Water diverter

[pistachio_nut]

I have a water diverter that came with my new still. It's got a T and a valve that are designed to allow me to control the amount of water flow to the column when I run it in reflux mode. I can run water to the condenser separately from the column by turning a valve. The condenser always gets water, I can either allow water to flow to the column or turn it off.

In other words, there are two water flows. One goes to the condenser, and I can choose to run the condenser water to the column, or I can run a separate line to the column which I can then turn on and off.

I hope that makes sense, I tried to say the same thing two different ways.

If I'm running off a batch, why would I want to shut off the water to the column and finish the run in pot still mode? Does that make the run finish faster?

It's a moot point for tonight, I'm running a batch of crap that I burned, so I want to strip it of all flavor. IN the future though, I could possibly shut off the water to the column, and capture the flavor of the wash.

Or is there some benefit to running cooling water to the column at half speed?

[decomissioned]

Howdy PN. I have basically the same setup on mine. I have a T before the condenser though, not after. Having them separate allows you to tune your column as well and turning it off completely to run in pot still mode. When running in reflux mode you can turn the water to the column all the way wide open to encourage a high amount of reflux, or turn it down to start allowing more vapors into the condenser. So far I really like mine as it gives me a decent result in either mode in a lot less space.