Relative elevation of kettle, thumper, and worm

[serpentruss]

I am upsizing my setup from a 1.5 gallon kettle to an 8-gallon milk-can-jug kettle and I'll be adding a thumper. I don't have any column elements so far so this will be running as a pot still.

I'll be setting everything up every time I run on a work table in my shop, so I'm thinking of making an easily storable stand for the worm and possibly the thumper before I finalize the plumbing.

I have to elevate my worm because the outlet is close to the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket it's built in and the outlet has to be raised enough off the table to get a jar under. So a worm stand is one piece I have to fabricate. With the worm elevated, the outlet of the kettle and the inlet of the worm are almost at the same level.

The thumper could sit on my work table without a stand, but that would put a 20-ish inch vertical run from the outlet of the thumper to the entrance of the worm tubing. I'm wondering if that will have an impact on flavor notes carrying over to my product.

My small 1-1/2 gallon rig always seemed to deliver a fairly neutral spirit, no matter what mash recipe I used and I'm hoping my new setup will yield more flavor, especially if I run part of my mash in the thumper.

So I guess the crux of my question is should I elevate my thumper to minimize the vertical run into my condenser?

[Yummyrum]

There might be a little passive reflux caused by the 20” vertical riser to the worm especially if your workshop is very cold . But if you insulate it , it should have negligible effect and behave as if it was the same height.

[shadylane]

Here's my favorite way to run a thumper.
The thumper can be elevated higher than the pic but not lower or the boiler charge will fill the thumper instead of visaversa.
Once the thumper has been precharged with several inches the level will remain constant.

[Steve Broady]

Here's my favorite way to run a thumper.
The thumper can be elevated higher than the pic but not lower or the boiler charge will fill the thumper instead of visaversa.
Once the thumper has been precharged with several inches the level will remain constant.

I really like this idea! But I am at a loss. I admit that there is a lot I don’t know or understand, so I’m probably missing something obvious, but what keeps the vapor from just boiling up the drain tube and out the outlet and completely bypassing the lyne arm?

[shadylane]

The weight of the liquid.

[Tammuz]

The weight of the liquid.

Heat will transfer to what's next to it. I would think it will rise up that transfer tube. That would make you lose your 1.5 distillation as it would evaporator just in the thumper.

Claim no knowledge that my idea is right just my common sense.

[Bolverk]

The liquid in the tube draining back would be far cooler than the liquid in the boiler. There would be no steam coming back through that drain tube

[Tammuz]

The liquid in the tube draining back would be far cooler than the the liquid in the boiler. There would be no steam coming back through that drain tube

No vapor/steam I would agree. 4-6 hour runs will easily transfer that temp up the tube.Once the boiler level drops it would allow evaporation in that transfer tube. It's not much compared to the total run but there it is.

[shadylane]

The thumper could sit on my work table without a stand, but that would put a 20-ish inch vertical run from the outlet of the thumper to the entrance of the worm tubing. I'm wondering if that will have an impact on flavor notes carrying over to my product.

So I guess the crux of my question is should I elevate my thumper to minimize the vertical run into my condenser?

As Yummy pointed out having a taller vertical run into the condenser isn't going to make much difference and insulation will limit any unwanted passive reflux that causes the thumper to over fill.

[serpentruss]

Thanks for all the input. I found an old stool to elevate my thumper and I used a three gallon bucket to elevate my worm. The 5-gallon bucket nests into the lid of the 3-gallon bucket which gives it a secure platform. What worked out nicely is that the height of the outlet of the kettle and the inlet of the worm are parallel, so the thumper can be left out of a run and the plumbing is still easy.

My vertical on the thumper outlet turned out to be about 5 inches. My thumper is made from a stainless bucket with a snapping lid so not having visibility into what was going on was a bit concerning. I made a sacrificial run on Sunday and did not build any level in my thumper beyond what I pre-charged with. This was without insulating the discharge. So the thumper was a success.

I'm intrigued with the self-draining thumper idea, but it seems like it would be run-volume specific and it would not work if you wanted to use the thumper for flavoring.

[shadylane]

My vertical on the thumper outlet turned out to be about 5 inches...
....I'm intrigued with the self-draining thumper idea, but it seems like it would be run-volume specific and it would not work if you wanted to use the thumper for flavoring.

Five inches I've seen folks using 3 foot tall plumbing.
A downcomer definitely wouldn't work for flavoring or using the thumper for a steam rig.
Works good for rum though, the return to the boil makes the thumper into an extremely large bubble plate that you can drive the hell out of without flooding or worrying about entrainment. But if driven that hard a small reflux condenser will be needed.

[Bee]

I'd dump the worm and put a shotgun or Liebig on it. Worms are hard to clean.

[Pure Old Possum Piss]

I'd dump the worm and put a shotgun or Liebig on it. Worms are hard to clean.

^ this!

[Pure Old Possum Piss]

Ps.
If you angle your lyne arm back towards your main pot, not down towards your thumper, any passive reflux will drain back into the main pot instead of filling up your thumper prematurely.