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YOUR INSANE!!! - BUT I LIKE IT

Nice still. Two works twice as fast as one. I like your web site too.
I have been working on plans for a quad stack. I would have built it by now but it's not going to be cheap.
The advantage of multiple stacks being speed and vertical clearance, I figure the whole thing could be only about 3 feet tall and still perform like an 8 foot column.

That doubble stack is pretty grooovey.

My first collumn will be a single, but I hope to put some fittings in it that will allow the collumn to be 1/2meter, 1meter, or 1.5 meter depending on my needs. I havent decided on 2inch or 3 inch, but I'm leaning tward 3".
I figgure that 3" will allow me to fire the boiler stronger without flooding the collumn.
I also want to have my rig set up for a stripping run that runs clean WASH through the condenser coil and then emptying the warm wash into the middle of the collumn.
I think structured copper mesh packing will fit my needs better than marbles or rasching rings, but time will tell. One step at a time.

Nice website gulflarger.(you are down in AUSTRALIA, no?)
Later on.

possum wrote:I havent decided on 2inch or 3 inch, but I'm leaning tward 3".

My 2 inch column will handle 1500 watts, but not 3000 watts. I don't have any other elements to try different power levels. I suspect 2000 watts is about the top end for a 2 inch.
I run about 5 feet of packed column. I would have gone taller, but this is all I could fit with 8 foot ceiling. A taller column will let you run a lower reflux ratio (collect more) at the same purity.

There was some discussion long ago on the yahoo groups about doing 'staged' columns. That is, the output of one column feeds the next. The idea was to get the benefits of a VERY tall column, but in a short package. I don't know that anyone ever built this setup.

I thought you couldn't use a light dimmer for such a strong element? that's what I've read, I'm not an expert.