Ok, i'm getting frusterated. I was using a barrel heater. It worked, but only got my oil up to about 140 or so. I decided to go the water heater in the black pipe route.

I got a T and basically put it on its side , put the 2000W element in the top of the T, input on the bottom, and the output coming out the side.

HEATER
ELEMENT
| |
| |__
| __| OUTPUT TO OC-20
| |
| |
OIL INPUT
FROM PUMP

I also installed a water heater thermostat. I strapped it to the T (it wasn't sitting flush against anything, was this my problem???) and turned on my pump, let it prime and flow for a minute, then turned on the water heater element. It heated up. According to my laser temp guage, it went to about 220F near the wire terminals near the end of the element.

near the output of the T, it started climbing from 77 to 90 fairly quickly. Then, all of a sudden, no more high temps. All was dead. I think I cooked the water heater element, but I don't know why??? You don't think I killed the thermostat, did I?

Please tell me what dum-dum move I did!

Thanks!

Wade

Hello Wade,
Well possibly not is all lost (except for that heater element anyway).
Im going to assume from your post that you have it hooked up the heating element to 220V. From my understanding of your post, that seems to be the only error in my opinion you made. If you have some electrical knowledge, hook a new element up to 120V. Now it will heat more slowly, but your element life should last you quite awhile.
The reason being is that oil does not have the heat transfer properties that water does, in other words, the element cannot get rid of the heat it produces in oil like it can in water, and the end result is an element that is basically burnt up.
Good luck and happy possessing

Randy

if the H2o element is up, like in your diagram, there could be an air pocket, resulting in frying the heater.

air is bad.
it will cause the element to burn out, and if there is (enough) air, oil, and heat, there will be fire.

The water heater element I was using was a 110V element. Do you mean that I should be using a 220V element, but only running it on 110?

Also, would an arrangement like this work better?

OIL INPUT
FROM PUMP
| |
| |__
| __| OUTPUT TO OC-20
| |
| |
HEATER
ELEMENT

Wade

Good Morning Wade,
Yes, running a 220v heater element on 110v is exactly what I mean.
I use a 5500W/220v low density element in my appleseed prossessor at 110v. (a low density element is alot longer than a high density element of the same wattage, so per inch of heating element it dosent get as hot as a high density element, and the end result is less chance of burn out and/or longer element life).
Also as Mobetta described, if air gets trapped around the element, it will burn out.

One more vote that an air pocket killed the element. The same thing happened to me in my first experiment of the sort. Since then I've made sure the lines are clear of air before turning on the element, and all is well. For the sake of safety, I still never run it unmonitored!!

Cheers, John

Quite possibly. But most 22vac water heater elements powered on 110vac can survive that.

quote:

Originally posted by dukegrad98:
One more vote that an air pocket killed the element.
Cheers, John