Australia's Science Forum

We had an old IEC Heat conduction ring that teacher used to use as a demo .But we decided to get a class set . I guess it was my fault , should have known better and went for the cheap option . After all , it's just 4 bits of metal screwed to a ring ....how different could it be

Well , they got used for the first time , teacher complained that all the screws were loose. I was surprised as they were not when I handed them out .
on closer inspection , the insulation ring burnt up under the metal ....basically charcoal ....so then all the metal become loose . well that took me over 20 minutes to realign and tighten all the screws . But even more disturbing was that the aluminium strip is so thin and flimsy that some had actually melted .You can see in this one , its basically welded itself to the Iron one .Not happy Jan ....but only got myself to blame . Next time they will be sent out with spirit burners ,Bunsen's kill them So I will now save up and slowly replace them with IEC ones.....which I should have done in the first place .I'm a slow learner sometimes .
Is it really MTA's fault ? I don't know . They inherited all this crap off Serrata .

Bigmack - did you not read this thread before you ordered!

Merilyn1 wrote: ↑09 Sep 2020, 09:34 Bigmack - did you not read this thread before you ordered!

Yeah I know . Unfortunately it was at the end of last year before this topic began . Due to Covid and stuff , this is the first time we got to use them .

Sadly I just read on their website the note saying not to use on a Bunsen . Shame they don't slip a bit of paper in with them saying that .

We have found Bill from MTA so good to work with.
I simply send him a list of my requirements, he sends me back a quote for the items.
I have had a few items that were not good quality, a phone call copy of invoice and replaced instantly.
MTA are probably just like everywhere else at the moment and can not get the same quality equipment due to COVID and they are just getting whatever is available. It is a hard time for everyone at the moment.

I have been ordering in from MTA fairly often. Due to budget constraints I am very price conscious.
However, Bill has been a huge help, and everything I have purchased has been exactly what I wanted and the quality has been quite reasonable.
Especially considering the prices I have paid for the items...