NORPRO 559 Immersion Heater for Warming Liquids
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List Price: Our Price: $4.50 You Save: $3.99 (47%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of NORPRO 559 Immersion Heater for Warming Liquids
Customer Review: Don't buy it!
Summary: 1 Stars
I used it twice. The third time it did not work. I was very careful not to wet anything other than the element itself. Should have listened to the reviews.Customer Review: Effectively Heats A Cup of Water for Coffee or Tea
Summary: 5 Stars
Works great if you ALWAYS follow these steps:
1. Fill your cup with water
2. Insert the heater into the water, THEN plug it in.
3. It takes a couple of minutes to get the water boiling.
4. Unplug the heater first, THEN remove it from the water.
Customer Review: Emphasis on the "warming"
Summary: 1 Stars
This product is great for slowly warming liquids. out of the box, following all instructions, this device heated a mug of water to around 130 Fahrenheit after about 25 minutes. I suppose this is useful if you want to keep a warm drink warm, but I was looking for something that could boil water. I should have known better, as the packaging says "for warming liquids" and not "for making tea" or "boiling water". alas, i'll return it and go back to the tried and tested way to boil water: fire.Customer Review: Excellent Value
Summary: 5 Stars
For the price, this seems to be an excellent product.
I bought two as a test and they both work fine. Not fancy of course--they just heat a cup of water. Takes maybe 3 or 4 minutes depending on your preferred temperature. Personally, I'm glad they don't work faster. At this rate, both the water *and* the cup are nicely heated (via conduction)--hence, the heat lasts far longer than, say, a microwave that gives you fast, hot liquid but which might still be in a rather cold cup.
However, you *must* remember to immerse this thing before plugging it in. I think it likely has a 'one-time' fuse that will burn out within seconds if the prong is not immersed while electrical current is applied. So, to protect against this mistake I use a three step process that includes a dedicated power strip. I mention this process because several times during the first week of use I found myself plugging in the immersion heater with the element not yet in the water, or removing the immersion heater without first unplugging it. In each such case I would have ruined the immersion heater--except that I was saved by the power strip which I had already turned off. Anyway, the point of this is that at least some of the various reports of product defects might actually be a momentary mistake of plugging the cord in too early, or removing the heating element too early. Really, it can happen so fast you might not even remember it--all you know is that product doesn't work.
Lastly, I was very pleased to find two unexpected benefits. First, although I have a microwave 10 feet from my desk, I now use the immersion heater for all my cups of water. With the microwave settings it's nearly impossible (for me anyway) to get it perfect; the water usually ends up either pre-boiling or else boiling out of the cup. With the immersion heater sitting in a cup right next to me, I can easily shut it down at just the right moment. And second, I make a lot of phone calls using the speaker phone. The microwave is far too noisy for use during such calls, but I can quietly make myself a cup of tea without disturbing the conference call at all. Hence, I'm not using the microwave anywhere near as much as I used to. Very nice.
Bottom line, definitely worth a try.
Customer Review: Excellent for boiling water quickly, but don't use for milk
Summary: 4 Stars
It's compact and portable and heats up water quickly. A word of caution to just use it for boiling water and don't use it to heat up milk. The milk ends up burning on the heating rod and it's impossible to clean it. Since it's inexpensive, I purchased another one but only using it to boil/heat up water.