Ideas for heating an alkaline zinc bath

adv.

Q. The cold nights are taking our zinc bath below 70 °F. The bath chemical rep says we need to be at 70 °F min. but preferably over 80 °F. Our bath is cooled for the summer heat but no way to easily switch that to heat.

Would an immersible bucket heater(s) work in the bath or would they slowly dissolve?

MikeA
- Huntingdon Pennsylvania
October 21, 2024

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A. Hi Mike,

Most bucket heaters seem to be aluminum and they'd rapidly dissolve.

If your cooling system involves a reservoir tank, you could put the heaters in there, where they'd be exposed only to water and possibly antifreeze. But be very careful of any sort of electric heater in a plastic tank; they are by far the biggest cause of plating shop fires, so I would suggest using only heaters made for plating tanks, which will include reliable liquid-level and over-temperature cutouts.

Luck & Regards,

ted_yosem
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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