iceman80403
Well-Known Member
It appears it is possible to boil starters in an Erlenmeyer flask on "old fashioned" electric stoves.
I've read all I could find online and everything says to only boil Erlenmeyer flasks on gas stoves. There have been some unsuccessful attempts on this forum with sand or water and another pot to dissipate the heat on an electric stove resulting in no boiling or a broken flask. I attempted what chillHayze said he uses with success on an electric range.
I used a 6" burner plate and a 2000mL flask on medium heat to bring over 2000mL of water to boil on my stove and boiled it for about 1/2 an hour then increased the heat to high and boiled for another 1/2 hour with no exploding glass and boiling water bombs which I was very nervous of!
I then placed the flask in a sink of cold tap water to cool it down without cracking. I didn't use ice cubes in this trial because I wanted to minimize the temperature differential which is also why I brought it to a boil on medium power.
I then brought the flask with fresh tap water to boil using the burner on full power without it exploding and also cooled it successfully with ice water.
The following is a video of the flask boiling:
The following is a video of the flask being immersed in ice water. Obviously, I didn't have much ice on hand.
I hope this helps everyone who is worried about boiling starters in an Erlenmeyer flask on an electric stove. It should be stated that I have never made a starter and this is the beginning of my experimentation into making them. I'm currently in the process of making a stir plate and I'm considering making a very detailed "how to" to make one.
I've read all I could find online and everything says to only boil Erlenmeyer flasks on gas stoves. There have been some unsuccessful attempts on this forum with sand or water and another pot to dissipate the heat on an electric stove resulting in no boiling or a broken flask. I attempted what chillHayze said he uses with success on an electric range.
I used a 6" burner plate and a 2000mL flask on medium heat to bring over 2000mL of water to boil on my stove and boiled it for about 1/2 an hour then increased the heat to high and boiled for another 1/2 hour with no exploding glass and boiling water bombs which I was very nervous of!
I then placed the flask in a sink of cold tap water to cool it down without cracking. I didn't use ice cubes in this trial because I wanted to minimize the temperature differential which is also why I brought it to a boil on medium power.
I then brought the flask with fresh tap water to boil using the burner on full power without it exploding and also cooled it successfully with ice water.
The following is a video of the flask boiling:
The following is a video of the flask being immersed in ice water. Obviously, I didn't have much ice on hand.
I hope this helps everyone who is worried about boiling starters in an Erlenmeyer flask on an electric stove. It should be stated that I have never made a starter and this is the beginning of my experimentation into making them. I'm currently in the process of making a stir plate and I'm considering making a very detailed "how to" to make one.
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