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Surplus Immersion Heaters Selling Like Hotcakes
The U.S. military uses immersion heaters to wash kitchen gear in the field. Since the heaters became available as military surplus for just $50, resourceful citizens are figuring out all kinds of uses for them.
  "Customers use them to heat water in stock tanks that radiate heat in greenhouses all night. They also use them in livestock waterers and to heat water for butchering hogs and chickens. Some use them to heat water at remote cabins for showers and doing dishes," says Tim Glance, who sells the heaters through his business, The Old Grouch's Military Surplus.
  The 55-lb. heaters are about 3 ft. tall and come with four 2-ft. sections of 4-in. stovepipe. Fill the 2.2-gal. tank with any type of fuel from gas to diesel to biodiesel and hook it on to the unit. Set the valve to drip as little or as much as you want and drop a match to light it. Fuel drips on the cast iron plate in the donut at the bottom, and the fuel feeds the flame, consuming less than a gallon of fuel an hour.
  The units are simple with no moving parts and made of heavy-duty steel. They come brand new in original crates, but have some surface rust because the crates were stored outside.
  They sell for $47.95 plus shipping, which ranges from $20 to $40 for each 66-lb. crate. The heaters can also be purchased at his N.C. retail store.
  It's a popular item, he says, and people keep coming up with new ideas how to use it. Some slip them into their "Hillbilly hot tubs", and one customer is experimenting with large scale canning.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, The Old Grouch's Military Surplus, 82 Main St., Clyde, N.C. 28721 (ph 828 627-0361; http://store.oldgrouch.biz/usmiimhe.html).


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2011 - Volume #35, Issue #2