Infrared hot plate

[kyarazen]

I found something.

http://world.tmall.com/item/40375752015 ... 8855254645

any of you experience with the seller?

Tmall sellers are reliable. all you need to find now is a buying service for taobao for europe!

[Puerlife]

I had my first session today with both this glazed ceramic kettle from Taiwan and this infrared heater, origin unknown, but all the writing is in Chinese. I bought both in KL. This combo really softens the water and I'm pleased with how it performed and how it looks on the table. It has six temp levels but I only use the lowest two. If it's half empty the water will boil even on the lowest level but if I move the kettle off center it stops boiling right away so it's easy to control the temp. The heater was 300 ringgits and the kettle 100, but I think the latter was a wholesale price thanks to my friend.

[Tead Off]

Nice!

[Puerlife]

It really is nice! Today was day 3 with my new rig and I'm loving it. The combo makes the water lively and active. I am starting to put extra water through it to use as drinking water--it's better than some of the tea I have haha. My recent session in Malaysia involving charcoal heated water that was then transferred to a aged zisha clay kettle on an alcohol flame was still superior, but this comes in a strong second.
The fan inside the unit makes a noise that fades into the background. The fan stays on for a while after shutting off the heater, which makes me wonder how long the electronics and the fan will last with all that heat. Time will tell. For now, though, I'm a very happy camper.

[Tead Off]

It really is nice! Today was day 3 with my new rig and I'm loving it. The combo makes the water lively and active. I am starting to put extra water through it to use as drinking water--it's better than some of the tea I have haha. My recent session in Malaysia involving charcoal heated water that was then transferred to a aged zisha clay kettle on an alcohol flame was still superior, but this comes in a strong second.
The fan inside the unit makes a noise that fades into the background. The fan stays on for a while after shutting off the heater, which makes me wonder how long the electronics and the fan will last with all that heat. Time will tell. For now, though, I'm a very happy camper.

About 20 years ago, I threw my lower back out. I literally couldn't get out of bed. I called a doctor friend of mine and told him what had happened. He lent me a far infrared lamp from China. It used some kind of ceramic from a place in China as a heating element that had a special effect on pain and arthritic problems. Some element in the ceramic supposedly 'cured' all kinds of things. After using it on my back for 45 minutes, I was able to get out of bed and move around, about 80% pain free. Within a few days, I was normal. Of course, this has nothing to do with tea or water.

[kyarazen]

About 20 years ago, I threw my lower back out. I literally couldn't get out of bed. I called a doctor friend of mine and told him what had happened. He lent me a far infrared lamp from China. It used some kind of ceramic from a place in China as a heating element that had a special effect on pain and arthritic problems. Some element in the ceramic supposedly 'cured' all kinds of things. After using it on my back for 45 minutes, I was able to get out of bed and move around, about 80% pain free. Within a few days, I was normal. Of course, this has nothing to do with tea or water.

infrared is still commonly used in TCM because it can penetrate much deeper tissues than visible or UV. so in heating kettles, the heat penetration is deeper, perhaps even deeper than what coal can do. induction heating or hotplate is just as good as a heat pad, they dont achieve what IR does

[Puerlife]

That's a heckuva story, Teadoff. I know someone who could use that. So maybe far infrared saunas are more than just a fad.

[Tead Off]

That's a heckuva story, Teadoff. I know someone who could use that. So maybe far infrared saunas are more than just a fad.

Never heard of that. Sounds interesting. Any links?

[Puerlife]

Nah, I haven't thought about it much for probably a year now. The buzzword is detox. Far infrared-I forget exactly why it's called that-penetrates farther into your body and makes one sweat from deeper inside, something like that. But all I have to do is go whack some vegetation in my garden and I'm sweating so much it's like I went swimming so I won't be buying an expensive sweat box lol.

[Puerlife]

I'm continuing to enjoy my infrared hotplate and have been giving my teas the Ricky Heng treatment--when a tea gives signs of being near the end I boil the tea in a clay teapot on the infrared hotplate. I get about five more infusions that way, and different flavors and qi. This works with new sheng and older stuff (I've only tried it with puer). It works as long as the tea is decent quality. I tried it with one tea that's not very good and the boiled version was also not good so I stopped, but with every other one, about ten so far, it has worked out very well. Ricky says he used to break a lot of teapots trying to do this over an alcohol flame but has yet to break a single pot using infrared. This gives a four-gram session the qi power of at least an eight-gram session so it's a great way to stretch good bings. Surprisingly, the tea doesn't get bitter or nasty--it just keeps giving and giving.

[Tead Off]

Can you clarify what you described above? What kind of clay pot do you boil it in? How long?

[Puerlife]

I've used a couple of pots in this way, but usually the pot I bought from Khun Zhang which you have also sold. I don't time these boiled infusions--it takes a minute or two to come to a full boil and then I let it boil for a while longer,a minute or two, sometimes longer. Boiled infusions seem less affected by different infusion lengths than conventional ones. There is a certain boiled tea taste common to most teas. It is pleasant and deep, hard for me to put into words. I have not tried boiling shu yet.

[puyuan]

Price nothwistanding, this one looks nice: http://www.teahouse.com.hk/shop/product/11?category=18


Anyone in HK knows of a good alternative to it? (Btw, since I'm at it, I'd love to source old Chaozhou kettles and implements as well - could never find the truly old ones)

[Puerlife]

I've been burning my pots! I could actually smell something burning but only figured out what it was yesterday. As you can see, the bottoms are charred. I asked Ricky about it and he replied that, while he hasn't broken any pots this way, he recommends only using inexpensive purple clay pots for boiling. So from now on I'll transfer the leaves to my 40 ringgit pot for the boiling stage. But there's no way I'm going to stop boiling--the ancients and I are on to a good thing.

[miig]

ok thats interesting.. I would have assumed that clay which was burned at 1000°C would withstand a cute little infared plate
I've been using the EoT Zini Kettle to boil water since several months, and it looks like new. Don't know if the fact that I use an iron hotplate makes any difference.