Auto radiator cooling system

[BentJar]

I have been playing around with this for some time and thought I would share the results with you guys. I used a new radiator that had a broken tab and couldnt be used on the car. To it, I attached a 20 in box fan with 3 speeds and made feet to hold everthing upright. Then mounted a dishwasher water pump
to the lower radiator hose port. ( it fit the hose size perfectly).
Hot water from the still is fed to the top radiator hose port.
The darn thing works like a champ as I have used it with 3 different runs one lasting 5 hours. The only drawback is the heat it produces as it heats up the shed. Great for winter shinning though. I have plans to vent this hot air outside but have not got to it yet.

I have a boka tube still with off set head holding my cooling coil with reflux return to the tube. I have a thermometer right where vapor exits the tube and
use this temp. reading thru-out the run. It stays rock solid at 170 degrees untill tails start. Also there is a thermometer stuck into one of the vent holes at the top reading the temp of the cooling coil area. It stays at 130 degrees, normally. Turning the fan speed up one click drops this temp to 120 degrees. The fan runs on the lowest speed normally.

When I started to contruct this cooler the one thing that had to happen was no noise. I didnt want to hear it running for hours. You cannot hear anything but the fan noise which is very little.

I would take pictures of this device but left my camera at the family reunion on july 4 because I drunk to much of my product and forgot it.
When I get it back, I will post pictures.

Bent

[meatheadinc]

Cooler sounds interesting look forward to pics
Boka tube offset head ????? Nixon stone ??

[Ayay]

Auto radiators are soldered with lead solder; the latest ones may be welded. But you are cooling the cooling water and not the alcohol...this is good.
Old shiners used to condense the alc in radiators and this causes problems all the way to the present with stories of lead poisoning.

[BentJar]

No...not running my licker thru no radiator......who would do sumthin like that?

I'll take a pic of the still set up too...its a beautifull thing.

[drinkingdog]

The only problem I could see happening would be if you developed a small leak in your reflux or product condenser and some of the cooling water was mixed with your product

[BentJar]

I dont have internal leaks in the still but to make sure I put a few drops of no 2 red food dye into the cooling water. A leak will result in pink licker.

Used it again yesterday, slick as cat poop.

[F6Hawk]

Not sure I'd be happy with slick cat poop in my output jar, but whatever floats yer hydrometer, BJ!!

Good use of a radiator, thanks for sharing it with us. I haven't had to worry about it before, cuz cooling water was free for me. But soon, it will become not free, so I may need to use your innovation to keep on brewing.

[BentJar]

I was wasting 20 to 25 gallons of water each time I ran the still, more if it was a stripping run. On top of that I had to drag a hose out to the shed for each run and drag it back to cut the grass. I got tired of that so ........

I liked city water for cooling. It was a stable temp. coolant and was easy to adjust on a run of 3 or 4 hours. However, Now that Im cooling with slightly warm water, there wont be shock cooling in the upper coil. If that matters.

Camera has made its way back to me now. Pictures of my set up are coming.


Bent

[BentJar]

As promised. The radiator cooler pictures.

[USACelt]

I have a set up very similar. Use a 30 gallon res.
My fan sucks better than pushing air thru the rad

[USACelt]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =2&t=26430

Read this

[BentJar]

No need for a resevoir with my this set up. The radiator holds 1 1/2 gal. of water, thats all. It works great no matter how hard I run the still. It needs to be mounted as high as possible to get good flow from the little dish washer pump and I run the water flow wide open. Mine is mounted about 2 feet below the upper cooling coil. About chest high on a shelf. I Use the fan speeds to cool more if needed, but have never needed the 3rd or fastest speed yet. It provides plenty of cooling for the coil and product condenser.

I was running city water but my wife would turn on the darn warshing machine and my refluxing would go haywire. This system dont do that, its constant.
Nor does it waste any water.
I highly recomend this upgrade to any still.

[Shae]

What is the purpose for the brick paneling restricting the airflow on the other side of the fan?