Pot Still design question

evilive · Post by **evilive** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:16 am

My old pot still was a tea kettle, 1/4 inch copper tubing and an 1100 watt electric burner. I wanted to build something small and cheap at first while I learned what I was doing. I recently purchased a 5 gallon stainless pot and made a few runs. Everything works fine but it takes a LOOOOOONG time to go through a 5 gallon wash, the first 3.5 gallons took 14 hours.

I was wondering if rebuilding it with 3/8 or 1/2 inch copper tubing would help speed things up. Or if I need to get a bigger electric burner. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

FAROM · Post by **FAROM** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 10:10 am

The column (pipe) of a pot still must have an equal diameter to a 1/8 and 1/12 of the diameter of the pot. Example: diameter pot 12" = diameter column (pipe) will owe' to be among 1" and 1,5", hi

p.s. Excuse me for my bad English

OzarkWhiskey · Post by **OzarkWhiskey** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:40 pm

Farom's message has good meaning but is not totally true. Sounds like you need to ditch the electric heater. I dont belive in electric at all, its not constant. Also I would never make a condensor line less than 3/8. How cool is your distillate?

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 12:43 am

I dont belive in electric at all, its not constant

please, explain
for as far I know, it's the most constant way to heat.

evilive, the only way to make your runs quicker will be by adding a new heater, or an entirely new one. stronger then the one you have right now. 14 h is a very long time for some gallons

Hackers · Post by **Hackers** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:09 am

[quote=" I dont belive in electric at all, its not constant.[/quote]

In theory you are correct, however in practice (unless you live in the back of beyond) it should be constant enough for the purpose of distilling alcohol. Simply test - do your lights noticably brighten and dim over an evening. If not consider your electricity constant. It is also a lot safer than any other form of heating.

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:23 am

I'm with Ozark, I won't have anything to do with electric heat either.

Propane is simple and instantanious and safe and best of all there's no f***** around with reostats and bigger elements and smaller elements.

Do a search on here for electric heat elements and read all the bull**** that guys have gone through to try to make em work properly.

With my set up if I need more heat, I turn the valve counter clockwise, if I need less I turn it clockwise. What could be a more simple, constant heat source than that?

As always JMHO.

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:55 am

yeah gas all the way, no need to drill holes and mount elements in a keg and you can run with a much lower level in your boiler as you don't need to cover up an element (if you use a large boiler that is)

Enlikil · Post by **Enlikil** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:58 am

I'm definatly on the Gas bandwagon. no problems..
However What do you mean the pot still needs to be 1/8 and 1/12 the pot size?
My potstil is a 13.5 gallon keg with a 2 inch Diameter column at 13 inches high, and a 4 foot 3/4 inch lyne arm with a 3 foot 1 inch leibig condesner on it...

OzarkWhiskey · Post by **OzarkWhiskey** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:14 pm

Electric is NOT constant, the element kicks on and off and of and off and on and off shall I go on???????

The heat of electric NEVER is the same.

And for hackers you can not compare a light bulb to a heating element,
if the element never kicked off it would burn up

zeff · Post by **zeff** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:40 pm

I have found electric elements to be much easier than gas and have never had any problems 'constant' type problems, it seems pretty constant to me. Ozarkwhiskey - im pretty sure unless its to do with AC power alternating or something that elements dont turn on and off, its the water they are sitting in that keeps them from burning up.

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:03 pm

I use gas myself, but somethimes the wind blows into the flame and makes the heat less constant.
in this case, I think electric is constanter (but I wont change)

jmc91199 · Post by **jmc91199** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 5:06 am

If i can go back to the original question.

I was wondering if rebuilding it with 3/8 or 1/2 inch copper tubing would help speed things up. Or if I need to get a bigger electric burner. Any advice would be appreciated.

My boiler is about 4 gal so we are in roughly the same boat. I went with a 1"X18" high column with a condenser that is 1/2" X 24" wrapped in a 1"X16" water jacket. i was running @ about 600ml/hour or 20oz/hr. I started collecting @ about 85%abv and collected down to 65% for an average of 70% when I was done. I use a propane camp stove as the heat source and hook the condenser up to the kitchen sink.

My rig evolved from the one picture in my icon to the above description. For what it is worth i wouldn't go under and 1" dia and 12" high column. I tried so hard to go cheap that i ended up spending twice as much as if i had just sucked it up and built my current rig to begin with.

Also the bowl on top is in fact SS. I'm quite sure of it. But it is flimsy so I need to stay it with bungee cords, which pull double duty to secure the lid so that no vapor leaks.

If I can add to the electric vs gas debate. Can I assume that since the original rig was a tea kettel that the 1100 watt element was a stove top burnner? If so I also ran my original rig on the stove top. The elements on stove do cycle on and off. The hot water heater type elements that most seem to use in kegs don’t seem to vary quite as much. Bottom line is that I would get 2 degree temp fluctuations on the stove top, which is why I went to the camp stove.

This isn’t a great picture but you ge the idea.

junkyard dawg · Post by **junkyard dawg** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:31 pm

"I tried so hard to go cheap that i ended up spending twice as much as if i had just sucked it up and built my current rig to begin with."

I've been there plenty of times myself.

and evilive, sounds like you need gas and a bigger condensor.

OzarkWhiskey · Post by **OzarkWhiskey** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:39 pm

Zeff First of all what do you mean alternating? AC= Alternating Current
Second of all your element has no thermostat?

possum · Post by **possum** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:34 am

Temperature varyations are not as critical with a potstill as with collumn aparatus.
I,ve run my potstill on stovetops with no trouble.

OzarkWhiskey · Post by **OzarkWhiskey** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:43 pm

JMC what is all that "MESS" ?

jmc91199 · Post by **jmc91199** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:11 am

wife is a bad house keeper

There are clear hoses for the water jacket, a digital thermometer stuck in the top, and bungee cords to hold the head on and keep it stable. I also use a camp stove as a heat source, works great. Basic stuff, its less messy than this picture make it appear.