Air cooled condenser

[jedneck]

Wondered how you were going to do the angle fittings, I see what you did there, clever.
I like it.

Here's another way that works at any angle.

Would might be able to do the same thing with only 3 elbows.

[shadylane]

With the air temp 90f in the shed. Three of the finned tubes knocked down somewhere around 3200w of steam.
That's a total of 6' of finned tube. And alcohol vapor is easier to condense than steam.
Long story short, for around $100 in new parts an aircooled condenser can be built.
On a side note, I'm getting tired, hot and thirsty from boiling water.
Think I'll set this experiment aside and start tinkering with a aircooled deflegimator.
Posting with Jed

Now you got me head scratching. How Ya gonna do that ?

[shadylane]

Now I see offset the condenser tubes
But then I couldn't zip tie or bailing wire them to the fan

[Brutal]

2 street el's with a regular el betwixt them.

Y'all havin' too much fun with this. I need to get my ass back in the garage.

[skow69]

Long story short, for around $100 in new parts an aircooled condenser can be built.

That makes it a real game changer, shady. Good work.

Good luck with the deflag.

[shadylane]

I have another hair brained aircooled condenser idea..
A 24" long, 4" diameter PVC pipe with slots cut length wise, and three 24" finned tubes zip tied over the sluts in the PVC pipe.
A small blower pressurizing the pipe should blow enough air on the condensers to get the job done.

[Sambo_Jones]

zip tied over the sluts

WHAT???
Should work ok, but the width of the slot matters, you would want the air to flow over the fins. Also maybe to balance and have even air flow over the full length, taper the slots, wider toward the fan narrower toward the cap. The air will want to flow straight down the pipe till it hits the cap creating a high pressure zone, to get the air to backup and have the same outflow the slot should be wider closet to the fan to account for the lower pressure zone. But on a 2 ft finned cooler probably won't make much difference,
Ramble over.

[raketemensch]

This is just me, but air wants to be free. Anything that you do to channel it is going to hold more heat in. When they build the actual baseboard heaters they have enclosures to redirect the heat out into the room, but that's just because they're trying to create the heat. We're doing the opposite.

IMHO you want to leave the fins as open to the air as possible, and give them as much breeze as you can. Blowing air from one end of the pipe to the other (parallel) is going to turn the fins into obstacles, whereas blowing air up from under them uses the channels between them, which are free flowing.

As always, take anything I say with a bucket of salt.

[Hound Dog]

and three 24" finned tubes zip tied over the sluts in the PVC pipe.
A small blower.....

Now you really got my curiosity up!

[skow69]

I'm down with the bondage, but what kind of drugs do we need to lure the sluts into the pipe?

[shadylane]

Sorry meant to say slots

[Brutal]

I'm down with the bondage, but what kind of drugs do we need to lure the sluts into the pipe?

Sluts are naturally drawn to the pipe, like the salmon of Capistrano.

[raketemensch]

like the salmon of Capistrano.

I'll admit it, I laughed out loud.

[Greenthorn]

I have a question about this, haha my air conditioner was a dismal failure, so I'm moving on to this idea.
I have this tiny system that has 3/8 lines, would I be able to move up in size for this condenser, say using the 1/2 or 3/4
inch pipes. It would seem to me that using 3/4 would even increase cooling efficiency? I would be running my 3/8 line off of my thumper into a copper coupling to 3/4 then attach to the condenser. I feel like this would work, but I wanted to ask to see if there is something I am not thinking thru clearly?

[rad14701]

I have a question about this, haha my air conditioner was a dismal failure, so I'm moving on to this idea.
I have this tiny system that has 3/8 lines, would I be able to move up in size for this condenser, say using the 1/2 or 3/4
inch pipes. It would seem to me that using 3/4 would even increase cooling efficiency? I would be running my 3/8 line off of my thumper into a copper coupling to 3/4 then attach to the condenser. I feel like this would work, but I wanted to ask to see if there is something I am not thinking thru clearly?

Surprise, surprise...!!!

An increase in copper size would be advantageous for air cooling... The more surface area only exposed to ambient air versus the area contacted by hot vapor/liquid, the more efficient it will be... For example, a 3/4" air cooled worm would cool spirits more efficiently than a 3/8" worm of the same length due to increased surface area for thermal transfer...

[Hound Dog]

A later diameter tube will also slow the velocity a bit giving more time for contacting the extra surface area and dissapating the heat.

[piddler]

Time to start another project.

thanks a bunch shadylane for incredible info and to mason jar who did similiar in other thread. Outstanding! if i could oneday return the favor it would be an honor. cheers to you folks.

[shadylane]

There's no picts
But I kept on experimenting with the finned tubes for use as a reflux condenser.

I made an air-cooled dephlegmator using 4 of the finned tubes in parallel.
A DIY variable speed fan was used for cooling. The experiment worked pretty good setting on top a 4" packed column. The only downside was the contraption was too tall and bulky to suit me.

I also played around with a 2" LM that used the finned tubes for a reflux condenser.
I thought this worked really well.

[shadylane]

Here's a link to my latest air-cooled LM build.

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=87710

[bcook608]

Brutal, your picture of a fan shroud got me to thinking. All the radiators used on cars have the fan on the sucking side.
Even the ones that use an electric fan. There must be a reason for this.

I imagine the fan is set to "suck" the air to maximize airflow over the radiator. If you think about it, blowing onto the surface would create turbulence causing the air to blow back into the fan housing and reducing efficiency. I'd be interested to see the performance difference (if any) with blowing air on the elements vs pulling air over the elements.

[bcook608]

Also, I see your manifold in your other thread for the air cooled RC. Do you think you could turn that design into a PC like an air cooled shotgun? Run the 4 sections in a diamond pattern so the corners point into the center of the column, then build a shroud around them with slots only slightly smaller than the width of the fins from point to point, then use an in-line duct fan to really channel the air flow through the shroud to reduce/eliminate the reduction of efficiency when using a large box fan. the in line duct fans are small, but can still move a lot of air. Plus with the faster moving air and the smaller area that it would be moving through, you would have the added benefit of the air being cooled by the compression into the smaller space (however minor it may be).

I'll have to sit down with a pencil and paper to draw it out and see how/if it would work but I thought you'd be interested in the idea since you have the parts to play with to see if that's feasable.

[shadylane]

My brain is befuddled at the moment
Any way here's my thoughts.
Mostly due to the mechanical part of blowing air on the tubes.
Finned tubes in parallel seems to work good for a dephleg or reflux condenser.
Having finned tubes in series works best for a product condenser.

[drmiller100]

My brain is befuddled at the moment
Any way here's my thoughts.
Mostly due to the mechanical part of blowing air on the tubes.
Finned tubes in parallel seems to work good for a dephleg or reflux condenser.
Having finned tubes in series works best for a product condenser.

3200 watts is 3200 watts regardless whether etoh or steam is inside. Great job!!!!

I got lost as to what you decided is most efficient to blow the air but parallel to the fins or perpendicular to the pipe is best. You want to get air to the base of the fins and at the pipe as that is most efficient.

Friendly reminder reflux has to go back down the column. Product can be mounted upside down and just trickle into a jar.

What would be fun is take one of those tubes, pack it lightly, and make it your column!! Then blow air on it as your reflux!!!

[shadylane]

What would be fun is take one of those tubes, pack it lightly, and make it your column!! Then blow air on it as your reflux!!!

Haven't tried it yet, But I'm thinking that's not going to work very good.
Some folks even insulate the sides of a column to limit passive reflux.
I figure it's best to have all the reflux start at the top of the column and rain down.

[RC Al]

I'd be interested to see the performance difference (if any) with blowing air on the elements vs pulling air over the elements.

A fan is a mini compressor after a fashion.
It is easier for the fan to pull what it can through a restriction and into open air than it is to "compress" the air and push it through the restriction.

Edit. Fan has to be able to handle the heat

[Just_Doug]

Great thread Shady. I am going to steal your idea and modify it a bit. My Liebig condenser, 1" over 3/4" that's 3 foot long, just doesn't have the knockdown power needed when I'm doing stripping runs. Not to mention messing with water in the garage during the winter moths is a challenge in the midwest.
D.

[shadylane]

Great thread Shady. I am going to steal your idea and modify it a bit.

Go for it.
If you find a better way to getter done, let us know.
If your modifications don't work, let us know about that too.

Here's an air cooled product condenser that mason jar built.
And he was nice enough to supply links to many more.
viewtopic.php?t=54596

[bcook608]

Great thread Shady. I am going to steal your idea and modify it a bit. My Liebig condenser, 1" over 3/4" that's 3 foot long, just doesn't have the knockdown power needed when I'm doing stripping runs. Not to mention messing with water in the garage during the winter moths is a challenge in the midwest.
D.

I hear you there!
I was thinking about messing with this idea as well. Some good cooling temps in WI during the winter months

[shadylane]

Just_Doug went for it.
Here's a link to his build.

viewtopic.php?p=7729345#p7729345

[Just_Doug]

Thanks Shady! This post gave me the push to give it a go. Now I just need to keep cranking out the SBB rum until I have enough to fill a 10 Gallon barrel.

D.