Air cooled condenser. I'll NEVER go back to water cooling!

[mason jar]

You can order Hyrdronic baseboard heating elements from lowes. The only thing inside
the baseboard heater is a shiny new 3/4" X 24" copper tube with aluminum fins. They also come in longer
lengths. Lowes has free shipping

DANGIT! They've got better prices than the place I ordered from and free shipping to boot. That would
definitely cut down the cost of this project. Wish I would have realized that before I ordered mine.

Using MichiganCornhusker's idea. Five of these should fit perfectly in front of a box fan.

...and the box fan would be a LOT cheaper than the 9 computer fans I bought. It would
be a little more work to solder all of the elbows together for MichiganCornhusker's idea though.
I kind of like the simplicity of the single long element. I wander how well it would work without
the wooden box around it, like I have, and instead just set it in front of a cheap box fan
.... maybe I should try that and see how much power it would knock down. It sure would be easier
to build and a lot cheaper that way.

[mason jar]

Deleted due to security fuck up.
Will repost later, because this is a good idea

Umm.... WHAT?

[Odin]

I think this is a great and innovative tread!

Thanks, Odin.

[shadylane]

Deleted due to security fuck up.
Will repost later, because this is a good idea

Umm.... WHAT?

The link I posted then deleted had my home town lowes address on it.

[yakattack]

Deleted due to security fuck up.
Will repost later, because this is a good idea

Umm.... WHAT?

The link I posted then deleted had my home town lowes address on it.

Makes sense. Just change store location before you post it

[casper the Irish]

How do you seal the lid on your pot, MJ?

It looks just like mine but I can't find a good gasket to seal the gap. Tried welding on fasteners plus butyl rope and lots of flour paste.

[mason jar]

How do you seal the lid on your pot, MJ? It looks just like mine but I can't find a good
gasket to seal the gap. Tried welding on fasteners plus butyl rope and lots of flour paste.

I tried to think of some way to make a gasket that worked and was made of safe material but I couldn't
get anything too work. My main problem was the sheer size of the pot. It's just too wide. The gasket
always ended up being too flimsy. So I went back to good old tried-and-true flour paste. It works
great and its safe, cheap and easy.

I trimmed my pot lid back a little bit so it would form a little ledge around the brim to hold the flour paste:

I apply the four paste around the entire brim like this:

You can read a little more about my pot still and the seal, along with some suggestions
from other members about how they would do the seal, in this thread if you want:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 50&t=54591

[rad14701]

Interesting variation, mason jar... I place a bead of flour paste in the 90% bend of the lid lip so the flour paste is between the mating surfaces rather than relying on an external seal... Any flour paste on the inside remains jelly consistency and has no effect on the wash or spirits... A small amount oozes out between the two outer surfaces and gets wiped off before it starts to harden during heat up... I've only had one very minor leak at the lid and it was fixed by applying dry flour to the wet spot... The few other very minor weep issues were caused by trying to adjust component orientation during a run and, again, were fixed by applying dry flour... I've never had to shut down to fix a leak...

[sltm1]

I've been looking around and have found that there are clamp on hydronic fin systems that fit everything down to 1/2 in pipe. Would using a smaller pipe be more effective for cooling it a gang formation with a manifold(, 3 or 4 together), then just doing a straight line with the larger diameter tube? Also been trying to figure out how to use a cheap dorm fridge/freezer compressor system as a cooling system.

[Hound Dog]

I don't think smaller diameter helps you because it might speed up the vapor reducing contact time. I am sure there is a balance in there somewhere though, I just don't have air cooled practical experience to back it up.

[mason jar]

Interesting variation, mason jar... I place a bead of flour paste in the 90% bend of the lid lip so the flour paste is between the mating surfaces rather than relying on an external seal... Any flour paste on the inside remains jelly consistency and has no effect on the wash or spirits... A small amount oozes out between the two outer surfaces and gets wiped off before it starts to harden during heat up... I've only had one very minor leak at the lid and it was fixed by applying dry flour to the wet spot... The few other very minor weep issues were caused by trying to adjust component orientation during a run and, again, were fixed by applying dry flour... I've never had to shut down to fix a leak...

Rad, that would have been simpler to do than the lid trim job I did, but I just didn't think of it at the
time. My ledge works pretty darn well though and I've never had any leaks. More than one
way to skin a cat, as they say

[mason jar]

I've been looking around and have found that there are clamp on hydronic fin systems that fit everything down to 1/2 in pipe.

Yeah, I've seen those too but all the ones I've seen are more expensive than just buying the complete
hydronic heating element which includes the pipe and fins, at least here in the US anyway.

Would using a smaller pipe be more effective for cooling it a gang formation with a manifold(, 3 or 4 together), then
just doing a straight line with the larger diameter tube?

I think Hound Dog is right. You don't want to go to a smaller diameter pipe. Larger should work better. I know
back when I was using a water-cooled leibig when I went from a 1/2" pipe to a 3/4" pipe I was able to run
faster. I'm pretty sure it will work the same way for an air-cooled condenser. Mine is a 5/8" pipe and it works
very well.

Also been trying to figure out how to use a cheap dorm fridge/freezer compressor system as a cooling system.

I don't think that's gonna work. I'm sure a cheap little fridge could not keep up with the heat output from even
a small still. I've seen threads discussing this idea before and the consensus seems to be that this won't work.

[shadylane]

Using five 2' long air cooled condensers
Would it be better to have them in series or parallel ?

[mason jar]

Using five 2' long air cooled condensers
Would it be better to have them in series or parallel ?

I think series.

With parallel there would be no way to guarantee the vapor would
distribute evenly across the different paths.

[sltm1]

Crap, back to the drawing board.

[Bagasso]

With parallel there would be no way to guarantee the vapor would
distribute evenly across the different paths.

But is that even necessary?

I was thinking something like this. Even if some sections see less vapor they would still work as heat pipes.

[MichiganCornhusker]

I think series.

With parallel there would be no way to guarantee the vapor would
distribute evenly across the different paths.

Series would also allow a temperature gradient...

[mannye]

Mason, is there an optimum angle for the best result?

[shadylane]

The UPS man just stopped by. Now I need to make a decision before buying the fittings.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Those look great, Shady! I think you should take one for the team and try both assemblies. Try the one that you think will be least efficient first, then cut it apart and try the other to confirm your hunch. Either way, looking forward to seeing how this works out for you.

[shadylane]

I thought about trying it each way but it would be a pain in the ass to disassemble the parallel configuration.
Using unions would make it easier, but I'm too cheap to do that.
Note to self: you can't take a picture with a fogged up camera.

[shadylane]

I'm going to do it in parallel and build a header tank to supply all 5 tubes with the same amount of vapor.
Don't know whether to start a new thread or not. I'm kinda hijacking Mason jars fine thread.

[yakattack]

I'm going to do it in parallel and build a header tank to supply all 5 tubes with the same amount of vapor.
Don't know whether to start a new thread or not. I'm kinda hijacking Mason jars fine thread.

I say make a detailed build and test thread
Easier search later for new members and old alike.

[mason jar]

Mason, is there an optimum angle for the best result?

Well probably, but I don't know what it is. I would think that you would want a fairly shallow angle
to maximize vapor/liquid contact with the pipe. The more contact, the more heat will be
removed. Take a look at the pictures on page one of this thread. My condenser is fairly
flat and it seems to work very well that way. I'm sure it would work with a steeper
angle, but I bet it works better with the shallow angle.

[mason jar]

I thought about trying it each way...

Dangit, that's what I was going to say. Do BOTH

... but it would be a pain in the ass to disassemble the parallel configuration.
Using unions would make it easier, but I'm too cheap to do that.

Yeah, your right.... way too much work.

I still think series is the best way to maximize heat transfer, but no harm in trying
something else. Hell, everybody though mine wouldn't work before I built it.
So, go for the parallel configuration and give us some details on how it works

[mason jar]

I'm going to do it in parallel and build a header tank to supply all 5 tubes with the same amount of vapor.
Don't know whether to start a new thread or not. I'm kinda hijacking Mason jars fine thread.

Just a thought... before you solder everything up, try a water run using just one of the pipes.
If you have time, do the measurements I did to find out how much power mine could take (discussed
about half way through page 3 of this thread). It would be interesting to see how much power a
2 foot section could knock down.

[Brutal]

I thought about trying it each way but it would be a pain in the ass to disassemble the parallel configuration.

You could assemble it with ptfe tape to seal an use "bailin' whaar" to hold it together. Easy to get back apart then.

I think the series arrangement is going to be much more powerful than parallel.

I think the heat from the vapor will make its own temp gradient, but if you built a fan set up like MasonJar's and had it blowing up through the series of pipes it might make a more defined gradient if it was needed.

[raketemensch]

Oh man, there needs to be a word for that feeling you get when a great thread is heating up (or the opposite, I guess), then you get to the end and are left hanging :]

Great work, masonjar, and some really good ideas throughout. That style of baseboard heat is really popular here in New England, so I and some friends will start keeping an eye out for them at the local dumps/transfer stations. I'd much rather plug in a box fan than drag around buckets of water.

At least in the winter -- in the summer, I like the idea of a liebig pool heater...

[shadylane]

Sorry about that raketemensch blame me. I found myself hijacking mason jar's excellent posts.
So I started another one here.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 87&t=56652

[raketemensch]

I'm still using the straight length from Mason's OP, and am very happy with it:

(No, that's not vapor coming out of the pipe, it's a ball under the stairs in the background)

Once it's on the 36" column on the keg, the length won't matter so much.

To be honest, I don't think I'll need the 5 foot length. I was debating why I seem to be getting faster cooling that some of the other experiments (as much as 20 degrees of cooling over 6" of pipe), and I think it's because my fan is 8-10 inches away from the fins, blowing upward. The gap provides a large channel of cool air to push from the fan to the fins, and of course convection already wants the hot air to rise.

I'm not going to shorten it until I've got the 2" column up and tested, though.

(apologies for the re-hash of stuff I've said in another post, I realized this would better contribute to the discussion and future researchers coming from google here)