JOANLABElectric Laboratory Heating Mantle with Magnetic Stirrer, Digital Temperature Control(2000ml/450W)

Seems to function well enough. I like the digital temp adjustment. It would be nice to have an idea of the rpm of the spin bar, but not necessary. Really that's the big downside so far. Also not being able to use the heat at all without the probe could render it useless easily enough. Maybe have an option to use without temp probe. It heats up fairly quickly though, compared to some others I've used. To adjust the temp you have to scroll up and down by single digits, which is slightly tedious. It's absolutely great for the price though. Wish the thermo probe was more readily available for replacements. Almost all the mantle/probe and 2 neck flasks are flawed the same way. The probe ports are angled in such a way that causes it to go straight in to contact the spin bar when fully submerged. Making it very difficult to run batches to completion. I usually just bend mine a skoach to get it past the spin bar. Which is great until you need to use a glass thermowell (you can't just bend them without proper experience). Joanlab actually sent me a replacement for free! Very cool of them. I wish they made the 500ml mantle just the same.

I used this to drive a steam distillation on three occasions, running for 8-10 hours each occasion and the power intake burned out in the middle of my third run, the fuse is fine, but the actual power cord receptacle is toasted. Everything else seems fine, but getting a replacement power insert has been difficult as they all need to be shipped from China.But it's a very inexpensive mantle... It might be worth it if you don't need to run it as long?

After temp probe failed after about a week of use, support offered to send me a replacement probe if I PayPal’ed a strange email address 40 USD.After contacting support again to confirm if this was the case I got a simultaneous yes and no response from two different people at JoanLab.Three times they said the replacement would ship DHL with no charge, months ago. Still nothing.As this item is useless without the probe functional, one star. Less if I could.

You can’t use the mantel unless the probe is connected and after 10 times of use the on/off switch stoped working and I had to replace that

It works very well. I setup and tried to use it when delivered but it turned out to be damaged and didn’t work properly. I reported it and received a replacement within 2 days. It was very fast for a replacement. The replacement works great. Good service!