Misc Laboratory Hot Plate Vaporizing

[Vt K]

Greetings!

All of us are aware that a lighter, and glass piece is used to vaporize 'insert chemical.' If done correctly it is effective.

However, the aim of this thread was the curiosity if a hot plate would be a viable means to completely vaporizing said chemical, with 100% efficiency.

Theoretically this will work, I couldn't see how not. All one would have to do is turn the hot plates dial to the correct temperature, allow it warm up and simply roll the glass piece around an inhale. Of course after melting and all that, but you would even be able to do that while its heating up.

Thoughts? Opinions? I am intrigued with this idea because I vaporize a variety of compounds, from time to time, and I can not find ANY of this information ANYWHERE.

As far as harm reduction is concerned, thermal bi-products of overheated substances are sure to contain carcinogens and other related toxic things we certainly wouldn't want to put in our bodies

 

[sekio]

Hot plates are not really accurate temperature controllers at all.

 

[Vt K]

Why would they not be ? Isn't that the whole purpose of the hot plate? I was under he impression that the hot plate was one of the most essential pieces of lab equipment used!

 

[sekio]

Hot plates don't conduct heat very well compared to something like a heating mantle or water bath, especially not to round bottom glassware. They can have a pretty significant hysteresis and often only have a binary heat/don't heat control setup as opposed to a more precise temperature control method. Hotplates are designed for "quick and dirty" heating, not accurate control of temperature.

For reactions that need accurate temperature control, people use rheostats and heating mantles (high temps > 100c) or various baths (silicone, water, acetone/dryice), sometimes with adjustable temperature control units. Baths and mantles ensure intimate contact between heating elements or heat transfer fluid & the reaction vessel.

More practically, you'll need to get the hotplate really hot and have a large surface area glass pipe to have any hope of heating it evenly. At that point you can still char the material if you're not careful. Contact between the hotplate and pipe will still leave "hot spots"... either that or it will take much longer than flame to get anything vaporizing.

A better, cheaper, more concealable and more practical solution is just using a vaporizer pen, you can get attachments suitable for THC concentrates/hash oil that will also work for any other volatiles with similar boiling points.