CONDENSER SAFETY

[Fivey]

I’m going to quote you Yummyrum from the other thread:

If you run the still you are looking at with no coolant water flow during heatup ... or run so hard that you overpower both condensers , you will fill the room with vapour just the same as your mate did .

All stills are vented to atmosphere either via the output condenser or in the case of a Liquid or Vapour management still , via the reflux condenser . However , if run correctly , none of them should allow uncondensed vapour to escape into the room . The vent is an essential part of the safety of all stills . If there is no vent , they can explode .We take safety very seriously here .

As he says: the CM design you showed over there can also be run badly and fumey- all stills can be run badly and fumey because all stills are vented to the atmosphere (an open system). That still will also be harder to control. As Saltbush said:

To me it looks like a pot still with some sort of water jacket to try and get a bit of reflux, It barely falls into the category of a reflux still. If your aiming at making good neutrals or vodka you would be better off with something else in my opinion.
Manufacturers seem to be cobbling anything together these days and then calling them what ever they like.

And Yummyrum:

I agree with Salty that you will not get full reflux with that jacket reflux condenser unless you turn down your power to rediculously low . Those stills are good for making a high AVB spirit around 90-92% but they won’t make a neutral ..... certainly what we call a clean tasting nuetral

That still won’t give you the drink you said you wanted, not well, anyway.

Don’t get hung up on or misunderstand your past experience. What you should take from it is that you need to learn how to drive the still properly - and that you can learn here. Don’t worry, it isn’t hard.

[Corsaire]

I still think you should look up ccvm.
If you're a visual learner I think Jesse explains his setup on the still it youtube channel.

Cap off the t to run as a pot still. That way nothing can escape from the top of your still.
You want to run stripping runs if you're after vodka anyway.

Once you're comfortable with running the still open up the t, make a reflux condenser and run it in reflux mode to make vodka.

As fivey said you can piece together everything you need, no actual construction needed just piecing the puzzle together. I think you can get everything from milehi, i know you can get everything from aliexpress.

[cayars]

Here is a CM style head. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000207 ... 235d148022

This is a nice modular head that would be very easy to make into a CCVM design if you wanted by removing 1 45% tube, replacing it with a T and adding a coil.

Here's a really nice 13 gallon boiler if you don't want to modify a keg.

Doesn't get much easier than that for a combo pot/reflux still that will make very good spirits.

[Slow42]

Cayars thanks for the help and research. I’m going with a 2” modular unit. The 3” is just to expensive. I won’t be using it often so the smaller size for reflux won’t be a problem. I’ve read there’s not much different in pot stilling between 2” and 3 inch. There’s quite a price range difference with different venders in 2” SS. Not sure who to go with as I’m sure everything is from China no matter where you buy it. Going to use the keg I have with a 5500 watt element.

Sorry if I’m delayed in responding as I don’t get many notifications for some reason very sporadic.

[cayars]

If you go modular you can always pull the lower 2" SS tube and replace it with a 3" to get almost double the reflux column volume using a couple of 2" to 3" ferrule adapters down the road. Sort of hybrid 2"/3" still.

Did you figure out what type of still you will go with yet? IE CM, CCVM, VM?

[Slow42]

Cayars I am going CCVM. I have faith in all the advise given by the experts here. I’ll check pricing on the 3” column to 2”. Getting close to ordering parts!

[Farside]

I built a CCVM and currently have it capped off to run in pot still mode. It's a 1 inch system.

I built a shotgun condenser from 5 3/8 inch copper pipes inside a 3 inch pvc housing. It's 3 ft long which I know is overkill, but this is why I like it...

The total available area for the gasses to pass through is much larger than the riser or arm, so I get a pressure decrease as the vapor enters the condenser. Because there are 5 different paths for the vapor to travel, if I get a blockage from puking then it will almost certainly not be a total one inside the condenser.

As an extra precaution, I don't run chunks in my boiler. My riser is also quite tall, because it has to go up and over the top of this giant condenser.

The only time I experienced a problem was when the pump that circulates the cooling water didn't prime and the condenser ran dry. I lost a whole lot of alcohol to the atmosphere. I'm running an electric rig so the danger here wasn't as bad as it could be. But because this is an active cooling system (as opposed to a passive one like a coil in a bath) this is the inherent safety issue with this design.

[Slow42]

Farside do you have a picture of your shotgun condenser? How do you stop the hot vapor from touching the PVC pipe? Sounds interesting but I can’t picture it with the fumes not touching the PVC somewhere.

[Farside]

Here is a photo:

The vapor enters in the top via the 1 inch pipe, and comes out the bottom.

You can see a 3 foot length of black pvc piping. At each end of the pipe there is a PVC to copper coupling that I found at a scrap store which looks like this:


Inside of the copper part of each coupling, I soldered two copper plates about an inch apart. The outer one is flush with the opening and has a hole where the vapor enters / exits. The inner plate has 5 holes and I soldered 5 copper pipes that run the entire length of the pvc pipe, and positioned so that they do not touch the walls.

Finally, I made 2 holes in the wall of the pvc pipe so that cold water can be pumped into the bottom travel up the pipe and around the outside of the copper pipes before exiting at the top (a water jacket).

The wood and white brackets are simply there to hold the weight of the condenser.

The vapors travel through the system inside these copper pipes, and water flows around the outside of the copper pipes.