Sulfur Burner Temperature Range/Reqmt's

After exhaustive and exhausting search I can't find the temperature range that a grow room sulfur burner operates at. I do, however, remember reading somewhere that it might be 155f to 165f. Does this ring a bell with one of the wise and all knowing Guru's in here ??

Ty-Stik awaits

I believe you are very close or right on.I use a burner quite often and it does burn very hot.I put a thermometer right beside it once and the temp was in the 130 range...so it def is higher then that with the air space that was between the burner and the thermometer..I don,t know if this helps ..but it,s all I know...A burner will def. give you a bad burn if you happen to accidentally touch it with your arm or hand.
jarff

Jarff, TY buddy. I am going to have a factory unit and pellets dropped off here and I will check its performance/operating temp. Most of the ones I have seen are 175 watt. $125-150 is a lot of scratch for one of those gadgets, damn you can buy 2 or 3 small microwave ovens at Wally World for that much money.

Will post test results shortly.

Ty-Stik

The test is complete. In a room with 70f ambient temp the commercial sulfur burner generates 185-190f at the hottest setting. This is good, I am going to run an experiment today with a DIY unit using available "stuff" laying around the house.

Ty-Stik

Sulfur burners sure do work nice when really needed..be careful not to overdo it tho,
Don,t use late into flower.I usually have it on an hour or two per day in the first two weeks of flower.I was growin, a strain that was prone to powdery mildew.The burner took care of the problem. They can work off a timer.I know of a person who burned their house down using a burner.They turned it on and went away for the night and voila bye bye house.So do be very careful.185/190 F is very hot...good luck man
jarff

I have spent much of last night and all of today testing and researching sulfur and burners. SULFURS ignition point is 470 F. It will take a bit longer, photos, observations and the like are to follow as soon as I can figure how to upload photos from " My Pictures " to this site and complete equipment comparisons.

I have been using a No Contact IR Digital Thermometer and a high quality candy thermometer for temperature evaluations, the IR being the most accurate of the two.

Hopefully I can complete all of this by next week and post the results. So far it has proved quite interesting.

as always,

happy growing and peace

hey folks. I got the Hotbox Sulfume sulfur vaporizer to ward off powdery mildew. it's the best one out there for the reason that it heats up to the vaporizing temperature, and then self-regulates itself lower to maintain that temperature so as to not burn the sulfur. if sulfur is burned, there are dangerous byproducts that will harm the plants and you. (inhaling sulfur by itself is bad too of course).

Sulfur vaporizes at approximately 145-150 Celsius. Once heated up though I believe it can still be vaporized at a lower temperature. It BURNS at 160 C, which is what no one wants. that's why the cheap sulfur burners are BAD, and it's worth it to invest in a good one. granted, the price is a bit high for what they are.

also, use only the purest sulfur to ensure no byproducts that way as well. laboratory grade. or the stuff they sell with/for the vaporizers.

good luck all.

King Ralph, where did you find 160 C (320 F) as the ignition point for sulfur?

Every source I have ever reviewed tags ignition at 470 F

My first tests were with water in lieu of sulfur at high setting indicating 185-190 F and 283-303 F with melted sulfur at the high setting.

The temps difference between H2O and S is due to the greater heat dissipation ability over sulfur, the later being carbonaceous?

Well Ralphy olde boy, remember this: "Once a King....always a King------once a Knight thats enough". lol

Ty-Stik

PS: I just went and checked the factory (loaner) sulfur burner. It is 150 W rated and is a can within a can with a small heating element that is adjustable, up or down and secured with a wing nut. Canary yellow she is.

If you have a Digital IR Laser Thermometer, hold it to within a 1/4 inch of the fully heated sulfur and click it. I just checked mine and it was 304 F. The thermometer checks accurate against a known value. More to follow on this shortly. Whoopy!!!!

i found the temperature at a multitude of different sulfur burner/vaporizer description sites. once you reach the IGNITION point, it's much too far. burning it at all is too far. vaporizing only is what you want. the cheap ones with just the heating element inside is borderline, that's why i recommend the sulfume, as it has additional control in the form of a pcb with sensors, relays, etc, to ensure vaporizing without burning.

good luck with your sulfur burning.

I have my DIY sulfur vaporizer online now, started at 1730 will go off line at 2030. Temps are consistent.

Next time will be the Factory unit and the third will be another DIY unit. I will evaluate and post the results. All 3 have temperature control/limiters, one is variable and two are fixed.



Ty-Stik

Test Completed:
Using a factory unit from Eco-Plus (150 watt rated) and 99.9% pure prilled sulfur, the vaporizer, with 100 grams loaded, was run for 1 hour. Temperature of the fuming sulfur was 373 F. Fuming resulted in an extremely dense cloud.

Using a modified Fry Daddy Cooker (1200 watt rated) with an aluminum pot for the sulfur was run as above with a resulting temperature of 281 F. Fuming was very light.

Using a 30 year old West Bend Slow Cooker with an oblong aluminum bread pan for a sulfur pot and run as above with a resulting temperature of 303 F. Fuming was slightly heavier than the Fry Daddy but not by much.

Both the Fry Daddy and the West Bend had the cooker 75% covered with HD aluminum foil to increase the temperature.

In a controlled run with the prilled sulfur placed directly in the Fry Daddy cooker the temperature was incrementally checked with the last reading of 465F before the sulfur ignited. Ignition was calm with a blue flame developing and swirling much as lighting a dish of alcohol with no flare up.

A Digital IR Thermometer with a ( 3 deg. +/- margin of error) was employed.
I will run the West Bend a few more times and may well use it instead of spending $125.00 on a factory unit. Total cost: 0 Prilled Sulfur: 2 1/2 pounds, $15.00 The West Bend has a thermostat control and requires the max setting to achieve the above noted results so there is no chance of bumping "up" the dial. Also the wattage didn't appear to be a factor as much as the design of the respective devices. While it is slower than the factory unit it is really of no consequence as the unit only need be run a little longer to achieve the same results.

Well, that "Brain Fart" worked, now on to the Centrifuge if I can find el-cheepo.

Happy Growing and Peace

Ty-Stik

Yo team!!! Master----"It's alive,,,,,,,It's alive".

Low cost safe sulfer steamer (burner)

Low cost safe sulfer steamer (burner)

What I use is an electric griddle from a 2nd hand store (the 1st one looked rough & cost $1.50. The 2nd one was near new & cost $4.95). I used a $5 HF infer red digital thermometer to set the temperature of the griddle to stay above 260^F and below 300^F (the controls on both let me keep it between 265 & 275). And made a few dry runs with no sulfur to confirm uniform stability. The used a 1500W electric light timer (50cents from a 2nd hand store) for auto shutdown (set it for 1 to 2 hours depending on grow room size). I only use about a table spoon of sulfur & some is always left. This will coat everything in the room with a very thin layer of sulfur dropping the Ph enough so mold & mildew cannot get started. It produces no sulfur dioxide at these temp so the plants are not harmed. I set up at the end of a light cycle then open doors at the beginning of the next light cycle to air out the room. And reenter after the room has aired well (an hour or so with fans on). The first time I went in before it aired out and learned quickly that there was no reason to suffer that unpleasantness (if you must go in before it is aired to open a window or such your eyes will burn & it will irritate your lungs if you cannot hold your breath, so think it through before you start). Again, it produces no sulfur dioxide at these temps so no deadly gas, so it will not harm your plants