building a deflag condensor tomorrow for the 5" need input

[jimmyjames1981]

I just want to be sure that I can achieve 100% reflux so I can fill the plates before production, with it being 5" there's going to be considerably more heat than a 4", the surface area of 5" is roughly 1.5 times that of a 4". To me it doesn't matter what size tubes are used, if all surface areas are the same by increasing the number of smaller pipes it should work the same

Theory is not my thing, but If you over do it you might have trouble getting vapour past the defleg without turning your cooling water into steam, (water flow too slow)
that 5" is gonna be a big mutha when she's done

I'm thinking my outer deflag tube will be 8" long and the deflag itself will be 5 1/2" long using 19 inner 1/2"and pipes, Im trying to make it so there's not alot of coolant water in the deflag so when I adjust it, it will react quickly. I'm making the deflag removable so if something doesn't work right I will build another one, I will have a few teeth of 5" left over just in case. And yes its going to be a beast, the column from bottom flange to top of elbows will be around 78" tall.. and having 8 plates...

[emptyglass]

You could always add a 3rd header plate as a baffle and run a twin zone deflag.

I worried that mine would not cope, in hindsight, I could have gone an inch less in length. I have read of a 4" long deflag on a 4 inch column woring well.

Don't sweat it, it should work. At the end of the day, your going modular, so no biggie to fix later if you have to.