Home Distiller

Posted: **Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:45 pm**

does anyone have any suggestions on what type of heat source to use.
I have a milk can boiler with about a 9.5" base. I tried the broil king 1100w electrice w/ 5.5" heating coil, it overheated. I would like to use electric so i can use in my garage. does anyone know of a good heater that wont overheat and can handle the weight of the boiler and column?
any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Posted: **Fri Oct 13, 2006 6:22 pm**

I bought a 750 watt hotplate from wal-mart and ran it with my venom....it took 2 hours to get to temp, but once there, it was great.
backed it off, got it equilized, and didn't have to touch it again.
Was easy to see when the tails started....

Posted: **Sat Oct 14, 2006 12:30 pm**

the problem with mine is the milk can does not have a flat bottom. it is indented in the center about 7.5" and about 1/2" deep so it sits over top of the heating coils and the outer rim sits directly on the burner surface. I guess thats why it overheated. has anyone tried one of those halogen heat plates?

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:13 pm**

Do you have a turkey fryer? One of those propane burners should do the trick. You should also be able to run that in the garage too. I've used propane fire kitchen stoves for years and a vent less propane fireplace. The burner for the turkey fryer shouldn't be much different. So there shouldn't be any risk of carbon monoxide poisoning or anything.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:45 pm**

jmc91199 wrote:So there shouldn't be any risk of carbon monoxide poisoning or anything.

Better make sure you have some air coming in. If your working in a nice new modern garage there sealed up pretty good and several hours worth of cookin COULD eat up all your O2. Better safe than dead, that type of thing could give our hobby a bad name.

I do use propane in my garage with much success.

If you happen to have a coleman camp stove, that would work good for a small batch.