I have an iron somehwere but have not used it in years and couldn't find it for the life of me lol so i bought one from Walmart for $6. It has an aluminum base and draws about the same current as my 240 v hot water heating element running on 120 (about 9 amps per my amp clamp). The iron will not get red hot as the water heater element would and will not scorch the oil and also create less convecttion. I plan on bolting an a 2 ft square metal plate to the iron to provide more even heating of the oil. I will post results after data is available.

ps, anyone notice this gray/ black crud layer on their water heater element? I cleaned it off once before and it's built up again. I hope the iron won't have this.