Was just nosing around the kitchen.. Will this work?

[BumArmBob]

My wife keeps me out of the kitchen for the most part because she has some cool cooking toys and doesn't want me to play with them.
My new 6 gallon still is due to be delivered any day now and I was contemplating on what to use for a heat source.
Well, I happened to stumble onto an old electric griddle that she has stashed. It works and can set the heat settings up to 400*.
Would this griddle work or have enough power to use it as a heat source?

Thanks for any input you can give!

[cranky]

It likely wouldn't be a good heat source because it will probably cycle on and off causing stability issues and smearing. That said, it might beat nothing.

[StillLearning1]

Get yourself a good propane turkey burner. One that will hold a keg for the future! That will be your quickest and easiest route to take.

Outside of that your looking at using heating elements, plenty info on those here.

I guess you can mod the electric burner to make it not cycle, seems like alot of hassle to me..but im not an electronics kinda guy.

[NZChris]

I guess you can mod the electric burner to make it not cycle, seems like alot of hassle to me..but im not an electronics kinda guy.

It's a piece of cake for most Sparkeys. Shout one a beer or three if you can't work it out yourself.

[Jes2xu]

Could look at working out a heat sink to use between the still and heat source to cut down the issues of cycling?

. . . . far from ideal, but I guess you could limp through untill you find something else in the kitchen that can be stolen . . . ahhh ummm . . .re pourposed

[NZChris]

Could look at working out a heat sink to use between the still and heat source to cut down the issues of cycling?

. . . . far from ideal, but I guess you could limp through untill you find something else in the kitchen that can be stolen . . . ahhh ummm . . .re pourposed

Far from ideal. There are plenty of good solutions, most of them cheap, all of them suggested on this forum. Use the HD Google search near the top of the pages.

[Jes2xu]

Could look at working out a heat sink to use between the still and heat source to cut down the issues of cycling?

. . . . far from ideal, but I guess you could limp through untill you find something else in the kitchen that can be stolen . . . ahhh ummm . . .re pourposed

Far from ideal. There are plenty of good solutions, most of them cheap, all of them suggested on this forum. Use the HD Google search near the top of the pages.

Yup I know, Just offering a potential solution to use what he has

[Oldvine Zin]

Yup I know, Just offering a potential solution to use what he has

No, just better to go with something that is proven to work. There are many issues to deal with when you are new to distilling so introducing something that doesn't work just compounds the learning curve.

OVZ

[Jes2xu]

Yup I know, Just offering a potential solution to use what he has

No, just better to go with something that is proven to work. There are many issues to deal with when you are new to distilling so introducing something that doesn't work just compounds the learning curve.

OVZ

Yup fair point my man

[shadylane]

...My new 6 gallon still is due to be delivered any day now and I was contemplating on what to use for a heat source.
Well, I happened to stumble onto an old electric griddle that she has stashed. It works and can set the heat settings up to 400*.
Would this griddle work or have enough power to use it as a heat source?

Thanks for any input you can give!

If that's what you have, go for it
It's not going to be perfect.

[OtisT]

My wife keeps me out of the kitchen for the most part because she has some cool cooking toys and doesn't want me to play with them.
My new 6 gallon still is due to be delivered any day now and I was contemplating on what to use for a heat source.
Well, I happened to stumble onto an old electric griddle that she has stashed. It works and can set the heat settings up to 400*.
Would this griddle work or have enough power to use it as a heat source?

Thanks for any input you can give!

Hi Bob. Sorry bout the arm.

I use a hotplate with some success. I purpousfully researched and bought one that was the "best" professional kitchen grade appliance, proven to run continuously 18 hrs a day, day after day. Broil King, 1500w. Ran me $140, and has been great for over two years now. Not sure how your will compare.

I use an allumininum heat sink when doing spirit runs, and have never had an issue with steady heat. I started fractioning with what I had, a 7 lb al disk, and while that was steady I seemed to leak a lot of power. I recently bought a smaller 3 lb al block (9" x 9" x 1/4") and my output increased with no heat consistency issues.

Good luck.