Heat control. waste of time/money?

[ludwigs9th]

Hello everyone,

I've recently converted from propane to electric. I have two elements (4500w, 1500w). After doing some research here I decided to try the Harbor Freight router speed controller to be used with the 1500w element. I'd never had good control over the propane and was looking forward to good heat control.

The thing is, it seems useless. I haven't found a productive use for it.

I would turn the heat down (not much) after the boil has started. After a few minutes of observation I walk away. When I come back the temp is usually in the 130'sF and dropping, so I go back to full power. I've tried turning the heat down after I've begun collecting. Usually the temp will go up to 175F or so and the collection rate slows down dramatically. I don't understand the physics of that, but it happens. My thinking was that less heat, less reflux would be the same as more heat, more flux, except less energy is being used.

Having it at full power all the time works just fine. So now my speed controller is just a $20 on/off switch. Which is useless since the manual says to unplug it when not in use. It gets pretty hot when set to 'var'.

So it would seem that matching the element to the column is best the way to go. For the record, mine is 2" X 36".

[Barney Fife]

Pot still or reflux? In a pot still, lowering the power will give you a higher ABV, but with less flavor, as you're not "pushing" the lower volatiles that make up the flavor profile through with the ethanol as much, where with a reflux still, more power will give you more reflux, thus higher ABV and less flavor. With your tall column, it might be that you need 1500 watts of power just to maintain it. Is your boiler insulated? The column insulated? Is the shed cold?

There does seem to be a happy point, as you may have found. I'm in the same boat; I have a 3kw/220v element and a 1.5kw/110v element. I run both of them to bring the boiler up to temperature, then cut off the 3kw one and run the 1.5 for most of the run. What I do for more control and choices, is run the 3kw element on either 220 or 110. Running it on 110 gives me 750 watts. I'll add this 750 watts to the 1500 watts for a total of 2250, at the end of the run when I'm collecting tails, just to speed up the final quart or two. I tried pushing 3000, and even the full 4500 watts at the end, but I get the blue floaties every time, but at 2250, she's fine. The above is for whiskeys; for rums, I strip at 3000w, and sometimes at 4500! This is where I'd like a bit of control over the 1500w unit, to see if there's a happy place between 3000 and 4500... As it is, with simple switching, I have a choice of running at 750w, 1500 w, 2250w, 3000w, and 4500w available.

Your 4500w element will put out 1150 at 110(if available?).