There are people here with a LOT more experience than I have. However, I can tell you that I tried something similar just out of curiosity. What I found was that the relatively small diameter tubes filled with liquid which then blew up and out, making the whole thing unstable and a pain to deal with. If you do it, you’ll want larger (1/2” minimum?) vapor tubes.
Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough. - Mark Twain
If the shotgun condenser is sized appropriately to knock down your max power input, go for it. It will work fine as a reflux condenser. Just leave the top of the condenser open.
From recent experience - I tried running my 2" boka with an almost identical shotgun, mainly because my coil couldn't quite knock down the element at full power and I wanted to reduce my stripping run times. Problem I found was the gap between the slant plates and the start of the shotgun was heating up the output a bit too much for my liking. No big deal though, settled now with pot still stripping runs and slow boka spirit runs for neutrals and double pot for everything else.
OtisT wrote: ↑Mon Mar 06, 2023 5:11 pm
If the shotgun condenser is sized appropriately to knock down your max power input, go for it. It will work fine as a reflux condenser. Just leave the top of the condenser open.
I am considering using one of these 8" units on my ss 45* LM system.
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I'm hoping someone can tell me from personal experience how many watts this small very inexpensive condenser can knock down. The eBay guy from Michigan says his source doesn't give him that information.
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I use an 2” tri-clamp shotgun condenser that is 8” long and has 8 tubes in it. Pretty much identical to the one shown in the original post except 8 inches long and not 17+. I have used it on my LM and my plated still. My LM head is also at a 45 degree angle. I put a domed cap with a barbed fitting for a vent tube on the end. I then attach a piece of tubing to the vent and put a loop in it. That way the still head is still open and if I am getting any vapor blow by through the reflux condenser, I can see it condensing inside the tubing.
In my plated still, I know it can knock down all the vapor that my 5500W heating element can put out at 75%. So at least 4125W and that is with a trickle of water. I have never tried to max it out on my LM as I assumed that a 2 inch packed column wouldn’t be able to handle all that wattage. 75% on my 3 inch plated still (reduced down to 2 inches before the dephlegmator) will start to flood depending on the alcohol content of the boiler charge, so I can’t imagine that a 2” column could handle 75%. I made my own stainless steel coils to fit into the still head and always went back to the reflux shotgun condenser.
I think I have seen that guy on eBay that is from Michigan. Lions brewing or something like that. It looks like he gets all his stuff from China. Some of his product photos have a watermark stamp from OakStills which is out of China. You can cut out the middle man by purchasing directly from AliExpress if you want to save a little money.
