Shotgun condenser turned into an ethanol cannon

[rubelstrudel]

When doing my last spirit run I wanted to get things going real good, so I turned my heater up to almost 3kw and configured for full reflux. I have my shotgun condenser slanted upwards when running refluxed and the cooling water in vapour flow direction, as is necessary. As usual the condenser started popping as the ethanol vapour imploded in the condenser. But the sound was a bit higher than usual and the whole colum was vibrating. Being the careful sort around highly flammable liquids i kept one arm on the power controller when investigating.

Suddenly a bolt of hot ethanol shot out of the top of my condenser with an extra loud pop and splashed on the wall.

Needless to say I quickly turned down the heat to investigate and opened the windows. But what had happened was pretty obvious. The ethanol vapour was coming at such a speed and such volumes that the condensed ethanol gathered in the top of the shotgun condenser, being pushed up by new vapour coming up, making a plug in the pipes. When all the pipes of the condenser were plugged with ethanol, the pressure built up and the liquid was shooting out of the top.

Maybe it is time to make a cooling coil for when I am running refluxed? A 2" pipe with a cooling coil inside would be less prone to plugging like this I guess. If I make one, then all I need to convert my still to a CCVM is then a butterfly valve. (And that valve is allready on its way from Aliexpress).

[jonnys_spirit]

Be careful where you point that cannon !!!

-jonny

[rubelstrudel]

The part of the wall that I hit with my alcohol burst is markedly cleaner than the surrounding wall now.

[LWTCS]

If your through tubes are too narrow, condensate will "pile" up in the tubes because of the pressure and amount of vapor being produced.
Shot gun condenser can do the job fine if it's designed accordingly.

[rubelstrudel]

If your through tubes are too narrow, condensate will "pile" up in the tubes because of the pressure and amount of vapor being produced.
Shot gun condenser can do the job fine if it's designed accordingly.

I figured that was what happened. Looking into making a csst spiral condenser to avoid this in the future.

[bluefish_dist]

I started with a shotgun and found it was easy to overwhelm it with too much power. I went to a CSST condenser and for the same length it will knock down more power.

I had a fountain once or twice with the shotgun.

[rubelstrudel]

A 2m Csst came in the mail today and I immediately started making my new condenser. Fitting a coil of CSST in my 2" SS tube segment was a bit of a squeeze, but with a bit of wriggling I made it fit. Now I have to wait for some connectors so I can hook it up to the water hoses.

Hopefully this will make it possible to run the still a bit faster than 1500w. And now I am just waiting for my butterfly valve to configure my still as a VM still.