On 2007-03-05, Peter A > wrote:
> In article et>,
> says...
>> I'm looking for something that can roughly do the job of a commercial
>> or laboratory bain marie -- maintain food at a fairly precise set
>> temperature in the range from room temperature to boiling.
[...]
> I have seen laboratory water baths with precise temperature control but
> none that go above 80C. I think you are asking for a lot for <$100.
80C is probably good enough, actually. It would serve my current
purposes. But I'm betting that I can't find even a used lab water
bath for a reasonable price, and the ones I might find are probably
going to be too small.
As to whether or not $100 is too little for what I'm asking -- your
typical slow cooker with a programmable timer is 95% of the way there.
They already have a microcontroller and LED display. They just need
to add a button to the user interface ($1) and replace the thermostat
(which I assume is a standard mechanical sort) with a thermistor or
two ($5). Add a 200% markup and you're at $18. Programmable slow
cookers start at around $50 right now, so we're talking $70 for the
sort of thing I'm after.
So it is certainly *possible*. It seems that nobody is building it
(low demand, I guess), but since it seems possible, I thought I'd ask
if anybody had seen something like it. I can build one myself for
<$100. It just won't look very pretty sitting on the countertop.
--
Randall