Waterbed heater for veg?

[RLDSL]

I was about to throw away an old waterbed heater and got a crazy idea, I thought about wrapping it around my veg drum to heat it up for filtering.

Any thoughts on this?
Would the element overheat without the full surface contact that it would get from a waterbed mattress?

Thanks-------------Robert

 

[towcat]

if you alread have it...use it. I have a couple of oil pan stick-on warmers to keep the front tank happy. between the stick-on's and the heater core, the "cocktail" should remain in digestable liquid form.

 

[nateb]

Resurrection

Just found this doing a search after I had the same idea. Was wondering if this worked well. I would like to use a waterbed heater to heat a Plastic drum for filtering wmo. Found one on C-list for $5. Figured if it works, it would be a lot cheaper than one of those band heaters. Any thoughts or feedback?

 

[RLDSL]

I never did get around to trying it. I figured I'd best stick with cold filtering even though it takes longer because it catches all the nasty fats at the pre filtering stage instead of dumping it in my fuel tank, although if I could get the barrel temp up to about 60- 70 deg in mid winter, that would still be basicaly cold filtering, it would just get it warm enough to barely flow

I should think that one would be OK on a plastic barrel since they are calibrated for plastic waterbed mattresses that are a whole lot thinner . THen again, it's a different type of plastic so I was going to try it with a metal one.

 

[Death85e]

A waterbed heater will not produce enough heat to melt plastic unless it is malfunctioning.
Just food for thought they make tank heaters for the holding tanks on various RV's these are design to keep them from freezing in extemely cold temps.

 

[nateb]

Well Ill let you guys know how it goes. Thanks for the replies.

 

[ckelly94]

How did the waterbed heater work ? I have been looking for a cheaper route to heat my used motor oil for running through the centrifuge more efficiently.

 

[nateb]

I got the heater (craigslist $5) but I have yet to heat the oil with it. I just got my set up done and its been warm enough that I haven't had to use it. It would probably help thin it and I suspect I will be able to get the oil to around 100 degrees. I plan to just put it under the 55 gallon drum. I will put some pics of my setup on here soon.