12"-diameter aluminum chamber? In reality, 10"x10" is likely the dimension of the square of parchment within the chamber so I feel like it's kind of inconsequential.

Just picked up these - though I do not need two (But for $45?! Who cares!). And a Dorkfood DSV.

These still serving everyone well? It's still significantly cheaper than an oven.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181415448013

Its been a few weeks, how is the DSV serving you? I chose to go with Best Value Vacs version of the silicone mat at the last second, but I may grab a dsv for cooking the mat was only 90 bones and I already had an order coming so shipping was already paid for.. i will have something up about it soon

 

[cyphaman]

89$ from Best Value Vacs gets you a PID temp Controller and a heating mat to fit up to 5 gal Chamber. Thanks Skyhighler for getting them to realize what a great and affordable method this is for heating.

http://bestvaluevacs.com/heatpad.html

 

[Dan Cooper]

Hey Sky,
Is that Dimmer the same thing or similar to a rheostat?
Sure looks like it would work well