Home Distiller

Hello all. I made a new pot still that is a bit larger than my last one. Instead of having to use a dough seal, which I hated doing, I welded two ss pots together. I soldered the column to a hole cut in the top (which is really the bottom side up) of the one one top. Basically it is like using a mini keg. My question is that now I cannot separate the two pots to dry out the moisture when done. I rinse it out well and get as much water out of the inside as possible, but I cannot get it all out. Air flow is not good enough to dry it all out. Is this a problem? I have read a lot of threads about rust and I am not too worried about that. But is there anything else I need to be concerned about? Does anyone else out there have a pot that they cannot dry out on the inside? Any problems? What about mildew?

After drying as much as possible I put it all together to keep air from getting in to cause rust or mildew. Would it be better to fill completely up with water to prevent any air coming in contact or am I fine?

My runs come through clear, at about 140 proof (love the thumper) and tastes great. Not blind yet. So......

thanks all for your time.

I use a keg with a 2" ferrule like many others and we just rinse it out between runs and have never had a problem. Not sure how thick of stainless your pots are Remember stainless can rust that is why they call it stain-less

They are pretty thin. Couldn't afford the $120 each for good thick pots. Guess I could just keep an eye on it and if it does go bad just invest in something a little thicker next time.

I don't see why you couldn't just rinse it out real good with water. Hot water would be better. Like doing dishes the hotter the water is you use to rinse them the quicker they dry on their own. Then if your worried about it put a little heat to it just for a bit to dry it out??? Like set it on a burner set at the lowest it can be set at for a minute or two max. A little bit of water isn't going to hurt any thing. More likely to evaporate than any thing. But if your talking standing water then you could have a problem. Where you store it would also come into play. If your storing it in a nice warm dry place good. If you store it in a damp basement or under all the extra bed sheets in a closet this could leed to mildew and what not. Dry air flow around it is better than damp air flow or no air flow.

Did that make since or was I babbling I would look into maybe modifying it so you could take it apart some how. At least the column off the boiler. Wait how are you getting your wash in it if you cant take it apart????

I have a SS 50L keg that I keep filtered mountain water in to cut my product with... Never had a problem with the stainless steel...

Do what the guys are saying, rinse it out and store it, stainless steel is very forgiving, thats why they use it for all food products...

The commercial guy's just rinse and leave it, esspecially SS pipeline installations...

Rinse and store. You should be good to go..


Bull.

Thanks all. That answers my question.
Prairiepiss, to answer yours, I can take the column off. Unscrews from a soldered on fitting. The hole is just too small to get inside to dry it out.

In that case don't wory about it. It should be fine. I was thinking you couldn't take the column off. As long as you don't plug the hole you should be fine.

I would recommend boiling some water and running it through. In my pot still, i have a total of 14 feet of copper connected without a break... i just run the hot water in one end wearing gloves, as it gets pretty hot, i run the boiling water right through it and out the condenser end.

As already said, and if you would like it dry for storage then sit a hair dryer with it's nozzle half over the hole. Adjust it's position so you can feel the max air coming out the other half of the hole. Maybe add some heat from the burner while doing this if you can adjust the burner to a very low setting.

Storing it all clean and wet should not be a problem, but I would give it another rinse just before filling with a new wash.

Your welding of two stockpots sounds like a success! I did the same with a stick welder using 2mm stainless rods followed by the brazing of many burn-through's and gaps. This is for my fuel-alc containers and despite a messy join they are holding up so far