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I have a buddy who builds stainless tanks for a living. Under my (uneducated) instruction, he built my still based on plans I pulled from the web. He has access to very reasonably priced sight glasses that I can incorporate into my pot or column. Do you guys see any reason for using this, other than the coolness factor? Honestly, I'm sort of curious as to what's happening in the pot during a run...

They are cool. And they can be useful tools, indicating what is happening during the run. What will you see on a pot still? Prolly not much...but it may fog up as the tails come on? Give some details on what the build is. But the short answer is, I haven't met anybody yet that wishes they DIDNT have glasses. Sounds like the price is right, put tum in! If they are not useful now, they might be later when the still evolves, and you'll wish you had em.

If I had access to that I would start on a flute build, can't see any reason at all to have them in a pot still.

whetstone wrote:I have a buddy who builds stainless tanks for a living. Under my (uneducated) instruction, he built my still based on plans I pulled from the web. He has access to very reasonably priced sight glasses that I can incorporate into my pot or column. Do you guys see any reason for using this, other than the coolness factor? Honestly, I'm sort of curious as to what's happening in the pot during a run...

In my opinion putting a sight glass in the column of a pot still would be of no gain. You cannot see the alcohol vapour.
Save the sight glasses for your plated column then they are very useful.
SD

I fail to see the excitement of watching liquid simmer in a pot... If you feel the need to do so we can't stop you but I think the novelty would fade rather fast in comparison the the effort expended... You don't need "wow factor", you just need a still that works... Save the "Wow!" for the response to the great tasting spirits it produces...

I agree theres no reason to have one in a pot still head but in the pot why not? I put one in my milk can because i am interested in how much frothing different washes produce. Plus i think it will make a good diagnostic tool if flow stops mid run because you can actually see the boil to determine if your heat source died.

Its your still, if you can afford and like it then add it.

Not much to see in a pot.
If you had one in your boiler, it could be a helpful tool, particularly if you have a variable heat input.