Home Distiller

Hi all,

I'm sorry about this, I know the answers are here, I'm just confused...!!

I'm building a pot still on a 50l keg heated with a 3kw heater with controller.

I planned to have 1metre of 22mm copper around a slightly longer 15mm take off tube. - water in the bottom, out the top, (usual method)

I'm just worried it's not long enough... The calc is pretty confusing :/

Please help

That size and length is fine!

Thanks BM,

Thanks a relief

Make sure you read up on your build,put a wire around it! Read read read

That might not be long enough at it's full 3kw

http://homedistiller.org/calcs/cond_calc

Put some copper scrubbies in the first few inches of it and it will work fine. I found that unraveling the scrubbies gave me perfect pieces to shove down the liebeg, and they knock down all of the vapors.

according to the calculator 1m of 15 and 22mm tube is optimum for a running wattage of about 1200W im using a 2.4kw element and a resistance controlled SSR to manage the power, using full pelt to heat up and a lower power to maintain the run.

Bottom line is that it is your's and you can play with it however you want to . Run it and observe . Should be fine as you built it . If it starts huffing you are overdriving it or underdriving coolant flow . One hand washes the other . If you don't get the output and speed you expected you can modify . In the meantime ; get good at driving what you got . The experience will stand you in good stead ...................

+1

Truckinbutch wrote:Bottom line is that it is your's and you can play with it however you want to . Run it and observe . Should be fine as you built it . If it starts huffing you are overdriving it or underdriving coolant flow . One hand washes the other . If you don't get the output and speed you expected you can modify . In the meantime ; get good at driving what you got . The experience will stand you in good stead ...................

I'm a shorter than a meter and never had a problem.

The wire or scrubbers to create turbulence is a good idea and what I did on my VM still.

The calc on the parent site does say that a shorter condensor can be used if the flowrate is increased. A cheap ($10-$15) aquarium water pump can easily provide 4x the 1.23l/m that appears in the flowrate field for 3kw, using a 15mm liebeg.