How Does LM Compress Heads Better?

[shadylane]

I believe the way to concentrate the heads is to run it in full reflux a while. Then pull everything off the top on one dump. Should be a table spoon or two.
repeat.
Repeat a third time. If it is still nasty you can go again.

Or. You can pull heads one drop at a time so the nasties get diluted with good etoh.

I disagree.
Sounds like a lot of unneeded fiddling with the take-off vs power balance.
I believe in the slow and steady approach to remove fore shots and heads.

Here's another way to getter done.

18ish gallon pot, with a 4" packed column.
Heat the boiler like you're doing a potstill run.
Set the take off to a fast drip and wait.
During the time it takes to draw off the foreshots, the entire boiler charge will have time to come up to temp and the most volatile nasties will have gotten hot enough to boil off.

Next adjust the take off for a broken stream for the "guestimanted" heads cut.

Last is the hearts setting @ around 3 to 4 ltrs/hour.
As the run progresses the takeoff rate will decrease.
When tails appear shut off the power, drain and clean.

[drmiller100]

I believe the way to concentrate the heads is to run it in full reflux a while. Then pull everything off the top on one dump. Should be a table spoon or two.
repeat.
Repeat a third time. If it is still nasty you can go again.

Or. You can pull heads one drop at a time so the nasties get diluted with good etoh.

I disagree.
Sounds like a lot of unneeded fiddling with the take-off vs power balance.
I believe in the slow and steady approach to remove fore shots and heads.

Here's another way to getter done.

18ish gallon pot, with a 4" packed column.
Heat the boiler like you're doing a potstill run.
Set the take off to a fast drip and wait.
During the time it takes to draw off the foreshots, the entire boiler charge will have time to come up to temp and the most volatile nasties will have gotten hot enough to boil off.

Next adjust the take off for a broken stream for the "guestimanted" heads cut.

Last is the hearts setting @ around 3 to 4 ltrs/hour.
As the run progresses the takeoff rate will decrease.
When tails appear shut off the power, drain and clean.

Respectfully I disagree. Nothing happens in the column until the pot is boiling. You can put your hand on the column and feel the heat rise up once it starts boiling.

Let's say there are 4 ounces of foreshorte/heads. When it starts boiling some of it comes out of the pot. After time more comes out. You can see it with a digital temp gauge in the boiler. Within 5 minutes the vast majority of the heads foreshots come out.
Now you can dilute this with etoh and water.

Or you can run full reflux and concentrate it at the head if the column.

I've tried it your way. Have you tried it my way?

[shadylane]

I've tried it your way. Have you tried it my way?

Yes, I have tried it your way.
When I was learning how to drive a packed column and constantly fiddling with the controls.

[shadylane]

Respectfully I disagree. Nothing happens in the column until the pot is boiling. You can put your hand on the column and feel the heat rise up once it starts boiling.

Never said anything was happening in a column before the pot boiled.

[drmiller100]

Respectfully I disagree. Nothing happens in the column until the pot is boiling. You can put your hand on the column and feel the heat rise up once it starts boiling.

Never said anything was happening in a column before the pot boiled.

But you did.
During the time it takes to draw off the foreshots, the entire boiler charge will have time to come up to temp and the most volatile nasties will have gotten hot enough to boil off.

[drmiller100]

I've tried it your way. Have you tried it my way?

Yes, I have tried it your way.
When I was learning how to drive a packed column and constantly fiddling with the controls.

I invite you to reexamine my approach with your advanced knowledge you have acquired since.

Im willing to consider your way if I could understand why your way is better.
Experience and rationalization suggests your way smears.

[Pure Old Possum Piss]

Respectfully I disagree. Nothing happens in the column until the pot is boiling. You can put your hand on the column and feel the heat rise up once it starts boiling.

Never said anything was happening in a column before the pot boiled.

But you did.
During the time it takes to draw off the foreshots, the entire boiler charge will have time to come up to temp and the most volatile nasties will have gotten hot enough to boil off.

Whether you're using an old timey pot or a reflux, there's always gonna be some smearing of fractions.
In a 50 ft commercial there's enough height that it's slightly cooler at the top and your fractions will stack with better resolution. The lightest, most volatile at the top with other fractions below that. In a commercial you don't want to draw foreshots and then heads. You stack that shit and then come back down the column to where the best tasting is and draw off that port.
If you've got enough plates or packing, your fractions will stack on smaller stills. There will still be smearing but not that bad. Since you can't draw off just any old height from the column you must bleed off from the top your seperate fractions( fores, heads, hearts...).
Once eq is achieved if you "dump" your heads it will create a lot of turbulence in the column and you'll have bad smearing. But if you slowly draw off each fraction you'll get less turbulence and less smearing of your fractions. With small columns it can be a real task to get them to eq and maintain stabilization but it can be done. Once you've got the Nasties out of the way you can let her rip until you start reaching tails.
This is just my take from my experience of working petroleum refineries for 5 years and commercial distilling for 20. When you get to these tiny hobby stills nothings is so cut and dry. But you can still make a great drop right at home using small stills.