Got my water heater today!! To high?

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***FBI***

Got my water heater today!! To high?

Post by ***FBI*** »

She measures 3.66 feet high.. and the ceiling height in the basement is 7-7.5 foot. 30 gallon natural gas water heater (glass lined) by the way..... My plan was to build a 2 inch offset head.. now I have MAX of 3.33 feet for a column and head.. is that enough? looking for 95%+ only product.. Going to use birdwatchers sugar mash.. Im new to the game so im sorry for my stupidness of if this post has already been discussed..

Also how do you convert a natural gas water heater to propane? Just change the fitting?

Also, how do you guys clean your used water heater at first and after every run?

U Guys R the BEST!!!
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Post by GingerBreadMan »

Interesting. So you're planning on converting a water heater from natural gas to propane with no knowledge on how to do this and then burning propane indoors in your basement.

Are you going to put your barbeque beside the still so you can cook meals when you get a little peckish while you try to take 30 gallons of wash and convert it to 95% ethanol?
Last edited by GingerBreadMan on Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Dnderhead
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Post by Dnderhead »

yes you can convert to natural gas -change jet- make sure it is vented (and basement also)
and i thank you have just enough room why so big? 30gal will make
4-6 gal( Depending on wash) and I defiantly clean it
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Post by big worm »

the gas supply orafice needs changed...local gas company. and i would clean very good...i would have bought a new one...i've see the crap come out of old ones. please tell me you have ventilation and a dry chemical fire ext. safety first last allways, my water heater was electric when it crapped out i went with natural gas.....i put the new one out side i do not want flames under my house and its filled with water.....i just have a thing about flames and highly explosive vapors beneith the home.
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Post by Tater »

To change from natural to propane ya have to change the orifice and convert gas valve to propane either by adjustments to system or kit If not set up for both natural/propane It takes a new orifice for both burner and pilot lite and a different gas valve .
I use a pot still.Sometimes with a thumper
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Post by violentblue »

my brother runs a furnace company, most of his clients are on propane. that being said, changing from natural gas to propane is not terribly difficult, but you need to know what you're doing.
and yes, vent outside or carbon dioxide/monoxide poisoning is a serious threat.

make sure you set your fuel mix, to get a nice blue flame, any yellow is a bad thing.
***FBI***

Post by ***FBI*** »

GingerBreadMan wrote:Interesting. So you're planning on converting a water heater from natural gas to propane with no knowledge on how to do this and then burning propane indoors in your basement.

Are you going to put your barbeque beside the still so you can cook meals when you get a little peckish while you try to take 30 gallons of wash and convert it to 95% ethanol?
Wow, you are a realy nice guy arnt you? Just the kind a friendly board like this needs!!!! Great job in jumping to assumptions and thanks for your post.. IT HELPED A LOT!!!!!.. FYI, In my basement, I can take my 16 foot boat in one door and out the other ..

Thanks for all your help GingerBreadMan, If I ever need any help, you will be the first guy I go to..
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
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Post by Dnderhead »

You mite want to consider doing away with all controls and just useing
burner and some kind of control for flame the difference between
propane and natural gas is the presser, propane is much higher I'm
only suggesting because I have not used hot water heater before
( I have burner out of hot water heater and jet/orfice is not changeable
it is pressed in)
Last edited by Dnderhead on Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:33 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by big worm »

***FBI*** wrote:
GingerBreadMan wrote:Interesting. So you're planning on converting a water heater from natural gas to propane with no knowledge on how to do this and then burning propane indoors in your basement.

Are you going to put your barbeque beside the still so you can cook meals when you get a little peckish while you try to take 30 gallons of wash and convert it to 95% ethanol?
Wow, you are a realy nice guy arnt you? Just the kind a friendly board like this needs!!!! Great job in jumping to assumptions and thanks for your post.. IT HELPED A LOT!!!!!.. FYI, In my basement, I can take my 16 foot boat in one door and out the other ..

Thanks for all your help GingerBreadMan, If I ever need any help, you will be the first guy I go to..
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
when you ask for opinions here thats just what you get nothing more nothing less...if ya ask how ya doing be ready to hear all the local achs and pains :lol: behave and be careful
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Post by GingerBreadMan »

I was thinking about this. It would seem 3ft might be too short to make a tall enough column to get the purity you want. You could cut a hole in the ceiling and just run the column up though to the first floor.

I'm not expert at column stills, but to get 95% purity the column would have to pretty tall. The parent site has a neat calculator to figure all this stuff out.

http://homedistiller.org/calcs/reflux_calc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Post by arkansas »

http://homedistiller.org/equip/designs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Not according to some, this one seems to be 24" and if run correctly will give you 95% :shock:
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Post by GingerBreadMan »

Here is a really good explanation of how the bokabob works (from the designer himself)

Bokabob explained
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Post by Safegyde »

Dang ****FBI*****, Your a little upset huh?? Personally I thought GingerBreadMan's response was funny as hell. You gotta be careful with what you do. Just think, let's say someone on here did just throw out a way to do that and you did it.......and it was wrong. You would blow up and be seeing real devils very soon...hopefully not of course. His humor and pointing out the apparent carelessness on your part is EXACTLY what this board needs. What it doesn't need are red devils named FBI yelling at people for not spoon feeding you information that could kill you or others.

You can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. :D
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Post by big worm »

3' x 2" is plenty long enuff, you should get high %abv with packing and reflux.
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Re: Got my water heater today!! To high?

Post by KY Hick »

***FBI*** wrote:She measures 3.66 feet high.. and the ceiling height in the basement is 7-7.5 foot. 30 gallon natural gas water heater (glass lined) by the way..... My plan was to build a 2 inch offset head.. now I have MAX of 3.33 feet for a column and head.. is that enough? looking for 95%+ only product.. Going to use birdwatchers sugar mash.. Im new to the game so im sorry for my stupidness of if this post has already been discussed..

Also how do you convert a natural gas water heater to propane? Just change the fitting?

Also, how do you guys clean your used water heater at first and after every run?

U Guys R the BEST!!!

I would like to see some pictures if at all possible. Is there any threads on here with pictures using a water heater? I looked but didnt find any.
3rd Duke Boy

Post by 3rd Duke Boy »

yes pic's would help to tell wat you need 2 do differently to get a higher
ABV% 8)
Dnderhead
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Post by Dnderhead »

I do not believe there are and most that do use electric I have seen some
for sale a few places most just use column with adapters witch you also can buy but never seen instructions
GingerBreadMan
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Post by GingerBreadMan »

Here is a picture of a 10 gallon heater that is electric.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7743" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

In the book Making pure Corn Whiskey there is a detail plan for making a Nixon Stone reflux column and how to connect it to a 12 gallon electric water heater. Sort of what the original poster is trying to do, except it's electric and the boiler is a smaller, more manageable size.

I believe you can get more info about this book in the Resources and Reviews forum.
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Post by arkansas »

http://img155.exs.cx/img155/4772/pda1co ... tup2bm.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

here is the first one I came across, it is easy, many more to see, just look :shock:

sorry gbm, looks like I was trying to type while you were posting :D
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GingerBreadMan
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Post by GingerBreadMan »

LOL!

I have spent so much time reading and bookmarking threads here, I think it's a weird sickness to be able to quickly search my bookmarks for stuff and post it.

I have no experience but plenty of 'bookmark' knowledge! :D
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Dnderhead
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Post by Dnderhead »

I see they did away with thermostats and used controller I thank
you are going have to do also
KY Hick
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Post by KY Hick »

GingerBreadMan wrote:Here is a picture of a 10 gallon heater that is electric.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7743" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

In the book Making pure Corn Whiskey there is a detail plan for making a Nixon Stone reflux column and how to connect it to a 12 gallon electric water heater. Sort of what the original poster is trying to do, except it's electric and the boiler is a smaller, more manageable size.

I believe you can get more info about this book in the Resources and Reviews forum.
wow, thats exactly what I was looking for. Would this work with a 60 gallon tank?
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Post by GingerBreadMan »

I've never read anything about gas heated water tanks anywhere. So I can't tell you what I read about gas heated water tanks. :)

By here's what I read about electric water tanks, the only consideration is where the electric heater element is in the tank. The element has to be always immersed in liquid (don't let the element go dry!). So there is a minimum amount of wash you have to put in the tank. This will depend on the tank and where the element is.

60 gallons is pretty big. I'm not sure if you want to distill a tank that size filled up. I have no idea how long it would take to make 95% ABV vodka with a tank that size. In Ian Smiley's book he gives an example of taking 37 litres (9.7 gallons) of 70%ABV low wines and distilling it to 95% using his setup. It took 37 hours.

You can get faster output with a wider diameter column and taller column and more watts into the boiler. At some point all of this is just plain not practical for a hobby distiller to distill that much quantity. It no longer is a fun hobby to do in the evenings and weekends but becomes a full time job .

Well that just my humble opinion.

And I don't make 95% ABV vodka, I have a pot still. So I have no experience in the matter - just what I read. :)
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Dnderhead
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Post by Dnderhead »

I think you start Friday when you come home form work by Monday
morning it mite be dun :?: :roll: :roll:
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Post by GingerBreadMan »

I have no idea.

But I did notice there are several experienced people in making 95% ABV clean vodka that have visited the forum today that are not touching this thread with a 10ft pole - LOL! :D

I figure I can't be far off in my assumption that a 60 gallon tank is not practical.
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