Still spitting and irregular flow

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jimsgins
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Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by jimsgins »

Hey guys,
I was (trying) to do a spirit run of low wines today (variation of Hooks Rum). First time I've done low wines that arent a pure sugar wash (of which I'd estimate I've done about half a dozen spirit runs now without any problems). My stripping runs went fine but when I fired it up today, I had my still spew for the first time with spirit spitting out of the surge breaker (fortunately I'm all electric). I shut it down, took it apart to see if there was any obvious blockage or mechanical fault then started it up again more slowly, this time it ran out but in a very stop/start fashion, where there'd be almost nothing then a steady stream back down to nothing. When it spat the second time I shut it down for the day and have come here looking for any wisdom on what might going on. My setup is a still dragon pot still on a small electric hotplate. I've wondered if its heating unevenly as my runs have seemed slower lately but even then, I cant imagine that causing this kind of problem.
Thanks
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LWTCS
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by LWTCS »

What size product condenser?
Is the thermostatic control typically found on hot plates disconnected?
How cold is your cooling medium?
Are your cooling lines connected so that you have counter flow?

Pics of your set up please.
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jimsgins
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by jimsgins »

Setup is literally this - https://www.stilldragon.eu/en/pot-still ... basic.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow - condenser is 2" straight with 10mm inner diameter on a 30L boiler (also SD) with the SD parrot attached.

Heat source is a cheapy from ebay, out of the box, haven't done anything with the thermostat but even when its cranked up for stripping runs, output is fairly slow and takes up most of a day start to finish. It's not an ideal heat source but it was running at around 70% power (perhaps even lower).

Cooling medium is tapwater running at counterflow.
sltm1
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by sltm1 »

"spirit spitting out of the surge breaker"...................how'd it get into the surge breaker ????????????????????????????? The on again off again flow is probably the hot plate cycling on and off, gotta change that.
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LWTCS
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by LWTCS »

Hi there,
So if that is the smaller PC, it really runs best at about 1.75 to 3 liters per hour. You can get more out of it with cooler medium or a higher (than beer) abv in the kettle.

What temp is your distillate?

Without a way to more precisely control your heat input, I would say that the cycling hot plate is the problem.

How big is your kettle?
How long does it take you to heat up?
Trample the injured and hurdle the dead.
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Still Life
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by Still Life »

Overfilled boiler?
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shadylane
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by shadylane »

I'm confused as normal :oops:
When I hear "spitting and irregular flow"
I thinks unlevel worm :lol:
What can cause a vertical shot-gun condenser to surge, with a surge breaker :?:
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NZChris
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by NZChris »

A knob of butter helps keeping the froth down. All of my rum strips get some.
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Yummyrum
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by Yummyrum »

shadylane wrote: What can cause a vertical shot-gun condenser to surge, with a surge breaker :?:
Was thinking the same Shady ...... a blocked or partially blocked parrot ???
Not sure where jimsgin lives but we have mud wasps that like crawling into little pipes and blocking them up between runs

Would think that foaming is unlikely as this is a spirit run but definitely the butter or vege oil helps on a Rum strip .
Unless the boiler was absolutely full to the brim. How full was the boiler ?
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HDNB
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by HDNB »

the water left in the parrot from the end of your last run was too heavy for the light weight foreshots high abv to push through to the top.

path of least resistance? the surge breaker.

how do i know this? i did it today too. :lol:
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LWTCS
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Re: Still spitting and irregular flow

Post by LWTCS »

Another thought:

It takes 70 watts per liter to heat up a kettle charge in an hour.

So if you have an unregulated 1500 watt hot plate heating a 10 or 12 liter kettle, you may very well have simply overwhelmed your kettle with too much input once running temps were achieved as it takes less heat to bring low wines to running temp.
Trample the injured and hurdle the dead.
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