iStill 50

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autumnc
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iStill 50

Post by autumnc »

Does anyone have any experience with the iStill 50 ? http://www.istill.eu/#!pristill-50/c1wxc it seems to offer everything you could hope for in a still fully automatic, 96% every run, easy to clean.
It seems to be the same still as this one DE 170 AUTOMATIC http://alkohole-domowe.pl/product-pl-81 ... tomat.html that is sold in Poland but the iStill is £700 pounds more expensive.
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T-Pee
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Re: iStill 50

Post by T-Pee »

autumnc wrote:Does anyone have any experience with the iStill 50 ? http://www.istill.eu/#!pristill-50/c1wxc it seems to offer everything you could hope for in a still fully automatic, 96% every run, easy to clean.
I expect Odin to drop in here any time. He's an HD member. I think he has a little experience with this still. :ewink:

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autumnc
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Re: iStill 50

Post by autumnc »

Is he not the retailer of the iStill 50 ?
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Re: iStill 50

Post by T-Pee »

Yep.

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Odin
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Re: iStill 50

Post by Odin »

Hi guys, here I am! So ... if you have any Q's regarding the iStill ... fire away! Or maybe we already are in touch via email? I have just had a few questions via my website from the good old UK and you talking about pounds ... who knows? We sell a seperate down tuned version just to the Polish market.

Exciting news is I just got the "thumbs up" from Uncle Jesse that I can post about iStill on HD. In the part for pro-distillers and/or craft distillers. Great, because there is so much development going on that I'd love to share. But now I can't find that part of the forum anymore ...

Regards, Odin.
"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.
autumnc
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Re: iStill 50

Post by autumnc »

Hi Odin,
yes we are in touch via email can i ask you just how down tuned the polish version is as its quite a bit cheaper and also what is the iStill 50 h2o?
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Re: iStill 50

Post by Odin »

Since we don't deliver this unit to the world market, I don't want to dive in too deep. But you can always email me! If you have Q's about the iStill 50, that we do deliver world wide, I feel the forum might be an appropriate place to discuss them, because then others can benefit as well.

Regards, Odin.
"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.
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Re: iStill 50

Post by Odin »

Team effort, RC. I am just taking the credit for it!

And we are actually targetting the craft distilleries more than homedistillers.

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"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.
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Re: iStill 50

Post by Odin »

And since we are touching the subject: it is the teamwork that enables us to take it further and make it better. Imagine a developer who knows about the structural lay-out needed for maximum control of most aspects of distillation, another guy being a master in robotics and a third one being the best builder I know. We plan special weekends away from work where we like to surprise the other team members with new ideas. And we pursue these ideas if they make distilling easier. Since that is our "pay-off": "Distilling made easy".

A few years ago, I saw some discusions on another forum about guys putting bubble balls under their 2 inch columns and getting amazing performances like 2.5 to 2.7 liters of pure azeo per hour on a 30% stripped low wines charge. We said to ourselves: why put a bubble cap array under a column, if SPP can do one re-distillation in around 2.5 centimeters?

Last year, when system integration was pretty much complete, I did a test. First results where a staggering 3.2 liters of pure azeo per hour. Jackpot? Yes, maybe, but after another half hour of run time, the automation saw it fit to open up some more and we got 3.5 liters of pure azeo per hour.

Understanding the workings of SPP better and better, we then felt we could take another step, so we added a power management module to manually raise power input. Preliminary tests on a smaller diameter unit as well as on a big craft distillery size rig show we can up power with around 50%. I expect to do a movie of a test run of the iStill 50 in a few weeks and get output levels to around 4.5 liters per hour. That's at 96% on a 2 inch diameter LM. And because the extra power produces more reflux, and more reflux creates more re-distillations, heads and tails compression will be even better. For comparison's sake: on a scrubber packed N/S off-head LM, normal takes for Fores, Heads, Hearts and Tails would be 3%, 17%, 56%, and 24%. In automated mode our cuts are 1%, 5%, 74%, and 20%, for Fores, Heads, Hearts and Tails respectively. With more power fed into the system, these numbers will even get better.

And the power management module opens another function as well: super fast stripping. You can now put 50 liter of 8% base beer or wine in the iStill 50 and strip it into 10 liters of 40% low wines in 2.5 hours. That's heating-up, first Fores cut, stripping run, automated stop at 99.5 degrees C and cleaning out the column and boiler included.

We keep on innovating, using customer feedback to further improve the iStill 50. A new thermometer probe array means we can take another leap forward, since it gives us even more control. Future tablet functionality makes it possible for us to take over your iStill and look into its parameters or help you out designing the right programs for the product you want to make. Well, not you, but mostly for the craft distilleries around the world that choose our stills. The 50 is the rig they use for product development. In terms of what it costs for a pro distiller to buy one, the iStill 50 is a relative bargain, but for the homedistiller ... well, it is quite the budget to spend. Also, the benefit of repeatable and consistent distillations is so much more important to the craft distiller than it is to us homedistillers.

Just sharing, even though it must sound like bragging. That's why I like to put up movies. To show that the claims we make are real and can be achieved by anyone using one of our rigs.

Regards, Odin.
"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.
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