Exeter University use Radleys Heat-On to improve the safety in their lab after testing against alternatives

The users had been using silicone oil baths on their hotplate stirrers, however students would often overheat the oil which was a burn and fire hazard. They also tried Bath Armor™ heading beads but found them very slow to heat and difficult to maintain temperature during reactions.

The objective was to eliminate the use of their oil baths, making the lab safer and to reduce our oil disposal costs, while still maintaining quick heat up times for their experiments (as they have limited hours in a standard teaching lab day).

Radleys supplied a 250 ml Heat-On block which was compared to an oil bath, a crystallisation dish filled with Bath Armor and a 250 ml heating block from Stuart. As a result of the trial, the users found that the Heat-On block was the most efficient at transferring heat to the flask. They subsequently have since replaced all their oil baths with Heat-On blocks. This resulted in significant time savings during practical classes as well as a safer environment to work in for staff and students which also produced no silicone oil waste.