Page 1 of 1
10" double wound coil as product condenser?
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:20 am
by ThrownOlive
I had a bit of extra 1/4" tubing and wound myself a coil and now I'm looking for a more compact condenser than my 36" liebig. I'm wondering if a 10" double wound coil(in a 2" shell) would have any use as a product condenser?
If it won't work as a product condenser, it should work as a relflux condenser on a 3" bubblecapped flute right? Pretty sure that in the future, when I have extra copper on my hands, I need to just get it out of sight, otherwise I'll get some scheme in my head and go down the rabbit hole.
Thanks,
Thrown
Re: 10" double wound coil as product condenser?
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 12:25 am
by DAPHELP
Could use it as a precondenser. It will knock the vapour down but probably won't cool it properly, as much of it will drip off.
Re: 10" double wound coil as product condenser?
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 12:53 am
by myles
You don't want to make the liebig (or any other product condenser) too short because it does two things, it condenses everything and then it also cools it. Hot, high proof, liquid ethanol, is not really something you would want to have in your still room.
I know some folks go shorter but I suspect 14" is probably as short as you can go to still have sufficient contact time for cooling the distilate. 24" is probably better. A multi tube 24" shotgun is really quite effective.
Regarding the liebig there are two different types of 3 walled versions, and you can also coil the liebig to make it more compact. My own 3 wall liebig is really a concentric 2 tube shotgun, is only about 16" but is used on a reflux column. For the pot still I have a coiled liebig that is about 7 foot long but occupies about a cubic foot of space.
I would agree with using the coil as a precondenser to take some of the load off your product condenser, so you could make it a bit smaller.
Re: 10" double wound coil as product condenser?
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 12:18 pm
by ThrownOlive
Sounds good! If I ever get this bubblecap flute finished I'm sure I'll start scheming about some other build where I can use the coil.