Okay, since I have answered this question so many times already, I decided to post it here:
Heaps of vapor are coming out of the end of my condenser. What should I do to fix it?
Disclaimer:This question is most frequently asked when a water-run is done. Keep in mind that water is much harder to condense than ethanol. Many have noted in Nixon-Stone condensers that water vapor pours out of the top of their condenser, but when ethanol is done, only the bottom two coils are wet.
First off, decide what kind of condenser you have.
If you have a leibig style condenser (pipe within a pipe), consider how your hoses are hooked up. In order to maximize efficiency, the water should run in the direction opposite that of the vapor. In downward-facing leibig condensers, that means that water should come IN the product collectoin side and OUT nearer to the top.
If you have a Nixon-Stone style condenser (coil full of cooling water dropped in the top of the column), then try rolling up a bit of copper scrubber and sticking it inside the coil. This also works for leibig condensers.
If you have the classic, coil-in-a-bucket style (a.k.a. worm), then the most you could do would be to reduce the overall temperature of the coolant with, say, ice.
And in all condensers, the cooling water rate can be turned up or the temperature of the coolant lowered in order to remedy this.
Condenser Problems
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BW Redneck
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Condenser Problems
"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance... baffle them with bullshit."
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20lt small pot still, working on keg
"Don't steal. The government hates competition."
"Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see"
20lt small pot still, working on keg
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duds2u
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Another way of improving the efficiency of a liebig condenser is to pull a stainless steel scrubber apart and very loosely pack it.
I've got about a quarter of a scrubber in a 400mm by 20mm liebig, just enough so that it is touching the walls of the condenser and no restriction on vapour flow. This effectively increases the cooling surface area and dropped the temperature of my output by about 8° C
I've got about a quarter of a scrubber in a 400mm by 20mm liebig, just enough so that it is touching the walls of the condenser and no restriction on vapour flow. This effectively increases the cooling surface area and dropped the temperature of my output by about 8° C