Reviews & Ratings for RCBS Pro-Melt Furnace 120 V-ac - 81100 — 9 reviews — Page 1

I am a very active bullet caster and have made a huge number of pistol bullets with my ancient Lyman 10 lb pot which still works just fine. With 6 cavity molds, the old pot struggles to keep up, hence my interest in this model. The Lyman furnace (Mag 25) had poor reviews, so I decided to go with this unit. So far it has worked well. The only problem noted is that after perhaps 45 minutes of operation, it tripped the GFCI breaker it was plugged into. I had to move to a non-GFCI circuit. I have not diagnosed this problem yet, but it is concerning. It is a lot lighter than the old cast iron pot but seems to be well made. Assembly instructions are a bit ambiguous, but after a false start, it went together OK. I would like to see an electronic/digital controller but the mechanical thermostat is OK. The unit got lost in shipping for over a week and Optics Planet was very slow to help find it taking over three days to simply return my call. The agent was polite but anxious to dismiss the call once I said the unit had arrived. I called FedEx and put a trace on it and it showed up 2 days later, although the package was pretty soaked. The furnace was fine however. So bottom line is furnace is good, Optics Planet is OK, but could use better customer support and maybe a better shipping company e.g. UPS.

Removed from box, set-up per the instructions and proceeded to cast 250 bullets.
No problems - no drips - worked as designed.
This unit replaced a competitive furnace that dripped all the time.
Great product

So far, I have found several points of interest in the RCBS Pro-Melt Furnace that were lacking in other products I have used.

First, No constant dripping. Making start-up a lot less nerve racking.

Secondly, a much higher degree of temp control over the session. The temp just doesn't swing as wildly as the level drops as other brands I have tried.

Thirdly, the actuation lever is "SO much easier to use. Very little movement required, with no drips when I stop a pour. And the volume stays at a more constant rate in relation to the level in the pot. Sure it will eventually change slightly but only after using a large portion of the lead in the pot!

But for me, the biggest advantage is being able to use most of the lead before having to refill the pot. Most offerings suggest that you never take a their pot below 1/2 full before replenishing the pot. The RCBS only requires one to one and one half Inches of depth for safe use without burning up the heating element. This is a huge advantage when casting a lot of bullets!

Happy? Yep, I should say so!

KnifeMaker

But the biggest advantage

Best furnace I found. Has necessary features for best use. Capacity is high. Bottom poor feature is mandatory. I wish the unit had a more substantial build and a larger foot print. Iiots. A little higher priced than closest competitor, but I'm an RCBS fan.

OpticsPlanet had the lowest cost for this furnace anyplace on the web. Plus shipping/handling included. Although the price has increased substantially in the 2 weeks since my purchase. Another plus was they had it in stock. A lot of other e-tailers did not. Ship time was 3 days!

I got my $$$ worth from a 10# Lee bottom pour furnace I bought more than 20 years ago. The heating element went bad and although I could have repaired it I decided to upgrade. I couldn't wait for the yet to be released Lyman digital 25# furnace. Patience was never my virtue as I like to cast when it's cold out and shoot when it's warm. I did my due diligence by reading every online review of this RCBS that I could...I never found a bad one.

Now I know why. I smelt wheelweights in my furnace and flux with Marvelux which tends to rust the pot and pour spout rod. This Pro Melt has a stainless steel pot. I've melted 50# of wheelweights so far and not one single drip. I nicknamed my old furnace, the drip-0-matic. Believe me I tried everything to make it stop.

With this RCBS furnace I can run two 2-hole aluminum molds at once which means I can cast twice as many boolits in the same amount of time as the drip-0-matic. The heat dial keeps the temp very accurate over long casting sessions. I really like that as I water quench my boolits for added hardness.

I now wish I had upgraded a long time ago. Although it's going to take thousands of boolits to recoup the initial price.
Pros: W...
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I started out with a Lee 20 pound furnance and it works well but drips a lot. I moved up to a Lyman Mag 20 and it gave me trouble from the beginning. For $300 a machine should work well. 2 calls to Lyman and the nozzle still stops up. This RCBS has been trouble free. I am very impressed with it. The mold guide is adjustable for all size molds unlike the Lyman which has a 1 width only. You will not be dissappointed with this unit. The temperature settings are right on the money. When you set it to 800 degrees that is what you get. No guessing like the Lee and Lyman. Buy it.
Pros: Best of the Best. Trouble Free
Cons: Expensive

For my entire life I have heard "Buy quality only cry once, buy poor quality and you will always cry." This furnace works better than the other two I have tried (Lee and Lyman) by a factor of at least 5. It melts 22 pounds in about 20 min. and the temp. control seems to be outstanding. The price is a high hurdle but once you take a big gulp and plunk down the $$ you will begin to enjoy casting as never before. I had to call RCBS over my dumbness once (a GFI problem) and received great help and was not treated like the dummy I really was for not troubleshoothing the problem better. Couldn't ask for more--except extending their rebate.
Pros: Does what it is designed to do and does it well.
Cons: Instructions could be better, price.

this thing is great takes half the time then my old lyman