New Liebig condenser

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workpress
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New Liebig condenser

Post by workpress »

Hi all

I have finally gotten around to building my new Liebig condenser. (I like Hook lines a lot too) I have been using my original experiment made from ABS and copper, but it was clumsy and took a lot of water. This new one is going to be much better and looks awesome too. The inner pipe is 1/2" and the outside is 3/4 copper the water jacket is 31" long and is run off of a small pump. I can not wait to try it out.

Thanks for all of the information

Workpress
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Mikey-moo
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by Mikey-moo »

Should be grand :-)
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Truckinbutch
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by Truckinbutch »

Did you incorporate anything for turbulation in the coolant and vapor paths ?
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workpress
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by workpress »

Hey Truckingbutch
I built it with a straight run of pipe. I am curious to see how it works though. As my last Liebig was made using a lot of turbulence fins. I used a 3/4 " radiator pipe with those aluminum fins on it crammed into a 4" ABS pipe and it worked really well but was heavy and clumsy. If I need to I can pack some copper mesh screen into the condenser to provide some resistance if the vapour is blasting out.

I will be running a test tn a week or so and will keep you posted.

Thanks
Workpress
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Truckinbutch
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by Truckinbutch »

workpress wrote:Hey Truckingbutch
I built it with a straight run of pipe. I am curious to see how it works though. As my last Liebig was made using a lot of turbulence fins. I used a 3/4 " radiator pipe with those aluminum fins on it crammed into a 4" ABS pipe and it worked really well but was heavy and clumsy. If I need to I can pack some copper mesh screen into the condenser to provide some resistance if the vapour is blasting out.

I will be running a test tn a week or so and will keep you posted.

Thanks
Workpress
Sounds good . Don't jam mesh in the vapor tube . You need to be able to comfortably blow trough it for it not to create a hazard .
Do keep us posted . If it doesn't meet your expectations we have a couple of quick and easy mods to improve it's efficiency .
If you ain't the lead dog in the team , the scenery never changes . Ga Flatwoods made my avatar and I want to thank him for that .
Don't drink water , fish fornicate in it .
The Baker
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by The Baker »

Can't tell for sure from the picture, but if the water inlet and outlet point upward when the condenser is in the operating position you will have problems with the hose kinking.
My mate set mine up that way when he did the soldering so I KNOW.
He was improving the system, so that bubbles did not form...
Bugger.
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Truckinbutch
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by Truckinbutch »

The Baker wrote:Can't tell for sure from the picture, but if the water inlet and outlet point upward when the condenser is in the operating position you will have problems with the hose kinking.
My mate set mine up that way when he did the soldering so I KNOW.
He was improving the system, so that bubbles did not form...
Bugger.
Geoff
Yep . You want bubbles in the discharge line . good indicator that you got your coolant and heat about right . Little steam coming off the coolant water don't hurt none , neither .
If you ain't the lead dog in the team , the scenery never changes . Ga Flatwoods made my avatar and I want to thank him for that .
Don't drink water , fish fornicate in it .
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workpress
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by workpress »

I finally ran a cleaning run and then a stripping run on some plum brandy. My new Liebig condenser worked like a charm. However I will need a larger cold water tank as the water gets warm faster than with my old condenser.

Workpress
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Still Life
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by Still Life »

workpress wrote:I finally ran a cleaning run and then a stripping run on some plum brandy. My new Liebig condenser worked like a charm. However I will need a larger cold water tank as the water gets warm faster than with my old condenser.

Workpress
I took a tip from someone here and put about eight frozen 2-liter bottles in my water tank. Works great.
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by OtisT »

workpress wrote:I finally ran a cleaning run and then a stripping run on some plum brandy. My new Liebig condenser worked like a charm. However I will need a larger cold water tank as the water gets warm faster than with my old condenser.

Workpress
Gets warm faster? Strange, unless the old one had more air cooling taking place than the new one. Typically the heat out equals the heat in.

How many watts, and what type is your heat source?
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workpress
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Re: New Liebig condenser

Post by workpress »

My new keg still is a 220v 4500w, and on full tilt boogie the Liebig is pouring out hot water and hot distillate... to solve this I added a second rheostat to allow me greater control and the system works much better now that I can better control the temp. At first it was one hell of a stripping run( 22l in just over an hour= 1 gal cloudy hot shine lol
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