78-1 Magnetic Stirrer Hot Plate Magnetic Mixer 1000ml Lab Hot Plate with Magnetic Stirrer, 2400 RPM Magnetic Stir Plate with 4 Stir Bars and Support Stand, Max 158°F Hotplate Magnetic Stir

I don't have a ton of experience with chemistry or lab work, so maybe there's something I'm missing since this is obviously priced as a "budget" stirrer. But it works exactly as intended and I don't really see any weak points or issues. The magnetic stirrer works exactly as I would expect in any beaker size from 100ml to 1000ml. The hot plate heats. The speed adjustment adjusts speed. The support stand thing holds a thermometer just great and is easy to adjust. I do a lot of tinkering in the world of film photography, darkroom printing, and old-timey alternative processes for printing (kallitype, salted paper, etc.). When testing a new black & white film developer formulation recently, I needed to make a solution of phenidone in propylene glycol. Phenidone famously takes a really long time to fully dissolve, and that can be helped along by heating the propylene glycol. I've done this once by hand. I microwaved the glycol in the beaker, and stirred by hand with a glass rod for what seemed like eternity. It worked, and I told myself that I would get a magnetic stirrer if I ever had to do it again. Hard to overstate how much better the process goes with this item. Stick beaker of glycol on plate. Drop in stir bar. Set thermometer in to monitor temp. Dump in phenidone powder. Turn on stirring and heat. Let it do all the work for the next 30 minutes while I chill, listen to a podcast, and monitor the thermometer so I know when to shut off the hot plate. SO MUCH easier and less unpleasant. I'll probably just be using this to mix all my chemistry going forward. It's so much more convenient.

I have a background in chemistry, and I am very impressed with what I received for what I paid. I have used half a dozen brands & models of mag stirrers in my time, and this is my favorite I have ever worked with. Looks like a factory in the Soviet Union designed a magnetic stirring device in 1965 that just WORKED, and never bothered updating the design at all in the decades since (this unit probably actually is second-world import based on the instruction manual's stilted, translated English). Bear in mind that this is not a precision instrument. If you need your stirring to be at an EXACT speed, or if you need your heat to be at an EXACT temperature, this is not for you. It's a HOTplate, not a thermostat. Bear in mind that the heating function MAY be unsafe / a fire hazard if there's no liquid in a beaker on top of the plate to evaporatively cool it. Please use a digital thermometer to monitor the heating AT ALL TIMES. At any rate, if you need something that'll stir like a workhorse over a wide range of viscosities for days or weeks at a time if necessary, then this is perfect. Would buy again.

In the video i have stirrer running top speed, its a little unstable at that speed, might just be the size of my flask, i usually keep it at half speed, but you can see at the end, when i crank it up to top speed, it releases more gas from the solution, causing it to bubble through the water in the graduated cylinder. Used this many times, i monitor the heat and turn it off when it gets hot enough. the hot plate reads 220+ degrees F when at its hottest. the stirrer works great. would definitely recommend buying!

First off, this works. It gets hot and it has a strong spinning magnet. Thing is, it gets REAL hot eventually and there's no control other than turning off the heating element. If you need this at precision temps it's not for you. I use it to liquify and mix distillates, which it works wonders for. You need to pay attention and get it off when it's fluid, so you don't harm any actives though, bc again there's no way to know how hot it is at any given moment. It mixes very well and the speed controller also works nicely. This is something I need to use maybe every 3 months or so, and it's great for that.

I bought this set to experiment with extracting gold from computer parts. It’s worked great since I got it and it’s fun to use. It’s also very easy to use and learn.

Fantastic cheap mag stirrer. Never manually stir again! I use this for everything! Recommend buying a bar magnet with it.

I’ve made two of these over the years but without the heat option. What a game changer this one is and I wish I had bought it sooner.

Got this today and as soon as I opened it its clear its not a new device, scratches and residue all over the know and the plate, and a ton of white dried residue on the cord that turns to powder when scratched. Pretty bummed as I was really excited for this upgrade, will be trying to contact customer service and will update afterwards