Anyone tried packing inside a condenser?

[speedfreaksteve]

I have a short 18" pot still heading going to a 2 foot condenser. I know I could build something better but want to squeeze out as much as I can from what I'm working with. On stripping runs I really need to run things slow or else I get way too much vapour coming out the end. I was thinking of adding some light packing inside the leibig to make contact with the distillate to help it condense. What do you folks think?

[xyz123]

I reckon it could help.

[Windy City]

First off you should never have vapor coming out of your product condenser.
Vapors are flammable, flammable=bad.
Some people take a heavy gauge solid wire and hammer it into a ribbon. Then take the ribbon and twist it lengthwise so that you have this long spiral ribbon. Slide that up inside your Liebig and it will increase cooling efficiency.
I use very loose copper mesh in mine, but mine is one inch in diameter. If you only have a half inch I might be concerned about keeping it loose enough as to not cause a blockage.
Whether you use the copper ribbon or mesh just make sure the outlet is free flowing (you should be able to blow through it with no resistance) so you don't create any pressure in your still.

[cuginosgrizzo]

+1 Windy

I had huffing problems and solved them by placing some very loose copper mash inside my liebig. But my liebig is 3.5 feet long, yours is really too short. Consider building a longer one or adding a second after the existing one.

[Badmotivator]

Is it vapor that looks like slow-moving large-droplet cold fog? Or a fast-moving steam jet like out of a tea kettle, which condenses after it exits the condenser? The former is no problem; some loose packing will mitigate most of that, and it's probably only early in your run, and it represents no serious loss. The latter is a problem. It's a sign that you are either a) under-cooling your condenser or b) overrunning your condenser's limits.

Which better describes what you're seeing?

[Truckinbutch]

I feel that you are failing to drive your still . You have to be in tune with it and constantly balance heat input with coolant flow to maintain a temperature gradient along the length of your condenser . Cold at the output and hot at the input . Play with that for a bit and get back to us .

[NZChris]

My favourite is braid stripped out of co-ax. Find some that will expand to the ID of the condenser, clean it up and shove it up so that it lines the full length of the condenser. If that doesn't work, cut the Watts back, or build a more appropriate sized condenser.

[speedfreaksteve]

I feel that you are failing to drive your still . You have to be in tune with it and constantly balance heat input with coolant flow to maintain a temperature gradient along the length of your condenser . Cold at the output and hot at the input . Play with that for a bit and get back to us .

Yeah I've been driving it. This isn't exactly my first still, I went back to basics going back into this hobby after a long hiatus and it is the one with the smallest leibig that I've ever used. I have to run my cooling water pretty fast compared to my other couple of stills that I used before. I can run things slow enough to not get any vapour coming out but I'd like to be able to dial it up for for my stripping runs. I'm just looking to slightly improve my performance of what I'm working with for now. Will be interesting to see if some packing will make enough of a difference to run my strips a little faster.

Long term I'm probably just going to pull a much bigger condenser off one of my older stills. I just have them at a different location that I won't be visiting until spring.

[speedfreaksteve]

Which better describes what you're seeing?

It's just a bit of a puff that doesn't condense. I can slow things down to not get it coming out. My point was that I want to be able to run my strips a little faster for now with this setup until I swap in a big condenser on there.

[pounsfos]

do it

I added a SS pot scrubber to my condensor, definatly helps to collect vapour while condensing.

[Swedish Pride]

Adding a bit of a scrubbie is fine, but don't "Pack it".
Found that out the hard way, added to much, packed to firmly, caused back pressure, all seals started leaking - had to shut down , change underwear and remove the scrubbie and it ran fine after

[cuginosgrizzo]

Found that out the hard way, added to much, packed to firmly, caused back pressure, all seals started leaking - had to shut down , change underwear and remove the scrubbie and it ran fine after

as part of my safety procedure i blow test all parts during assembly before run.

[speedfreaksteve]

Well I'm testing it out right now on a bourbon stripping run and it works! I can run my strips harder for sure. It's not totally solving my problem though as I can't run things full bore, but it's definitely a significant improvement for my undersized condenser.

How I did it: Lightly packed about 1/3rd of a small pot scrubber inside the condenser. Next time I'll use gloves. Have cuts all over my hands from pulling the scrubber apart. I fed some twine through the condenser and pulled it around the bend with some needle-nose pliers. Then I used the twine to pull the stretched out stainless steel pot scrubber through it. Could still easily blow through it so I don't think I was even close to overpacking it.

[DAD300]

SS scrubbie in small amounts will slow the vapor and create more contact/surface area. A bit of cotton gauze in the very end will also slow the vapor for more contact time.

[speedfreaksteve]

Final results for my stripping run. With this keg still setup I've been filling it with around 45 gallons or sometimes a little less and always end up with 10 litres of mason jars worth of low wines. I couldn't run it very hard before so it would take just under 6 hours from lighting the burning to shutting things down. Today my run was 4 hours and 40 minutes from start to finish. Took an hour to get things dripping since it was cold and very windy outside and my burner doesn't take heavy winds too well. Definite improvement.

I was worried that it would actually slow down the flow of the liquid but I was getting a steady stream from start to almost the end.