I like the mantle for vacuum distillations where temps do not need to be very high. I do not believe this mantle will heat adequately for temperatures above 100C. It might, but we have not had to go that high or use open or water-based distillations. The stirring is very handy and the price was great, since we got it on special price.

High quality materials, doesnt rust, and maintains a solid grip ok glassware while latched tightly to the stand itself. Its a crazy low price!

I like that this is a proper heating mantle. No more oil baths or heat element sunk into sand for me! The problem is the stirring, it's not properly centered into the mantle. Furthermore, the rotor magnet isn't very strong. These problems, combined with the fact that my magnetic stir rods are off center, makes it impossible for things to stay synced at anything but idle pace. Other than that it's a solid performing unit. It's a little larger than I was expecting though. My 1L round bottom flask has about one and a half inches of space all around it. Could be that my flask is on the small side for 1L, could be that it's by design. I'd prefer a "fit like a glove" sizing, but I guess that's unlikely, and I keep getting told that it's OK anyway. Whatever, it's definitely an upgrade from what I had, but I feel like I could/should have spent a little more on a better unit.Edit: I discovered today that at least part of the problem was that I wasn't using the proper egg shaped stir bars. So I've added a star. After solving that problem, I set out to solve the off center stir problem. Fortunately there are just 3 screws on the bottom that hold the thing together.First thing I found was that the two magnets are being held in place with a piece of ferromagnetic material bridging across them. This created a "magnetic short circuit" of sorts, significantly reducing the "reach" of the stir mechanism's magnet. I replaced this tiny piece with a similar shaped piece of FR4 circuit board. Hard to tell how much that helped, but it couldn't have hurt.Second. Indeed, the hole that was cut for the stir motor was visibly off center from the rest of the device. nothing I could do about this existing hole, but I could do something about how the motor sat in it. I loosened the screws holding down the stir motor then cocked the motor as hard toward the center as I could manage, and while holding, tightened the whole thing down again. After that I tweaked the motor bracket some to make it even

very nice unit includes stirring bead.

Exactly what I needed for my ecology class to complete my lab set up for distilling corn into ethanol gas

This product arrived quickly and works exactly as described and as I expected. I am using it for an ethanol extraction via a Soxhlet process for vanillin extraction and I am very happy with the heating mantle. I would highly recommend this unit. -A.G.

Product works as advertised, but was damaged upon arrival (magnetic stirring control had been pushed in an bent mantel casing). Not worth the hassle of returning, although - admittedly - I didn't try to return it.

Came as expected works great so far and it was cheaper than most others. Oh wait my 500ml round bottom didn't fit all the way as in their was air at the base but not enough to hinder anything I am doing. But that is most likely caused by the boiling flask being too big. Still Worked great with the flask as far as heating, I was so exited to use it I forgot to try the magnetic stirring.

I was overall satisfied with the item. It reached temperature of around 300 C during my experiments and able to heat it up at a relatively moderate speed. I would like to see a much faster feedback time on the heating and labels to the corresponding points at the knobs. Doing a more careful temperature sensitive work will be somewhat difficult to control efficiently. Definitely a worthwhile buy for a home chemist like me!

good solid mantle with grounded plug in.Really good deal.