Pot still only delivering in spurts

[jb-texshine]

Yes,ideal burner for one gallon is a single burner gas campers stove and a 3 pound bottle. Even the side burner on your grill.

[goose eye]

Yup id check for leaks if is lopein.
Don't take much. Lopein makes for a long night.
Can't get no rhythm.
Use a mirror or a squirt bottle and soap suds.

One gallon you best be gettin a defuser like a cast iron skillet an that might help with the cyclein by help keepin it near constant tempeture.

So I'm tole

[spiff]

When my reflux still was surging like that it was bumping... I had to put copper chips into the boiler to keep a more smooth boil going.

[der wo]

Is the bottom of the pot 100% flat when heated up?
Cheap pots without sandwich bottom often form a bowl when heated up. Then the heat is not transferred well, the hotplate gets very hot and the thermostat switches off much more often.

[Bigbob]

I think it's the hot plate. The camp stove( if you don't have a gas stove) is proberly the best solution. With such a small still you would be able to run on a small stove. If the surging continues, you could make a wire 'coon pecker bone' such as this:http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 7#p7302059. Sorry can't get it to work, it's in what not to use under copper wire.

[thesource674]

I think to start ima try what happened with maybe some boil chips and then use this

https://www.amazon.com/TruePower-123-Va ... ed+control" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Ill investigate setting the hotplate to max and using this in combination. Also after christmas I suppose Ill look into one of the larger stainless stills you can get on ebay fairly cheap.

[Smokee]

Unless you've gutted the hot plate and run it with a controller it will cycle and shut down when it gets too hot. I removed everything from mine... thermostat, thermal breaker, all the wiring.... I have two high temp wires going to the coil, everything else is gone. My temp controller (home made) controls it from 0 to 1500watts by varying the current without cycling. It is surprisingly accurate at what it does.

Also, if your pot has a smooth surface on the bottom, you'll need to add boiling chips. As Der Wo mentioned, the bottom of your pot can deform causing the pot to rock.