Stripping and Spirit Runs @ 1375w

[Antler24]

Ok so first, I run 12-13 gallon batches in 15.5 gallon keg, pot still ujsm.

My 5500w wavy element and half coupling showed up a few days ago, and a buddy of mine is welding it up tomorrow. I have a 10,000w ebay controller ordered to run it on 240. I have 3 washes ready to run so I'm going to sacrifice an old extension cord and run this on 120v until my controller arrives, I'll deal with the slow heat up times for now, I'm just glad I'm finally indoors! I know for stripping I'm ok, probably just take a bit longer, but for spirit runs will this be running ok? I've read guys say they usually run around 2000w and others as low as 800w.

[Danespirit]

That depends on how well your setup is insulated, ambient temperature.....and of course size of it.
If it's well insulated, you can get away with running a 2" around 800 W or even lower.
Currently i work on insulating my boiler (25 L) with a 2" column, hoping for around 500 to 600 W would be sufficient in a spiritrun.

[shadylane]

I've run a 15g keg pot-still on 1375 it's slow.
Stripping, even with insulation is an exercise in patients.
For the spirit run, 1375 is pretty close to what you want.
Go for it.

[S-Cackalacky]

I run a 5500W element on 120V in a 5 gallon pot still. I do my strip runs with the element plugged directly into a 120V service outlet. For a 4 to 4.5 gallon charge, it takes an hour to heat up and another hour to strip. I use my controller for spirit runs - also 120V. I dial it back slightly. I can't say how much because I don't have a volt/amp meter on it.

So, with your 12 gallon charge, I would guess heat up would be 3 hours or so and the strip would also be close to 3 hours - 6 hours or so start to finish running at 1375W. I think the killer will be the heat up time.

Posted while shadylane was posting.

[Antler24]

The keg or column isn't insulated at all, but ambient air temps are 18-20c. Ok well I guess I'll wire it up to run direct on 240 then for my 3 stripping runs at least. I'm confident my 36" 3/4 over 1/2 spiraled liebig will handle it.

[S-Cackalacky]

You should be able to crank the power up pretty high with that big ole liebig. I think I would wait for the controller. They might have it shipped and delivered before you can get it heated up on 120V.

[humbledore]

If you have an old blanket, it will help on the insulation. Lots of folks use reflectix foil bubble wrap, get it at home depot or the like. Makes a difference.

[Antler24]

They might have it shipped and delivered before you can get it heated up on 120V.

it's like waitin for the leafs to win the cup lol

[Antler24]

Ok so my buddy welded the coupling in today so I installed the element and box to cover the element wires. I wired it up to an old dryer cord filled up the boiler with 11 gallons of 6-7% abv, covered my nuts with one hand and plugged it in. 30 minutes later the fores started dripping out. 1hr 29m after plugging in if collected 6.5 liters of low wines and it was down to 10%abv so I shut it down. I'm extremely happy with electric, I'm pumped!

[S-Cackalacky]

Congratulations! Wish mine ran that fast. Let us know how it runs with the controller.

[Antler24]

Congratulations! Wish mine ran that fast. Let us know how it runs with the controller.

Will do, I'll give an update to times later on in the week. Tonight's strip run was the same wash I was running and ran out of propane 3 weeks ago, already had a gallon of low wines took out of it so this run was a bit faster than a normal strip run should be. I'm hoping to do another 2 strips this week, and do a spirit run Friday evening.

[Antler24]

Got the stripping runs done. With a 12 gallon 10% wash the stripping runs take less than 2.5hrs, from plug in to shut down. Awesome. Gonna do spirit run Saturday. Rather than wait 3 hrs for heat up I'm going to leave it setup up on 5500w and heat it until the column starts to get hot. Then I'll unplug it take cover off the gang box and rewire it to run 120. It'll save me 2+hrs heating up.