Determining the exact wattage you need for your heater can be frustrating. You may start with an assumption, “I need 500 watts,” and you have some sample heaters manufactured to test it out. The samples arrive … and none hit the mark.

A simple tool—a variable voltage transformer, such as a Variac or Powerstat—can take the guesswork out and reduce the time it takes to determine the right heater for your application. These nifty little devices have been around for close to 100 years but are often overlooked when it comes to using them as a testing tool.

Streamline the Design and Development Phase

Often, engineers order heater samples from us to test a range of wattages when trying to pinpoint the right output. These samples can take anywhere from two to four weeks, valuable time that could be recouped by using a variable voltage transformer instead. In addition to the lead time, once you receive the samples, you have to plug each heater into different voltages to get different wattages, which is also time consuming