Oil jacket boiler, well kinda

[Aitch1969]

Been mulling over this idea / varation on keg boiler with electric element.

Take a standard keg

1. Drill centre hole in bottom weld on 28mm drain pipe

2. Weld sheet to the bottom skirt to create a chamber, the drain pipe will pass through this and be welded to it.

3. Weld up the drain holes around perimiter to enclose fully

4. Drill and Weld on 3 internally threadded bosses around skirt
One of thes will be a fill / drain hole and have a threadded plug
Two will be angled slightly to avoid drain pipe in centre and will accept elements.

5. Drill and Weld in a tube sealed at inner end to accept a thermocouple

6. Fit 2 elements from oil filled radiators and fill the chamber with the oil from said radiators.(1 or 1.5kw elements) 2/3kw total


The radiators can be obtained very cheap new and even cheaper used. This should make a boiler that is not prone to scorching.

Any thoughts and suggestions welcome

Aitch

[Jstroke]

Not sure on the details, but it’s been done before

[Aitch1969]

Yep nothing new rea

[subbrew]

It will be slow to heat up. Your plan would apply a moderate heat compared to a flame to a relatively small area of the keg.

It will also be slow to react due to the buffering of the oil. i.e reduce heat to element and wait thirty seconds to see output slow.

I would also want some sort of pressure relief. A little water in your oil you will get pressure.

But it will solve scorching. I think it would be a great idea but on a smaller keg so you could use it for a gin still and smaller batches of on grain distillation. You could also use the small keg as a thumper if you wanted. I love duel use

[Aitch1969]

Thanks good feedback.
Honestly 50l keg is bigger than I would ideally want but I can get hold of half kegs also, same diameter just shorter, mostly I'd only be pot stilling max washes of 20l so not too worried about reaction time. Could add an additional tri clamp port for normal in still element if I wanted to reflux a previously stripped run.

When filling the oil I plan to have a vent, heat up to 120c slowly and hold for time to ensure any water is evaporated put of the oil

[subbrew]

I have a 7 gallon pot that I set in a tamale pot filled with oil and I end up with an oil temp of around 240 F to get enough heat transfer for a spirit run. Just to give a reference.

[Aitch1969]

I have a 7 gallon pot that I set in a tamale pot filled with oil and I end up with an oil temp of around 240 F to get enough heat transfer for a spirit run. Just to give a reference.

Thanks that's just a tickle under 116c actually a little lower than I expected. I'll have thermostatic control over the oil temp so a goid starting ref . I'll only have oil contact at the bottom none on sides will be interesting to see what oil temp is needed