The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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Skipper1953
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The Figgins Reciprocator Still

Post by Skipper1953 »

An unconventional still design.


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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

Post by Alchemist75 »

That's a trippy design. One to consider for future builds.
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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The very first pair of kettles intended for the concept.

Some overstated performance contextual errors in that article by the way.
Almost as if there was a "Moonshiner's" writer pulling goofball theory out of his arse and putting it in print.

Embarrassing to the industry imo.
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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Closer look at the original kettles.
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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"Having two smaller kettles rather than one large kettle allowed the still to heat up much faster, a phenomenon familiar to anybody who’s tapped their feet as a too-full pot of pasta water takes forever to boil. It also, surprisingly, resulted in an improved flow rate of alcohol, with a much higher strength during the first distillation run than expected."


Totally misleading statement.

Let me just say that if you only have 48,000 watts (total) to throw at a pair of 2000L kettles,,,,it's gonna go slow no matter how many ways you think reconfiguring will help. And you can split those kettles up 4 ways if you want, but 48kw thrown at 4000L = slow as shit.
Heat up alone is mind numbingly slow.

You need approximately 70 watts per liter for a one hour heat up. That amounts to 280,000 watts.

Watts / BTUs applied is what's what. Splitting the volume is irrelevant if you never had enough power to throw at the kettles in the first place. Or more specifically not enough power to throw at the total volume of the charge.

So that's the first issue.

Someone else chime on the other malarky so I don't have to seem like such a party pooper.
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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Well it's not the first two boiler still I've ever seen so to call it a "new" design is a bit disingenuous. The fact that he's marketing it as his design is kinda lame, it's a money making gimmick albeit a creative one. It'll help sell his product which is probably about the same as similar products made with a single boiler.....
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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Well it did seem a bit odd....

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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

Post by NZChris »

It's gimmicky, but not an efficient use of two boilers, the French have been making better use of two boilers for many decades, plus they have the sense to use copper.
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

Post by Saltbush Bill »

"Using the current design, and with all six plates engaged, a distiller can achieve 65% to 70% alcohol in a single pass,"

Lots of things just don't add up or don't make sense....that or I'm reading the whole story wrong.
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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Alchemist75 wrote:Well it's not the first two boiler still I've ever seen so to call it a "new" design is a bit disingenuous. The fact that he's marketing it as his design is kinda lame, it's a money making gimmick albeit a creative one. It'll help sell his product which is probably about the same as similar products made with a single boiler.....
This on all points ^^^
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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@NZChris Gimmicky for sure.
To be (kinda) fair, I get the gimmick with respect to the visual stimulation. Sometimes the distillery owner needs something unique to attract business.

The copper debate will always rage on I suppose. The two kettles I posted were part of a system ( that does have copper in the vapor path) that made some award winning brandy last year at ACSA this past year. So the still it's self runs fine. It's just that nothing about the design makes it run better.

The entire Reciprocating vapor theory is interesting to think about over some whiskey an a room full of pretty girls or the like. But in practice, this alleged behavior in my experience was more or less undetectable. That bit about "you can here it",,,,I couldn't.
Nor did I observe any behavior that wasn't typical of any other system.
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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Saltbush Bill wrote:"Using the current design, and with all six plates engaged, a distiller can achieve 65% to 70% alcohol in a single pass,"

Lots of things just don't add up or don't make sense....that or I'm reading the whole story wrong.

Meaning that there is nothing special about pulling off 140 proof with 6 plates Bill?
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

Post by WIski »

The Chandelier in the stillin room leads me to believe that marketing and image are highly prioritized aspects of this operation. I always proceed with caution when I see this sort of thing.
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

Post by Alchemist75 »

Hmm, I wonder if they play classical music while running and then slow filter the final product through diamonds in the presence of pure moonlight.... :wink:
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

Post by The Baker »

Alchemist75 wrote:Hmm, I wonder if they play classical music while running and then slow filter the final product through diamonds in the presence of pure moonlight.... :wink:
Listening to Mozart's piano concerto no. 8 right now.

But just while I read the forum.

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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

Post by Alchemist75 »

Many years ago I worked for an apothecary where we produced herbal products. The guy who ran the place would subject the tinctures to full spectrum light filtered through panes of glass of various colors believing it to be of benefit. He stopped doing it after I explained to him that light in certain ends of the spectrum can degrade phyto chemicals, to a very significant degree in some cases, try putting turmeric tincture out in the sunlight, it changes in a remarkable way. Magical gimmicks are suspect to be sure.

Check this out if you aren't already familiar:

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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

Post by Saltbush Bill »

LWTCS wrote:Meaning that there is nothing special about pulling off 140 proof with 6 plates Bill?
I would have thought that using 6 plates it would be pulling higher ABVs than that.
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Re: The Figgins Reciprocator Still

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Saltbush Bill wrote:
LWTCS wrote:Meaning that there is nothing special about pulling off 140 proof with 6 plates Bill?
I would have thought that using 6 plates it would be pulling higher ABVs than that.
Ah sure. Nothing remarkable at all.

6 plates and 85 degree tap water feeding the defleg rendered 85% abv with a 10% kettle charge at about 40L per hour with a 12" column. Reducing the reflux HX flow put it at 60Lph at 70% abv.
BTW, those run stats are not from the rig in the pic.
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