Home Distiller

I thought it best to start a new thread for my development of the "Cooling Hack Illustrating a Linear/Laminar Economical Radiator". CHILLER.

I was okay with the flow at under one litre/minute but thought maybe it should handle a little more for other applications. A notch on the diffuser ring would help. So a grabbed a small rat tail file and started making notches.


After one, I was bored and my fingers hurt. DOH! Another Homer moment. I have a dremel tool.


Much faster, and now the CHILLER will handle a lot more flow.

Hey there. Have any plans, diagrams, pics you could post for those of us not in the know? So we know what this thing is?

Thanks.

With increased flow are you experiencing a larger temp drop? Probably jumpin the gun on your tests huh?

Jkhippie wrote:Hey there. Have any plans, diagrams, pics you could post for those of us not in the know? So we know what this thing is?

Thanks.

+1

Jkhippie wrote:Hey there. Have any plans, diagrams, pics you could post for those of us not in the know? So we know what this thing is?

Thanks.

So sorry, I was originally posting in another thread. You can find my posts in this topic here.

Briefly, what I'm doing is attempting to cool the discharge water from my double wound condenser with a simple and economical method. I'm using inexpensive stainless steel bowls in a tower configuration that cascades and catches the water on the way into the reservoir and pump. This how one pair fits and works.

Here's the evolution of the concept.


Hope that helps.

woodshed wrote:With increased flow are you experiencing a larger temp drop? Probably jumpin the gun on your tests huh?

I will be setting up a real world test tomorrow. I had a sudden brainwave. Rather than drag hot water out to the workshop, and siphon it to simulate use, why not just take it to our laundry room and run direct from the tap. Jeeze, sometimes I'm slow. This way I'll be able to let it run for extended periods with known flows. Like I said sometimes I'm just a little slow.

Great idea,
what if you ran some some sandpaper over the bowls to get rid of the slipperiness, it may help the water spread out a little and cover a larger surface area
just an idea

felsy wrote:Great idea,
what if you ran some some sandpaper over the bowls to get rid of the slipperiness, it may help the water spread out a little and cover a larger surface area
just an idea

Good idea. Although I'm finding that that may not be necessary. I think that at the flow rates I'm working with, complete wetting of the bowls isn't needed. I'm still satisfying my curiosity on the efficiency. Standby.

When are you testing the system today? (Curious George)

Digital_Plasma wrote:When are you testing the system today? (Curious George)

I will be testing shortly. I had to do a minor modification to another stainless steel bowl

What has happened, is a little bit of a disappointment. I set up a running test with hot water, and was extremely pleased at the initial results.I saw the same temperature drop that I saw running the short tests in my workshop. I let it run for 15 minutes or so and came back and checked the temperatures. Much to my surprise and major disappointment the outflow water was only a degree or so lower than the inflow water :-(

When I checked the temperature on all of the cascade and catch bowls they were warm or hot to the touch. So what's happening, is that the cold bowls create the initial cooler temperatures on the discharge water and then they slowly warm up. I was hoping that they would be enough convection to the atmosphere to cool the bowls thus the water. With complete wetting of the bowls, there would be some evaporation cooling, but I'm not sure if it would be enough to do what I need to do.

So, back to the drawing board and the project gets slightly more complicated. I'm not giving up dammit. I'm in the process of building a cooling tower enclosure with some forced air updraft. Pictures to follow shortly.

So, here's the current state of the CHILLER build. I sourced some thin Lexan to build a tube. First thing was to form it roughly into shape with duct tape.


Then, some clamps to form it further.


I used little self tapping screws to do the initial fastening.


Although this sheet of Lexan really wanted to be flat, I was able to convince it to take on a new roundish shape. And then the protective coating removed.


Another minor mod to a cheap SS bowl.


And a cool looking tower with a very turbiney looking fan on top. I had to cut off the legs, but it was a $9 fan,


More tests forthcoming...

To bad about the trial run. But it's looking more and more cool. Very futuristic art. Nicola Tesla would be proud. Perhaps by creating more turbulence in the water, it might slow down and cool more effectively?

Quite the hi-tech chiller you're ending up with there... You problem revolves around the fact that stainless steel doesn't dissipate heat well once it reaches temperature... Aluminum bowls would be a much better choice for this style of cooling water chiller...

Quite the hi-tech chiller you're ending up with there... You problem revolves around the fact that stainless steel doesn't dissipate heat well once it reaches temperature... Aluminum bowls would be a much better choice for this style of cooling water chiller...

Y

Yes, you're right. I was hoping that the very thin wall, about .012" would shed heat a little better.

As with so many of my projects, they get more and more complicated on the way to the scrap heap.

Not sure how much more work you want to put into that chiller tower but if you were to add several holes near the top of each bowl you would get some convective airflow that might help cool the upper bowl surface... Right now heat is probably building up under those inverted bowls... Perhaps only a marginal improvement, but you never know...

Thought 1
I like your chiller idea. I do agree aluminum would be more effective. What about scrubbees in the bowls. Would that have very much effect?

Thought 2
It would also be cheaper (not for you because you already bought your stainless). Why not do a worm in that clear tube in place of the plates and use air to blow over it. I think a fan on the bottom pushes air better than it pulls. I am thinking that you go the opposite way of the water (kinda like the theory of a cooling worm or liebig).

Thought 3
If it is gonna stay all the time why not take the stick copper around the room. Maybe if you went to 3 or 4 corners and and back to your cooling. Give you a little heat in winter and put you a fan in window in summer. You could make it as efficient as you want by the amount of pipe you use. Just a thought.

I completed all the mounting hardware before testing. It will make it easier to test anyway. My vision was for it to sit over the barrel, which doubles as a garbage can the rest of the week.


|ran a soft vinyl tube up the inside to deliver the hot water to the top.


I sacrificed another dollar store bowl to centre the lexan housing. I'm now at about $85 total material costs. Exactly the cost of a new transmission cooler And this may not work. Oh well, my junk pile of useless projects far out towers my useful stuff.


I moved everything into the kitchen for some testing... and my wife said I have to go to work.

halfbaked wrote:Thought 1
I like your chiller idea. I do agree aluminum would be more effective. What about scrubbees in the bowls. Would that have very much effect?
. Just a thought.

Ahhh, you're a thinking guy. I like it. I suspect with input from this collective community, I will make this work. Thanks for the input.

Don't despair!!
If nothing else you have the tops for many many
inverted bowl pot stills

Great thinkin'

Coyote

Since you have such a nice big clear pipe, how much pressure does your pump produce? If you had a spray at the bottom, aimed at the top, the water would have time to cool as it went up, and then back down. I'd add a layer of paper or something absorbant and wicking to the bottom of the pipe, to increase the evaporative cooling. Wouldn't look as cool as what you have, but might work.

A warning. Temperature PORN in the following post. If you are offended by such subject matter, please look away.

I had a 10 hour+ block of time to run a 17 litre batch of 40% through. I hooked up the CHILLER without any other testing, just fingers crossed. Here's the setup.


I'm absolutely tickled pink with the results of the cooling tower. The video briefly shows all the info in one shot so that you know I'm not cheating


In summary I'm seeing about an 18C drop at one litre/minute flow. The shop temperature was about 20C when I started and dropped to 18C later in the afternoon. The CHILLER discharge temp dropped to a spread of 22C. As I write this the 70 litres of water is currently at 23.5C after 4.5 hours of running. I started at 19C.

About two hours ago, I added a cup of dishwasher rinse agent to the 70 litres of water. It tinted the water blue and in a couple of minutes I saw a slight change in surface tension on the bowls. I'm not sure if I saw any temperature change. Hard to say. The lag in the system is huge. When I make a small adjustment on the ball valve to change cooling input flow, it takes time to register a temp change in the discharge. Then that water has to go through the cooling tower. The instrument latency adds to the mix. However, with all that said, I just checked the spread and it's 23C with shop air temp at 18C.

Before and after.


I'm just quite happy right now. The product is coming off at 500 mls/hour compared to the 750 ml/hour last time. Seems a little more distinct in the smell profile. The whole system is stabilized and just humming/dripping along.

Congratulations! In the pictures it looks a lot smaller than I thought. Weird looking contraption to be sure.

Just sayin',
S-C

Congrats Flavius!
Looks like we have a winner here! And yeah, it's surprisingly smaller than I'd imagine also. Hope it serves you well. Are you going to experiment with various cooling fluids or just sticking to water?

Love it.

Not only is your Art Nouveau expression pleasing to the eye, but I hope your jaunt into unexplored territory motivates other HD members to experiment with new cooling techniques and modalities.

For me, I had considered an Oriental motif, using several sections of a rain gutter, in which one section provided a delightful waterfall into the next section.

These exotic coolers could provide therapeutic, assorted-sensory, Zen-like experiences for the operator during a multi-hour distilling session. Can you say "Om Mani Padme "

Regarding the video: I noticed that water flowed down the bowls in several, discrete rivulets. I bet you could achieve a larger temperature delta (heat escape) if you found a way to disperse the water uniformly over the complete surface of each bowl. If not, maybe the upper bowl of each sphere is redundant for function but definitely not for artistic sensation.

Digital_Plasma wrote:Congrats Flavius!
Looks like we have a winner here! And yeah, it's surprisingly smaller than I'd imagine also. Hope it serves you well. Are you going to experiment with various cooling fluids or just sticking to water?

I now have enough 95% I could use that I think I'll just stick with water.

lampshade wrote:Love it.

These exotic coolers could provide therapeutic, assorted-sensory, Zen-like experiences for the operator during a multi-hour distilling session. Can you say "Om Mani Padme "

I was staring at this thing for almost 10 hours yesterday during the longest run I'm ever done. Between the internet on the big screen and the Zen CHILLER, I think I attained a new level of consciousness. Either that or dipping my finger into whatever was dripping our of a little tube caused some happiness. I did get a huge kick out of watching it. Probably because it just worked. I was a little worried. I hate to add to my junk pile.

lampshade wrote:Regarding the video: I noticed that water flowed down the bowls in several, discrete rivulets. I bet you could achieve a larger temperature delta (heat escape) if you found a way to disperse the water uniformly over the complete surface of each bowl. If not, maybe the upper bowl of each sphere is redundant for function but definitely not for artistic sensation.

As the run progressed, the rinse agent I added seemed to take effect. The bottom 3 bowls were almost completely wetted in a thin sheet of water. I still haven''t decided whether it's worth the slight expense.

Because of the potential for flooding which seems to happen in very narrow range of heat application I used less heat this time around.

So here's a odd observation that's begging for an answer. I backed the heat off quite a bit and reduced takeoff. I kept the condenser discharge at approximately 50C. I'm using the Fahrenheit scale on the thermometers. So the column should, and has been, exactly 172F. As I backed the heat off, I got a temp alarm for 173F. Hmmm curious. I set the alarm higher. Shortly after it went to 174F and on until it stabilzed at 176F. Surprise, surprise, the ABV dropped to 90%. I added more heat and the column temp dropped to 172F and the ABV went to 95%. Very counter-intuitive.

Any ideas Water vapour? Did the column collapse below the takeoff point?

Maxximus Flavius wrote:As I backed the heat off, I got a temp alarm for 173F. Hmmm curious. I set the alarm higher. Shortly after it went to 174F and on until it stabilzed at 176F. Surprise, surprise, the ABV dropped to 90%. I added more heat and the column temp dropped to 172F and the ABV went to 95%. Very counter-intuitive.

Any ideas Water vapour? Did the column collapse below the takeoff point?

I would guess that with less heat input your reflux slowed down and resulted in higher column temp and lower ABV. When you added more heat the reflux went up as well as the ABV and the column temp dropped. That's what it sounds like to me anyhow.
Nice work on the chiller!

Great thread! Nice work and Thank You for letting us follow along. I wonder how well it would cool with one of the sections removed? The coolant would fall thru the air to the lower sections and you would have better air flow under each dome.
Now for some L.E.D. lights!

Good Job

An investment of 10 hours and 17 litres of 50% resulted in 6 litres of very pure, crystal clear liquid. The rest, about 2 litres has a slightly off taste and smell which I will recycle. And I have about 300ml that seems to clean price tag adhesive very well. All in all a good day.