FOUR E'S SCIENTIFIC 5 inch Magnetic Stirrer Hot Plate with Temp Probe Holder Ceramic Coated Lab Stirrers 280°C/ 536°F 100-1500RPM Max 5L Stirring Capacity 110V 600W

I've had one of these since March 2020. It has several hundred hours of use on it, and it has yet to fail me.Temperature control: It has always gotten to the target temperature and held very well. It is within +-0.2°C, verified by boiling pure components. ***Note*** I saw people reviewing saying the temperature control is way off "even with the probe installed." -.- There is no temperature probe other than the plug-in one that goes into the solution being heated. It's common sense.Mixing: Not the strongest magnet, but it works if you keep it reasonably slow for the solution you are mixing. The mixing bars will tend to jump out of position if you are using higher viscosity liquids, but generally generating a vortex is not an issue.Overall, great product, and I'm buying two more for my lab at work.

For the price, the stirring is a bit weak and the heat output is a bit disappointing, but its temperature control is nothing to complain about. If you need a lot of heat or very strong stirring look elsewhere but if you just need to hold something a certain temperature and swirl it a bit this should be perfect. Apparently the stirring goes up to 1500 rpm but I wouldn't know anything about that because all my stir bars lose their minds above 700.Update: About a week after posting this review I was personally contacted by the seller, saying they've asked their engineers to look into improving things and to offer me a full refund or replacement. I've gone with the refund and must say, very impressive customer service. This review was originally 3/5 stars but now that I know the company is solid I will definitely be getting the 7" hot plate/stirrer model as I just wasn't quite able to push this one far enough to meet my needs. To sum up, the heat and stirring are a tab underpowered, but the temperature regulation functions great and I've discovered the customer service is top tier.

UPDATE: After posting the original review, the company Project Manager contacted me with a very nice email offering to make this right to my satisfaction. We explored 3 options and they chose to send a new replacement. I very much appreciate this and am changing the review to 4-stars, only to reflect the entire situation. Come to find out, this was a know issue of machines of the era I purchased. I wish we could have gotten to that point sooner, but it all worked out in the end. They did communicate all the way through and finally it reached the right person. My advice to anyone who has a unit die is to ask up-front to escalate your case to a Project Manager and skip the back-and-forth with the front-line reps. I always liked this unit and am glad to have another one on my bench. Thank you to the person who made this happen. I appreciate it very much.Original Situation -This was a great unit until it wasn't. Here was my use: 3-4 times per year. One day per use. Total time heating/stirring per day of use, no more than 6 hours. If you do that math (16 days x 6 hrs) that's about 100 hours of use. I was using it for only the 3rd time in 2024 and about 5 minutes after turning it on, it died. It literally went out while warming up, as if the power went out. Just died and would not come back on after several days of trying. Obviously a failure, probably in the power circuit. Probably a fairly easy fix.I reached out to Four Es and found that I was corresponding with China directly. It would take 3-6 days to receive replies (in the middle of the night so you can't dialogue with them same-day). They said the warranty period was 2 years and the unit could not be repaired, so they offered me a $50 coupon after sending proof of purchasing a new one. So be aware, you're getting a unit that could fail and, after two years, you could end up throwing it away like I did. To me, their offer is like a coupon from a restaurant that just took an hour to deliver cold, burnt food. Yeah, I'm comin' back for some more of this! NOT!!I bought the SH-3ABE digital magnetic stirrer at $139.99, which I see is higher now, but it works OK. It's cheaper than the Four Es even with their concession, so if I end up throwing it away, at least it's below $150.One star for several reasons. It sounded (to me) like they're a domestic company. They aren't. Apparently there is no office in the US for repairs. If this is a 100-hour unit, they should knock the price down to the $150 range because with a lot of this stuff, you're basically risking buying a disposable item. One star for product longevity (quality), perceptions, delayed communication, and not enough concession to make up for the inability to repair.

I have no complaints about this device, i've used it many times now for a variety of projects and it has performed beautifully..one thing that is not listed in the listing and I was concerned about was if it came with the screw in bar and clamp for either holding the external temp probe or glassware, it does and that made me very happy.it also seems to have a type-B usb port on the back next to the external temp probe port that has no documentation concerning it, I don't know if this is for getting readings or for firmware updates or what, but I am interested in finding out.the Mag Stirrer isn't super strong, but I didn't expect it to be for this price point and does the job well enough for the jobs I need it for.. just do not expect it to work with a much higher viscosity than perhaps diluted oil maybe (I haven't fully tested it's capabilities on this front..)I am happy with my purchase.

Purchased two based on good reviews. These are horrible. I had to remove part way through the project and change to my old origional hotplate as they would not bring solution to boil. Used once and tossed in the trash where they belong.. Don't buy.

Works well.

The media could not be loaded. This one rocks. Get it.Never thought I'd like a hot plate so much, but here we are.Great quality, holds temperature accurately, stirs well at low speed and high speed, very reliable.We've had this running almost daily at 50C in the lab, off and on for 300 hours and it works perfectly.I have purchased multiple other "cheap" hot plate stirrers, and they've all died.