Home Distiller

Well you guys convinced me to build a pot still so i can make some good whiskey and brandy. I went to the scrap yard and got all the NEW copper i need. total came out to $14 for (1) 2"x28", (2) 1"X26", (2) 1/2"X30". Not bad at all. I am building mine as close as i can to the one posted in this thread:

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3852

I have come up with 2 different plans:

1.


OR

2.


Questions:
1. Which looks like the better design?
2. Would you make any changes to either?
3. Is it really worth it to double the vapor pipe to 1" then reduce it to 1/2" for the water jacket?

thanks for all your input
-Moonshine Mike

Both plans look ok to me,but ive built a few leibeg condencers,and I think
that one will be a water hog.I made mine with 3/4in inside 1in,then reduced it to 1/2 on the collection end. also leave the 2in reducer unsoldered so you can clean it better,and put a scrubber or two in there,depending on what your running.Use teflon tape at the unsoldered joint,and it wont leak vapor.
wineo

wineo wrote:Both plans look ok to me,but ive built a few leibeg condencers,and I think
that one will be a water hog.I made mine with 3/4in inside 1in,then reduced it to 1/2 on the collection end. also leave the 2in reducer unsoldered so you can clean it better,and put a scrubber or two in there,depending on what your running.Use teflon tape at the unsoldered joint,and it wont leak vapor.
wineo

Good thinking Wineo, updated plan #2, which is the one im going to build unless anyone else has ideas on how to make it better.

-Moonshine Mike

Seems good for me too... Both condensers would work. I've a 2" column, 16" tall and it works pretty good. More than 16" would produce reflux... Mine gives first drips at 80%vol : enough, maybe too much!

Well i spent most of the afternoon cutting and fitting the pieces together. Ive gone back to the original plan of an 18" column. Heres how it looks so far:

Looks very good.lots of cooling capicity.
wineo

Looks good....it really is amazing how simple it is to get started in this hobby. It might have been a bit more difficult in the pre-internet days.....I owe home distiller. org a lot.

on your condensor, make the water lines come off at a downward angle. Try to invision where your water source, and drain will be, or you'll be fightin kinked hoses. Looks great.

What size are the various lines? It looks like you went from 2" to 1" and then reduced to either 3/4" or 1/2" as you went into the liebig, which has a 1" jacket, but I'm not sure. I like how you stuck the reducer into the tee at the top of the liebig - it looks real clean. How long is the condenser?

I turned my water inlet, outlet lines downward. Cold water goes in at the top. I'm using a 2 gpm Little Giant pump.

When you get it finished distill off a couple gallons of water by running it full blast. Good way to test it out and clean out the pipes.

MikeyT wrote:I turned my water inlet, outlet lines downward. Cold water goes in at the top. I'm using a 2 gpm Little Giant pump.

I'm sorry, did you say that the cold water comes in from the top? Most condenser designs have the cold inlet running in from the bottom of the condenser to induce a little thing called a counter current.

If I am misreading your post, disregard this entirely.

If two fluids (which may be defined as either liquid or gas) are separated by a semi permeable membrane, (in this case, copper) and they are flowing in opposite directions, the desired trait (in this case, heat) will transfer from the richer one to the poorer one more efficiently than if the fluids were flowing in the same direction.

What this means is that if the cold water is flowing upwards (from the inlet closest to the collection point) instead of down, you will use a lesser volume of water to cool the same amount of vapor, thereby making your condenser more efficient. This is incredibly valuable in stripping runs as you are forcing more vapor to condense in the same amount of time.

Making the water flow uphill may be a challenge if your circulation system is gravity powered. (Using a coolant reservoir above the condenser to create flow.)
However, since I see that you are using a pump, this should be no problem.

Aside from all that, very nice looking condenser.

Condenser is 24" long, the core is 3/4" inside the 1" jacket.

Well, you made a believer out of me! I switched the hoses and tested the temps. The distillate is now running 3° cooler. Before it was 4° hotter than the water in the circulation tub. Now it's just 1° hotter. I don't think I quite understand the thermodynamics involved here, but the test definitely shows an improvement! Thanks!

Having 2 mash's fermenting, I'm distilling some water today.

BW, This goes against all logical thinking but hey, if it works better that way I am going to run it up hill.

Pugi

PUGIDOGS wrote:BW, This goes against all logical thinking but hey, if it works better that way I am going to run it up hill.

Pugi

Checked in one of my old thermodynamics books. The answer is average temperature differential. You want to have the maximum temperature differential you can get for as long as you can get it. Opposing flow will give you maximum average temperature differential. More temperature differential, more better.

I hadn't really given it much thought but it sure works!

This goes against all logical thinking but hey,

Its just physics...

I'm no perfesser in thermodynamics, but I read through my stillin' source books thoroughly. The Compleat Distiller mentions that liebig condensers are more efficient when the cooling water is run in the opposite direction of the vapor, but, unlike everything else, it does not mention why.

I wanted to find out, so I was trolling around on Wikerpedier one day, trying to look up something on the Stirling Cycle Engine, when I stumbled upon it.

Don't ya just love the internet?

An analogy can illustrate this point.

In jousting, it's easier for one knight to hit the other if they are running at each other. It's much harder if they are running in the same direction.

and if you run it from bottom to top it'll push out the air bubble and entirely fill the water jacket. if you accidentally run it top to bottom the water can "fall out" without having to fill the void.

in a glass condensor it's easy to see and i've seen this happen dozens of times when i taught organic lab. if the condensor doesn't fill there's not going to be much heat transfer.

and like everyone said, you want the counterflow to maximize the gradient.

schnell wrote:and if you run it from bottom to top it'll push out the air bubble and entirely fill the water jacket. if you accidentally run it top to bottom the water can "fall out" without having to fill the void.

in a glass condensor it's easy to see and i've seen this happen dozens of times when i taught organic lab. if the condensor doesn't fill there's not going to be much heat transfer.

and like everyone said, you want the counterflow to maximize the gradient.

That's why I got to wondering about what direction it should flow. With the 1st way I had it hooked up, I was getting bubbles for the 1st 15 minutes. That got me wondering about heat transfer efficiency. Just never had taken the time to reverse the flow. Now, when I turn the pump on, it bubbles for a few seconds and that's it.