Column reflux and flooding

[Hound Dog]

Congrats on the mini me! Well, I mean you.....

[BoisBlancBoy]

Thank you very much!

[Rrmuf]

Wow. Just trying my first CM Reflux run now. It really is a tricky thing!

[Rrmuf]

So, I ran into this problem and, after going through a frustrating time where maintaining ANY reflux with ANY takeoff resulted in column flooding, I found the culprit: A gasket with a screen I had at the bottom of the column, basically there to keep the packing from dropping into the boiler. The theory in my mind was that it essentially acted as a plate without the associated down and up riggers which facilitate distillation without flooding. once it got hot enough it just reboiled everything coming down to it. Flood.

After I replaced it with a normal gasket and jerry-rigged a means of keeping the packing up (i.e. strung some copper mesh strands from edge to edge of the gasket) I am refluxing!!!!! I am sure it is not optimal, but heck at least I am learning how to use my CM RC now and can look forward to complaining about IT'S efficiency as opposed to the stupid little screen gasket.

SO, for the other newbies who made the same mistake of using those screen gaskets, look there first!!!!!

[v-child]

I don't have an issue with them. I ran several LM runs and more recently a VM run which I pushed pretty hard heatwise and after foreshots/heads got a very consistent 96% ABV. I am a "newby".

[Rrmuf]

I don't have an issue with them. I ran several LM runs and more recently a VM run which I pushed pretty hard heatwise and after foreshots/heads got a very consistent 96% ABV. I am a "newby".

Great! If you have no flooding issues, then that's fantastic. If you ever do, consider a look there.
I thought 94.5% was the theoretical max. achievable ABV, but either way, congrats on the excellent result!