Home Distiller

For those looking to purchase the Sutronic BFM240-13 for heating control, I have found it is actually cheaper to order from the Sutronic Parent Company in the the UK.

http://www.sutronics.com/acatalog/BFM24 ... oller.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

£31.22 = $63.00

Shipping is free as the purchase is over £20.00 confirmed by their rep over email.

That is better than half the price of Austrlaian Distributor for Sutronics RS components.

Also on a safety note the maximun load you are allowed to draw from a domestic powerpoint in Australia is 2400 watts.

Many people in Australia have a heavy-duty power point installed, it will permit 3600 watts (15 amps), at least I'm pretty sure that amount is right.
The (standard Australian 3-pin configuration) heavy-duty outlet has a broader (about half as broad again?) (not 'thick') earth socket;
appliances/power cords capable of using this amount of power have to have a matching broad earth pin so that they can't be used in the standard 10 amp socket.
So you can have one of these outlets installed if you want one.

Nice find, gbds. Thanks for that.

And what The Baker says is correct. However, 15A power points are relatively rare. The big advantage of only using 2400 w (10A) elements is that you can plug them in pretty well anywhere that has mains power.

Hi Guys, a question regarding putting this together; is it as simple as just screwing the supplied base screw into an aluminium heat sink (or metal case as a heat sink possibly) and then wire Live and N for input cable and then L and N for cable to element (possibly just cut a power lead in half and use each end) put it in a box to keep it safe and that is it? If so I think even I can make this and what size heat sink would you recommend? Just going off this photo of the sutronic control. They are available locally for NZ$130 but looks like about half price direct from UK. Thanks for your help with this. A photo of someones put together unit would be great.

Cheers.

you need something to control the controller.

I purchased this controller a couple of years ago

works very well

The photo you show is the back of the unit , the front has a dial control

the idea using a small lead and cutting it in half works well

the bits you need , Al sink and sink glue , control box etc are available from Jaycar

The instructions that come with the controller tells all and is KISS

The earth wire , if I remember correctly hooks up to the threaded bit hanging down in the photo

Thanks Rod.

Good to know they have instructions on it. Last electronic device I made was a Dick Smith Electrbe Strobe kit, worked well for a few years but I had to continuously fix it. Forgot about the Earth - might be a good idea eh!

I have a boiler with two seperate elements, at this time one is 1kw and one is 750 Watt. It would be good to be able to have a sligtly larger one under control and use the other just to speed heat up. I haven't used it in awhile, just dusting off the old still and thought I'd come online and see what has developed over the years (must have been about 4 years since I've put a run through).

Cheers.

At this stage I am still (sic) using a still spirits reflux still

I had , in the early days , had problems getting a neutral spirit .

Use the controller by setting it at maximum until it just starts to boil and then throttling it back to about 75°C and then fine adjusting till I have the still running at about 77 t0 78°C and let it reflux for about 20 minutes , and no spirit in being collected , then collect some spirit until I get a clean taste .

Slowly , slowly

I find that in tossing the first 50 mls , that the change comes at about 40 to 45 mls .

Stop the run at 82°C ,

I know I lose some yield , but with sugar at 80 cents a kg , who cares

Have thought about running it to 90°C and then saving this spirit to bulk distill from other runs later ,
but how much will I save at the cost of contamination

After a lot of reading and much help from folks on this forum ,

ie

low sugar wash

not using turbo yeasts

and low temperature fermentation

I get a very clean neutral spirit

now into making gin etc using a botanical basket like system

sorry I begin to ramble

It's good to hear other peoples experiences, each setup will react individualy but the general gist will be similar (in my experience).

I think having that sort of fine control that you mention helps speed up a run by being able to have bigger elements (and avoid surging etc) and also like you say can help keep overall end quality up. We first used some pretty rough pot stills and equipment, for neutral spirits it was a pain to filter everything so much. I have a few different beasts now but have never been able to control the heat besides having different elements I could turn on/off - always avoided gas heating due to personal phobias related to past experiences with gas bottles and foolish behaviours with flames etc....

If you save up end runs it is best to water them down by probably half to make up a run, you can get allot out of this worth a try. Follow the same rules for this run keeping an eye on the temperature and you should be more than safe. I have very limited experience with the botanical extraction side of things but it is extremely interesting - there is a TV show called 'grow your own dr#gs" about plants in the garden that have medicinal uses that has got me thinking along those lines again... I too digress off topic sorry.

Well, I think I'll order the Sutronics part and yes it looks like no shipping charges and VAT. That is almost 50% of what the local supply store charges here in NZ too.