Air Pop with Transformer
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- Posts: 38
- Joined: 8 years ago
So Ive started roasting in a pop corn machine and as you can expect, its too hot.
I'm targeting a 150°C chamber temperature, but when plugged directly into the wall I get upwards of 185°. Ive managed to get to almost 165° when using a few extension cords, a power bar, and blowing a fan into it.
Are there any transformers on the market that would plug into a 120v outlet to lessen the heat output?
The outsides are almost overdeveloped before first crack! Help!
I'm targeting a 150°C chamber temperature, but when plugged directly into the wall I get upwards of 185°. Ive managed to get to almost 165° when using a few extension cords, a power bar, and blowing a fan into it.
Are there any transformers on the market that would plug into a 120v outlet to lessen the heat output?
The outsides are almost overdeveloped before first crack! Help!
- Almico
- Posts: 3612
- Joined: 10 years ago
Ideally you want to separate the fan from the heating element. This way you can keep the beans spinning while controlling the heat on its own. Control the fan with a dimmer switch and the heat with a 10-15 amp variac. Do not use a dimmer for the heat. The wattage is way too high.
- AssafL
- Posts: 2588
- Joined: 14 years ago
Why would you not use a suitable rated "dimmer"? Both the heaters on my Quest M3 and the heaters in the GS/3 are controlled using SSR - basically a dimmer circuit (PID - it doesn't matter - one could set it on PWM instead of PID) - where the zero crossing point is detected by the SSR (usually the DIAC or fancy TRIAC do the zero crossing detection...).
Variacs are awesome - but big and expensive.
I would assume a 1500W or larger dimmer should work... (but I never tried it though..)
Variacs are awesome - but big and expensive.
I would assume a 1500W or larger dimmer should work... (but I never tried it though..)
Scraping away (slowly) at the tyranny of biases and dogma.
- Almico
- Posts: 3612
- Joined: 10 years ago
Dimmers usually control lights and most are rated well below 1500W. If you can find one to handle that much current, then it would work. I was just sending a warning out there not to hook up an old dimmer switch found laying around the house to a 1500W heating element.
An SSR/contactor set up controlled by a small 1M potentiometer would be great too. Still not cheap, but better that a beefed up light switch.
Something like this but rated for 120V:
An SSR/contactor set up controlled by a small 1M potentiometer would be great too. Still not cheap, but better that a beefed up light switch.
Something like this but rated for 120V: