What would be the best heat source while still providing consistency for some one on a budget... ie griddle ,water, oven, toaster oven, heated tile, heat pad what is your favorite and what brand. What kinda temp controls etc.
A heat mat with a controller is probably the cheapest way to have closely controlled heat in the 85F to 160F range that most of our work is done at. Check out Briskheat and Omega.
A griddle is cheeeep, but lacks control. You can tame it somewhat by using a sand bed, or a water bath between your pot and the griddle, but not as neat a package as a simple mat and controller.
Induction heating can work, if you add something magnetic inside the chamber to provide the inductive heat.
I use induction heating with a griddle pan making contact to produce heat. Then I place my chamber in the griddle pan. If I set the Nuwave to 130 my oil is usually around 105-110 degrees. Is there an advantage to putting a magnetic plate inside the chamber versus what I'm doing?
It would add less variables and heat up faster if you had the magnetic plate inside, instead of outside, but it sounds like what you are doing works.
Old engineering rule of thumb. If it looks stupid, but works, it isn't stupid.
i looked on omega and briskheat... even emailed them to see if this chinese temp controller i found would be compatible. but i was wondering if i was missing something ...like a product they offer that is around 100$ with controller they seem to be exactly what i need but trying to stay under 100...may be one of those things that u get what u pay for.. if anyone knows a source for a silicone heat mat with temp controller for 100the or less or close please send link.
pretty much the direction i was leaning toward is some do it yourself. i was thinking of using this with the omega or brisk. would this work.. also u wanna sell that brisk mat?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110V-LCD-Di...071?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58a1713187
what temp did u find was a sweet spot for purging once the heat transfers thru the mat and vacuum chamber?and are u purging in a dish, silicone, parchment? within the chamber?