Home Distiller

I just ran my first LM in my new still.
I found it pretty stressful! trying to keep the water coming out of the condenser hot but not have any vapours get out... my water pressure is up and down in my apartment so that doesn't help... doing my second run this morning maybe it will be a bit more relaxing

i would just push the water a little harder and dont worry about it's exit temp

give your self a buffer so your not worrying about the vapor escaping so you focus on off take and ALC %

IMO having the water "hot" on exit makes little difference

Thers no harm in running the water faster. The only serious drawback is it may decrease the effective height of your clumn and force you to takeoff a bit slower. The reason for having the water come off hot is so that you aren't dumping cold distillate back onto the packing. You want the column to use very little energy to revaporize the condensate. If you run water faster it will travel further back down the column before revaporizing. My guess it the worst case sceanrio would be a few inches of your column not functioning as effectively as possible...

If youd like to deal with your water pressure fluctuations than buy a rotameter. I love my rotameter.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Key-FR-Series-A ... 35addf8a42" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
You'll have to buy the knob adjuster to use that one.. sometimes you can buy the models that have the knob on em..

If it's your first run it takes a few to learn how to run it efficiently. I found with my 4" just before reaching temps I bring the amps down a bit then equalize the column with water flow. Astronomical is right my reflux runs abit on the hot side when I am ready to collect.

Thanks guys. yeah my second run was better. i need to change a few things with my still for it to work better. rotameter will be a good investment, and a digital thermometer so i'm not up and down checking so much.
I think it ran for like 7 hrs! that is too long i had to take off at a dribble. i'm pretty happy I got 3l at 95% temperature corrected... hydrometer may be set high though that seems too high for running at a dribble.

how fast can you take off with a 3"? i'm very impatient while doing a 7hr run

Sloanick wrote:... my water pressure is up and down in my apartment so that doesn't help...

I had similar issues with my house water pump easy fix is a water trough fitting inside a 20 Ltr container or bucket pump to that then gravity feed from there… all up cost around $8-10 can post some pictures later on If you want

Sloanick wrote:how fast can you take off with a 3"? i'm very impatient while doing a 7hr run

You can take off as fast as the still will allow while maintaining azeotrope temperature at or near 172F/78C... If you start pulling over excess flavor then reducing the take off speed will make it fade back closer to pure neutral in flavor...

thanks for the advice! I might try that gravity feed when I move out to the country. living down town doing this in my kitchen ha ha. wife won't want buckets hanging from the ceiling. actually I couldn't because the condenser is already at the ceiling.
Thanks rad I will give that a shot. need to invest in a good digital thermometer with an alarm.

My digital thermometer with alarm cost like $10 from Walmart. Stainless probe with about a 2' cord..

wacabi1 wrote:My digital thermometer with alarm cost like $10 from Walmart. Stainless probe with about a 2' cord..

good to know!
what brand?

For $13 at Canadian Tire, you can get the Accu-temp in the kitchen department. I bought four of them and they all read 100.0*C in boiling water and then follow each other within .1* to room temperature.

M

Sorry slonic for just getting back with you. I didn't realize you had asked about brand of thermometer. But the answer is, I don't know... it was in the cooking utensil section near the measuring cups, sifters and such. They had another digital for about the same price but the probe came directly out of the digital box, not on a 2' lead like mine is...

Maybe Walmart needs to start keeping a isle for us stiller's, sugar, yeast, jars, thermometers and. . .

whiskeytripping wrote:Maybe Walmart needs to start keeping a isle for us stiller's, sugar, yeast, jars, thermometers and. . .

Amen Brother!!!