Study: Quartz insert performance Opaque VS Clear
Recently my old friend, Ewok, sent me some of his new @quartz_insert's to test out with our new Gavel. In preparation for the testing, I had two duplicate gavel nails made. One with our new opaque bottom, and the other with industry standard clear on bottom.
Study:
The clear quartz insert was placed inside both a 25mm gavel with an opaque quartz bottom, and a 25mm gavel with a clear fused quartz bottom. Both gavels were the subsequently hit with a full torch at the highest setting, at an equal flame distance and angle, for 65 seconds. The temperature of the quartz insert was monitored before, during, and after the torching via a high-temperature thermocouple data logger.
Items of note:
- At the time of the TORCH STOP the insert in the opaque gavel was 568F. This was 85F hotter than the clear gavel which was 483F at TORCH STOP.
- The insert in the opaque gavel reached a temperature peak of 756F. This was 32F hotter than the inserts temperature peak in the clear gavel which was 724F.
- The insert in the opaque gavel took 2:13 to reach the WINDOW* from TORCH STOP. The insert in the clear gavel took 2:29 to reach the WINDOW* from TORCH STOP.
- The inserts WINDOW* (550F-400F) was open for 1:39 on the opaque gavel. The inserts WINDOW* was open for 1:42 on the clear gavel.
- The insert in the opaque gavel took 10:22 to reach 150F from INSERT PEAK. The insert in the clear gavel took 10:29 to reach 150F from INSERT PEAK.
Initial conclusion:
In practice the opaque performed in line with its higher thermal conductivity. The insert was not only able to get hotter faster inside the opaque [568F vs 483F at TORCH STOP], it was also able to reach the WINDOW at 10% faster [2:13 vs 2:29]. Potential downside to the opaque is the WINDOW lasts 3 seconds shorter in the opaque, but these 2-3 seconds only account for 2% of the 102 second WINDOW* opening.
*WINDOW: The window temperature is the range in temperatures for which the most pleasant vaporization experiences occur. It is an arbitrary number determined by the preferences of the individual but for this test it was decided that 550F - 400F would be our established WINDOW range.
Below is the chart produced by the thermocouple data logger.
