I understand your point and I would definitely like to forsee any issues and fox them before running alcohol in the still.ThomasBrewer wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 10:17 am I think folks are concerned that the pipe diameter is going to allow too much vapor to flow through without interacting with a condensing surface. Water is not a real good analog for testing purposes since it condenses easier. If you do find that you have problems, putting a little copper mesh/scrubby inside will increase surface area and turbulence.
After all having a still plummeting ethanol vapours out is a huge safety risk. And as said I'd like to be confident that when I put ethanol in the still it will function safely and efficiently. Instead of let's try it and see what happens approach.
Regarding your post. From what I understand the length of the Liebig 48" should prevent ethanol vapours leaving the condenser before it has enough time to condense. Is this not true?
And if so how do large stills function with large diameter pipe such as my 28mm pipe?
Because from what I understand, whether the still boiler is 8g or 80g if the same power is being used to heat the boiler per gallon then the same amount of vapour would enter the condenser. So I'm just not really seeing how the boiler size makes any difference? As in how does a smaller boiler cause more vapour to enter the condenser if the same amount of power is being used to heat the still per gallon.
So let's say you have an 8g boiler with a 3kw heat source. And you have an 16g boiler with a 6kw heat source. Both run side by side with a 28mm condenser. The vapour entering each condenser should be relatively the same.
Also is their any other alternatives to ethanol that I could use to test the still? As you say water isn't a good test source.