ONiLAB 280℃ 5 inch LED Digital Hotplate Magnetic Stirrer with Ceramic Coated Stainless Steel Work Plate, 200-1500rpm,110V,Temp Probe Sensor & Support Stand and 9PCS Stirring Bars Included

The lab heater magnetic stirrer is an excellent machine. It is well engineered and the controls are simple, obvious and effective. I had a problem with the unit and I contacted customer service. They had a new unit in the mail by the end of the day! I highly recommend the product.

I am very impressed with my new laboratory hot plate. I am used to paying over twice as much for hotplates. I like the small footprint of this hotplate, it sits well on my bench without taking up too much space. All I had to do was plug it in, add the connector on the back for the PT1000 sensor and put the sensor on my lab stand (it didn’t come with a stand – I wasn’t expecting a stand either at this price, plus, I prefer my personal laboratory stand).Once I had the setup ready, I placed a 1Liter beaker on the clean ceramic surface, placed the magnetic stir bar that came with the hotplate (always add your magnet first!!!), added my test liquid (waterJ) and tested all features.The hotplate comes with an on/off switch. Once you turn on the unit, you may select the desired heating temperature by turning the left knob. Once you are happy with your setting, you push the button and it turns the heating feature on. If you are simply warming up your liquid, you may not need or want to use the temperature sensor. If your liquid has to be heated at a certain set temperature, make sure your PT1000 sensor is connected at the back of the plate and you’ll see the actual liquid temperature displayed on the unit. I really like the readouts, so I know that I am not overheating the liquid.Once the temperature goes above 50 degrees, and you turn off the device, it displays the HOT warning sign, which is a must have to prevent accidental touching while the surface is still hot. This is one of the key reasons why I like the digital hotplate over the old style analog hotplate.I prefer to use the stirring function differently than how I set my heating temperature. For stirring, I prefer to start with small increments while observing the vortex formation, once I am happy with the consistent stirring and the vortex, I write down my stirring speed so I can use this setting again for future runs. I have learnt the hard way in the past that if you spin up any stir plate too quickly, it decouples the magnet.Sorry for the long review, but I am just too happy and excited about this cute little hotplate that I plan to use every day and I want to pass on my strong thumbs up for the device for your everyday, low viscosity fluid heating and mixing. For the price, it’s a great deal—watch out Corning, you have a true competitor at half the cost!

I have modest heating needs, rarely anything over 100C, and this hot plate accomplishes that easily. I more often need a stirrer, working with volumes from 100ml up to 3 liters. So far, this stirrer has had no trouble with anything I have asked of it. It has a good, strong magnetic grip on the stir bar and does not lose the bar even when getting hit with solids, as when sterilizing explants, for example. My previous stirrer was pretty wimpy and the stir rod would frequently be dislodged, which is always annoying.I am accustomed to analog stirrers, so I had to change my expectations with this digital device. Turning up the speed does not result in an immediate change. It slowly ramps up the speed to match the setting. If you are used to cranking an analog knob back and forth, it is a little disconcerting when nothing changes but the number on the display. On the other hand, it is nice to be able to achieve exactly the same speed with each batch. I did have a strange experience out of the box, when the stirrer refused to come up to speed. I dialed it up to 1500 and it remained at minimum speed for at least ten minutes, before it started climbing up to full speed. I contacted their customer support and received a quick response but, after that first time, it has always responded normally.

The heater stopped working after about 3 months. In reality, it is possible that it never worked because we only used it a very low settings until now. It will not get over 70c. I wrongly assumed that the company wouldn't care because of the time between my purchase and the fault. HOWEVER, I WAS WRONG. the company has gone above and beyond to make things right. Not only are we happy, but we will purchase again from this supplier. If only all sellers were this attentive to their buyers.

The build quality and the inclusion of a PT1000 temp probe is a big positive at this price point. Temperature control using the external RTD is fine and holds within stated tolerances. The RTD itself is accurate and arrives packaged well. For delicate heating and temperature control tasks this is a good value for the price.

I bought this device a while ago then start to use it and after two days the hot plate was dead, I called to customer Service and nice lady gave me email address . They answer me next day and start to give me a tips how to solve this problem, it was easy nothing complicated and after nothing help they send me replacement heat plate and… you ready? THE NEW MACHINE! so after I will fix my previous device I will have TWO machine! Even I had problem with first device I give 5 stars for customer Service and for how they took care of customers. Thank you guys!

I bought it because lab equipent are supposed to be highly accurate.If I set it to 85 the thermostat will level off at about 79 but I cabn assure you it has heated to way hotter than 79.So perhaps the reading is off on the display.It's weird and frankly dangerous that it is hotter than it reads.