Using low temperature storage for liquid solvents and other chemicals minimizes the amount of wastage that you get from evaporation, and ensures a safe workplace with less risk of accidental fires; however, most chemicals are designed and produced to work better at temperatures above room temperature. With this in mind, it is important for any business to produce a strategy that allows for materials to be readied for use as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to minimize the amount of important productive time that is wasted while people wait for chemicals in drums to be ready to use. Using drum heaters is widely recognized as the most efficient way of getting things ready to use, and there are a number of different options available that serve different purposes, and ensure that your chemical needs are completely supplied by materials that are at the right temperature for use quickly.

Certain materials that are liquid at higher temperatures such as tar are practically solid at lower temperatures, and are difficult to work with until they have been heated. In order to get them hot enough to work with, a high power drum heater needs to be used. There are a range of different drum heater designs available, but all work in roughly the same way. A set of electric drum heating elements are positioned in a reflective container around the outside of the barrel, and then set to reach a particular heat level. Once the chemical is at the preferred heat, the thermostat is able to keep the drum heated to the proper temperature over a long period of time, without causing problems.

Because drums come in a number of standard sizes, drum heaters are available in a range of sizes too. Depending on your particular needs you can choose from versions that are designed to heat up all three of the main sizes – 16, 30, and 55 gallon drums. The different heaters use different power supply levels in order to generate the heat they produce. Smaller 16 gallon drum heating systems are able to operate adequately on a 115 V supply with a small power drain of around 1.5KW. Large 55 gallon drum heaters can work with 230V supplies, but are best suited to a power supply that gives 460V and 4.4KW to allow them to generate sufficient heat to raise the temperature of a drum up to 550 Fahrenheit.

Using a drum heater is very straightforward. The device splits in half along a hinged end to create a gap for the drum to be placed in. The heater is closed around the drum, and locked into place for safety. Then, once connected to the mains electricity power supply, the heating elements will direct heat straight onto the outside of the barrel. A simple one touch dial can be used to select the desired temperature, and the heat seal that is built into the outside of the drum heater will prevent the heat from leaking around the barrel, and give you a much more efficient unit, which will help to reduce the amount of energy wasted through heating the rest of the environment, and keep costs as low as possible.

Many companies carry quality, durable electric drum heaters and electric pail heaters that are used in many countries throughout the world. Flexible pail or 55 gallon drum heaters are easy to use flexible drum heaters that provide a simple, efficient and consistent way to heat the contents of your 55 gallon drums and pails.

These companies also carry five gallon pail heaters that are designed to heat standard metal five gallon pails. The Chrome "A" open coil heating element located around the pail - not under it - virtually eliminates many of the problems associated with leaky pails. A built-in thermostat maintains the ambient temperature around the enclosed pail at the selected temperature.