In the soft copy manual of the Subitism burner, there are several upgrades that was suggested, one of which was a variable power supply.
The reason why each Subitism burner was not sold with a variable power supply is because of the expensive shipping costs, and the bulkiness of such a power supply (a few kilograms!), which may negate the cost efficiency of the burner.
However, if you’ve been using the Subitism burner long enough, and are itching for a proper upgrade, together with having adequate space for it, I’ll strongly recommend obtaining a variable power supply from Ebay.
The Subitism burner, when used properly is able to coax the finer notes out of various agarwood chips and incenses. With a variable power supply, this is taken to an even higher level as you can drop the temperature to slow down the release of the finer notes and turning it up on the heating process to enjoy a more spaced out olfactory experience.
All you need to do is to search for “0-15V 2A” on Ebay, and you will find many options available, the cheapest costing around $50 USD inclusive of shipping. If you worry that it may not arrive, you can select others that are pricier, but located in the USA, typically about $60-70 dollars inclusive of shipping will get you something that will work really well.
Together with this, you will also need to buy a cable that will connect this variable power supply to the Subitism burner, using the search terms “banana to 2.1mm” you will be able to find a $3 USD cable that will work perfectly.
With this power supply, you will be able to heat almost anything on the Subitism burner with only one single 0.1mm overlaying mica sheet. As a guideline:
Soft resins, essential oils : 6-8 volts
Pressed incense pellets : 9 volts
Nerikoh kneaded incense : 9.5 volts
Kyara : Starting at 9 volts and slowly increasing to 10.5 or 11 volts and beyond
Agarwood : Starting at around 10 volts and increasing to 12 if needed
Toasting a Marshmallow : 13-15 volts will be nice, please hover the marshmallow over the micasheet carefully.
The temperature change on the burner is INSTANT when you vary the voltage. It is a proper heating element, not a resistor or other dissipating device.
At 15 volts, it is possible to get the wood chip combusting…..
However, I would strongly recommend the operation of the burner only up to to the maximum of 13 volts or so. If you are interested in operating the burner to higher voltages, i.e. 14, 15 volts and beyond, please email me/contact me first with a picture of your subitism burner so that I can advice you whether the amount of heat given off will be too high for the wire insulations etc. Safety first!
