Cleaning a new still

[Lextek]

Hello All,
I'm new to distilling and have been reading a lot and building a still. I have an 8 gallon boiler and a valved reflux column. I ran the first cleaning run on 3 gallons of water and 24oz of vinegar. I was able to get to 212 deg and ran steam only for a few minutes and then switched on the pump for the condenser. It was able to maintain 212 and condensed all the steam back into water with no visible steam escaping the condenser. Tonight, I ran the second cleaning run but with 1 gallon of vinegar and 1 gallon of water.Ran at 212 for 20 minutes and then switched on the condenser pump to run another 20 minutes. When turning on the pump, the still temp collapsed and ran at about 150. I could not throw enough propane at it to increase the temperature. What happened?

[Lextek]

I got it figured out, thanks!

[McIndy]

Lextek,

Can you share what you discovered? I am building a 2 inch valved BOKA and am reading up as much as possible, thus I'm curious as to what the problem was when you flipped the pump on during te second cleaning run.
My initial thought was that your valve may be open?

McIndy

[Lextek]

Not sure at this point. I did another run to test and it worked fine. Doing a stripping run this weekend to see how it works with the real thing.