Sand bath heat diffuser

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Yttrium
Swill Maker
Posts: 240
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:23 am
Location: Midwest USA

Sand bath heat diffuser

Post by Yttrium »

I was reading Whisky : technology, production and marketing and it mentioned that in the old days(pre 1800s) of distilling whisky water baths and even sand baths were used to prevent solid material in the boiler from burning. While I know that some people use waterbaths, I was wondering if anyone has tried using a sand bath?

It seems that it would be more convienent than a water bath as you wouldn't have to worry about the bath boiling and running dry(cause it already is :lol: )
The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. --John Conner
Fourway
Angel's Share
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Location: The Hinges of Hades

Re: Sand bath heat diffuser

Post by Fourway »

Yttrium wrote: I was wondering if anyone has tried using a sand bath?
My diffuser is a sand and copper affair built because firestone milk cans heat very unevenly.

it's an 18 inch square of 3/8 inch copper deck with a 16 inch wok ring on top of it with about an inch to three quarters of an inch of play sand inside.
it wastes a lot of heat but it makes it very very hard to burn stuff.
"a woman who drives you to drink is hard to find, most of them will make you drive yourself."
anon--
Yttrium
Swill Maker
Posts: 240
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:23 am
Location: Midwest USA

Post by Yttrium »

I tried using a sand bath this weekend and I was quite happy with the results. My boiler is a 5 gallon stock pot that is 12 inches in diameter so I bought a 12 inch pizza pan and filled it with about a quarter inch of sand. The amount of surging in the boiler was reduced a fair amount and the heat losses from the diffuser were not significant. Without the sand bath it usually takes 60 minutes for me to get a 5 gallon wash up to temp. With the sand bath it took 65-70 minutes to get a 5 gallon wash up to temp.
The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. --John Conner
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Kareltje
Distiller
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Re: Sand bath heat diffuser

Post by Kareltje »

Two days ago I did an experiment to compare the Ceran plate and a sandbath.

Erlenmeyer with 1 liter cold water in a cold environment: 18 °C.
Copper cent, copper curl, a few pieces of carbo animalis (seems a porous, hard kind of carbon).

Test 1: Ceranplate: in 27 minutes with a flow of 684,4 W it reached 100 °C. Took 0,035 m3 gas, being 1,1095 MJ or 308,2 Wh.
2017-12-22-01.JPG
On plate


Test 2: frying pan with sandbath: in 56 minutes with a flow of 679,2 W it reached 100 °C. Took 0,072 m3 gas, being 2,2824 MJ or 634,0 Wh.
2017-12-22-09.JPG
On sandbath
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