Search found 99 matches

by mason jar
Mon Oct 26, 2015 5:28 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

Well, I finally got to throw 5500 watts at the 5' length of baseboard today. I had a second box fan set up, so I basically had the entire length of the fins being hit with box fans on high. I still got vapor. I never tried the box fan route but I bet if you built a little box/frame like mine and us...
by mason jar
Wed Sep 09, 2015 5:17 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

Once I get the 2" column build, I have a 3 foot length of baseboard that I'm considering playing with putting on top of the stockpot column, just to see how much reflux I can create by aiming a fan at fins on top of the column. Ah, I see. A reflux condenser. That makes sense. I guess 5 foot wo...
by mason jar
Wed Sep 09, 2015 4:31 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

Lookin' good raketemensch :thumbup: I'm still using the straight length from Mason's OP, and am very happy with it: Once it's on the 36" column on the keg, the length won't matter so much. To be honest, I don't think I'll need the 5 foot length. I was debating why I seem to be getting faster co...
by mason jar
Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:23 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: air cooled project
Replies: 34
Views: 3729

Re: air cooled project

You know -- I ran the sac run of box wine in the backyard, and the next day I noticed that a whole bunch of grass was dead near my drip, although I didn't spill any, and that's had me baffled. I wonder if maybe it's huffing vapor out of the pipe, and that's what killed the grass... I'll mess with l...
by mason jar
Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:05 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: air cooled project
Replies: 34
Views: 3729

Re: air cooled project

...It left me thinking, though -- the cooler temperature further down the condenser pipe must create some sort of vacuum, right? Like, boiling forces vapor up, and cooling pulls it down, so for the purpose of efficiency, would we be better off cooling further down the condenser to create a vacuum? ...
by mason jar
Mon Aug 24, 2015 6:45 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: air cooled project
Replies: 34
Views: 3729

Re: air cooled project

Those finned tubes will condense 500-600 watts per foot with a fan blowing on them. Without a fan maybe 125-150w per foot My question is whether or not they would work with a turkey fryer burner...not sure of btu's made by grillsmith model tf2005102-gs-00 I'm pretty sure it would take a pretty larg...
by mason jar
Mon Aug 24, 2015 6:40 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: air cooled project
Replies: 34
Views: 3729

Re: air cooled project

I'm leaning towards an air cooled condenser after some thought. I want to be able to do this without a supply of water because I want to do this on the second floor of an unplumbed barn. I found this at Home Depot. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-Fine-Line-30-3-ft-Assembled-Enclosure-and-Eleme...
by mason jar
Fri Jul 24, 2015 4:17 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser
Replies: 149
Views: 20552

Re: Air cooled condenser

There will always be a small amount of pressure, has to be a difference for anything even steam to move. Take atmospheric pressure at sea level 75'F at 50% RH you have about 14.69 psi of air pushing downwards, for vapor to move up it needs to have some force to push it upwards even a few feet, henc...
by mason jar
Thu Jul 23, 2015 6:19 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser
Replies: 149
Views: 20552

Re: Air cooled condenser

Just finished a test run with water. The condenser knocked down 4500w at 11:50 minutes per liter. The output temp was 70.6c - 159.2F Shady, forgive me for geeking out a little here, but you were knocking down: kW = (evaporation heat of water) x (water weight in kg) / (collection time in seconds) = ...
by mason jar
Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:38 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser
Replies: 149
Views: 20552

Re: Air cooled condenser

It's all your fault mason jar, I wouldn't have started this if it weren't for you. :twisted: :ebiggrin: This time I'll start with five of the 2' long finned tubes and use zip ties to hold them to the fan. That will make it a lot easier to build and modify. I'd like to keep this build simple and che...
by mason jar
Tue Jul 21, 2015 4:05 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser
Replies: 149
Views: 20552

Re: Air cooled condenser

I'm likin' this one better Shady. :thumbup: I think it will probably be able to knock down more power than the parallel version, though I guess that doesn't really matter since your first one knocked down everything you threw at it. It will probably cool down the product a bit more as well since it ...
by mason jar
Wed Jul 15, 2015 7:25 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser
Replies: 149
Views: 20552

Re: Air cooled condenser

If the air cooled product condenser works. I might build a air cooled reflux condenser. Wish I could find finned tubing that had the fins vertical. Thought about making some out of copper sheet until I remembered the last time I tried soldiering something like that. Why would you need vertical fins...
by mason jar
Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:40 pm
Forum: Drinks and Drinking
Topic: Coffee Drinkers, Whiskey Drinkers
Replies: 8
Views: 1612

Re: Coffee Drinkers, Whiskey Drinkers

This sounds like an awesome idea! :D I just recently started making cold-brew coffee, which
is much more mellow than normal hot-brew. I think I'm going to try combining the bourbon
barrel chips with cold-brew to see what happens.
by mason jar
Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:32 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser
Replies: 149
Views: 20552

Re: Air cooled condenser

Can't wait to see the results from your build Shady. I like the cone shaped input "manifold". :thumbup:
Looks like that should help to distribute the vapor across the parallel tubes.
by mason jar
Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:33 pm
Forum: Pot Distillation/Thumper and Design
Topic: think im going to have to get an airstill.... but wait
Replies: 37
Views: 3167

Re: think im going to have to get an airstill.... but wait

Then get yourself some length of copper baseboard heater pipe. No water needed for cooling. is this what you use? have you got a build thread? Edit* just found mason jar's Air cooled condenser That's it. That's what you need to do. Get yourself a small hydronic heating element and a few computer fa...
by mason jar
Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:39 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

I'm going to do it in parallel and build a header tank to supply all 5 tubes with the same amount of vapor. Don't know whether to start a new thread or not. I'm kinda hijacking Mason jars fine thread. Just a thought... before you solder everything up, try a water run using just one of the pipes. If...
by mason jar
Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:34 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

I thought about trying it each way... Dangit, that's what I was going to say. Do BOTH :ebiggrin: ... but it would be a pain in the ass to disassemble the parallel configuration. Using unions would make it easier, but I'm too cheap to do that. Yeah, your right.... way too much work. I still think se...
by mason jar
Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:29 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

Mason, is there an optimum angle for the best result? Well probably, but I don't know what it is. I would think that you would want a fairly shallow angle to maximize vapor/liquid contact with the pipe. The more contact, the more heat will be removed. Take a look at the pictures on page one of this...
by mason jar
Thu Jul 09, 2015 6:53 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

shadylane wrote:Using five 2' long air cooled condensers
Would it be better to have them in series or parallel ?
:think: I think series.

With parallel there would be no way to guarantee the vapor would
distribute evenly across the different paths.
by mason jar
Thu Jul 09, 2015 5:52 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

I've been looking around and have found that there are clamp on hydronic fin systems that fit everything down to 1/2 in pipe. Yeah, I've seen those too but all the ones I've seen are more expensive than just buying the complete hydronic heating element which includes the pipe and fins, at least her...
by mason jar
Thu Jul 09, 2015 5:44 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

Interesting variation, mason jar... I place a bead of flour paste in the 90% bend of the lid lip so the flour paste is between the mating surfaces rather than relying on an external seal... Any flour paste on the inside remains jelly consistency and has no effect on the wash or spirits... A small a...
by mason jar
Wed Jul 08, 2015 7:27 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

How do you seal the lid on your pot, MJ? It looks just like mine but I can't find a good gasket to seal the gap. Tried welding on fasteners plus butyl rope and lots of flour paste. I tried to think of some way to make a gasket that worked and was made of safe material but I couldn't get anything to...
by mason jar
Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:53 pm
Forum: Novice Distillers
Topic: Cooling my vapor
Replies: 18
Views: 2146

Re: Cooling my vapor

tucker0104, have you already built your liebig or worm condenser? If not, you might want to consider an air-cooled
condenser. It will be much less hassle, trust me.
by mason jar
Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:23 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

shadylane wrote:Deleted due to security fuck up.
Will repost later, because this is a good idea
Umm.... WHAT? :wtf:
by mason jar
Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:22 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

You can order Hyrdronic baseboard heating elements from lowes. The only thing inside the baseboard heater is a shiny new 3/4" X 24" copper tube with aluminum fins. They also come in longer lengths. Lowes has free shipping DANGIT! They've got better prices than the place I ordered from and...
by mason jar
Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:41 pm
Forum: The Construction Site
Topic: Building my still
Replies: 34
Views: 4916

Re: Building my still

Nice build Emiliano! :clap: I wish I had metal working skills like yours :thumbup:. My builds are always so simple
due to my lack of skills. Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming! Let us know how it runs.

You gonna use those barrels to age your product?
by mason jar
Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:30 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

Mason, first off, excellent build. As a man who has lived in his share of apartments I can tell that ease of use is key with limited counter space and just the fact of "life" happening around the hobby. Yeah, it's super easy to set up my still now. I used to have to go get buckets of wate...
by mason jar
Wed Jul 01, 2015 7:37 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

How much power were you able to knock down with that setup? Today I was running 400W and the worm was cool to the touch by the third descending loop. I didn't measure temperature. The still head was very hot, I could only touch it quickly. The first loop worm loop was quite warm to the touch, the s...
by mason jar
Tue Jun 30, 2015 6:53 pm
Forum: Column Builds
Topic: still porn
Replies: 194
Views: 38871

Re: still porn

Don't know if it qualifies for still porn, but here's mine:
my_still_and_air_cooled_condensor.jpg
Just a simple 15 gallon stainless pot...
new_still.jpg
But it gets the job done :thumbup:
latest_run_witnew_condenser.jpg
by mason jar
Sun Jun 28, 2015 12:18 pm
Forum: Condensers/Cooling Methods
Topic: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!
Replies: 214
Views: 69319

Re: Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water coolin

I like air cooling too. We are on a well so I would like to avoid water cooling, pumps etc.. Yeah, trying to save water was part of the reason I did this project since the area I live in has been under a severe drought. You could see the bottom of one of our lakes (our main water source) in several...