unattended stills

[carlos castenada]

Unattended still.

Hi all,

at present my condenser water setup is a 25 ltr tank with a pond pump in it, which pumps through my condenser in use (pot or reflux still). out of the still and then through a heat exchanger from an old water cooler that has a fan fitted to the back, then back to the tank.
the tank temp normally starts at about 25 deg C then rises to about 32, then it can sit there for about 6 hours easy without rising any further, heat exchanger works quite well at removing the heat from the condenser water.

i was toying with the idea of fitting some controls/ alarms to monitor the water flow, pot temp and condenser water temp
which would shut off the heating element if anything went over temp or the pump failed.
the reason was to be able to leave a stripping unattended for an hour or so.

anyone out there used any electrical controls on the stills apart from element power reduction ?.

cheers

[Rudi]

Murphys laws say somthings gona furk up ,be nice to have the alarms and stuff but I wouldn't leave a still unatended.

[goose eye]

ask ole popcorn

[absinthe]

i wouldn't trust it.. it might make it so i didn't have a look at it ever 10 mins i might go a bit longer but not much.. if you want an unattended still then build a solar still lol

[carlos castenada]

hi all,

i still think it could be safely done.
but i'd still be in there all the time checking the output, tasting etc fussing around and thinking.

i'm sure that a modern distillery would have many parts of the process automated, but for a small hobby set up
it may just take all the fun out of it.

[HookLine]

Technology can certainly be used to help you monitor your still and increase safety, I have two separate alarm thermometers on my reflux column. But I think it quite unwise to run a still without continuous human monitoring, and I'll bet the commercial guys closely monitor theirs pretty well all the time.

[libertyesq]

There is a gut reaction to say it should never be done, and I was at first hesitant, but I agree that it could safely be done. If you're monitoring the proper variables and creating an immediate shutdown in the event there are irregularities, I don't see a reason why it couldn't be done. But It sounds good that you'll be in there all the time.

[violentblue]

got a design going for a continuos stripping column, which could be run unattended assuming the distillate collection container is large enough.
but it will have all sorts of monitoring equipment

[carlos castenada]

hi all,

think that the safest think i can do is;

1 - don't leave unattended. 2 - still build electrical controls to monitor and isolate heating in the event of a failure.
(can only increase safety).

on an off topic, has anyone had any failures of equipment during a run, heating element failing etc .

cheers

[Hawke]

Had a cooling water hose pop off on my last spirit run. Luckily it was deep into the tails when it happened. Just shut everything down and called it good.

[punkin]

I won't even cook on my outdoor BBQ unless i can piss on the ground, have two or three hoses running (to wash away the piss) and a dozen fire extinguishers, never know when the chops are gunna catch alight.










OoohMyGoodnessTheChipsPunkin

[Old_Blue]

goose:

ask ole popcorn

The last thing you want is Freddie Fireman calling his buddy Johnny Law and saying "guess what I just found". Beside, insurance won't pay off on disasters related to certain activities activities.

[violentblue]

I won't even cook on my outdoor BBQ unless i can piss on the ground, have two or three hoses running (to wash away the piss) and a dozen fire extinguishers, never know when the chops are gunna catch alight.

I think you're running a little to hot if you gotta worry that much about burning the chops.
turn down the heat, mite take a little longer but tastes a little better in the end.

same with running the still
saw a video with Popcorns setup, he was running his with a gasoline powered burner, inside a shed. thats just looking for trouble.
I think if you're running electric, or steam for heat, your chances of burning the shed down are significantly reduced.
with my old still (long since gone) was running on propane in my garage, just heating the wash up, stepped out for two minutes and came back to see the hose on fire. thats all it takes to burn the house down.
However, if I'd been following best practice. powered by electricity, in a dedicated concrete block building away from the house or anything else dear to you, had it caught fire, I'd have lost the still and anything in the shed and thats it.

[blanikdog]

Unattended still. ...

From nasty experience - DON'T DO IT!!!!