The only time it will affect performance noticeably is if there is a significant amount of debris that has significantly different thermal
characteristics from that of the hotplate material. I can think of no other mechanism through which performance would be affected by "stains".
I have a hotplate similar to this one and it is great! It is the same kind my school uses and they are certainly built to last. (Just don't spill
concentrated acid/base or other extremely reactive chemicals through the vent holes and if you do, disassemble it IMMEDIATELY and wipe it down with a
damp cloth soaked in an appropriate neutralizing solution)
Of course this holds true with other hotplate models as well.
Now that I think about it, this is perhaps a design flaw because I have a VWR 4x4 hotplate stirrer that doesn't have vents that spills can get into
easily.
Yours doesn't seem to have the slightly rounded base with vents, though.
[Edited on 9-29-2010 by MagicJigPipe]
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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