pint's condenser

[Ricky]

pint if you would,please tell us a little about your condenser for your big rig. how well does it perform compared to a worm or liebig? how much water flow does it need? can you put the inner part in a 15gal keg and not change water on a 10gal wash? how hard is it to clean? are you pleased with it? how difficult was it to build? the reason i ask all these questions is because i am trying to figure out a condenser that will match up to my copper pot i am going to build and i dont want to circulate the water if i dont have to. i tryed a worm and the worm won this time but i may make another attempt if your condenser doesnt fit my bill. thank you!

[pintoshine]

pint if you would,please tell us a little about your condenser for your big rig.

My condenser for my big rig is quite a nice condenser. It is a double walled cylinder with a input to the inside of the two walls at the top and an outlet at the bottom on the opposite side.

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The dimensions are 400mm tall by 250 diameter with 6mm in between the walls.
This gives a cooling surface of 0.62 square meters.

This is the equivalent to 12mm tube 16.5M long.

the reason i ask all these questions is because i am trying to figure out a condenser that will match up to my copper pot i am going to build and i dont want to circulate the water if i dont have to. i tryed a worm and the worm won this time but i may make another attempt if your condenser doesnt fit my bill. thank you!

I read your post about losing to the 3/4" copper.

how well does it perform compared to a worm or liebig?

it would be like having a liebig or worm in flowing water made from 1/2"(12mm) 54 feet(16.5M) long. It works great for a lot of throughput.

how much water flow does it need?

The water flow depends on the heat input. I run 100 gph through the shell. That keeps it plenty cool running 4 gallons an hour from the big pot. The spirits come out the same temp as the water.

can you put the inner part in a 15 gal keg and not change water on a 10gal wash?

I would think that would be ok but you would not have to build the condenser as big as the one I built. And you could use wineo's trick of starting with ice water made from frozen containers of ice.
as a comparison, one of this style that is 3 inches in diameter by 4.5 inches tall has the same surface area as a liebig 3/4" by 36"
which is larger than most people run on the 15.5 gallon keg.

how hard is it to clean?

It isn't. I just flush with clear water when I'm done.

are you pleased with it?

It knocks vapor down extremely fast and It is the least maintenance part of the whole system. I like it a lot.

how difficult was it to build?

It was not too difficult but not trivial either. First I made the outside cylinder to the given diameter. I drilled and sawed the holes for the input and output respectively, and soldered in the tubes. The tubes were flared to make a snug fit once inserted from the inside. Then I made the inside cylinder to spec. I turned out the top and bottom edge, perpendicular to the cylinder wall, so that the diameter of the edge was the same as the inside of the outside cylinder. I slid the two together. This was a bit difficult because I had the tolerance a bit snug and had to pry the edges past the tubes. Once I got it slid in, I fluxed and soldered the edges to the outside cylinder. I then pressure tested it with 15 psi and soapy water.

The tricky part on mine was mounting it to the inside of the canister I made. The canister is sealed so I had a couple of tries getting everything leak proof.

[punkin]

Ya didn't happen to see the post below where i made a smaller cop from the design you gave me, Pint?

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5697

I'd appreciate a little input as to whether you think i'm on the right track, and if you could figure out the equivalent liebig size for me?




SorryToStealHisAttentionRickyPunkin

[Ricky]

pint i thank you very much for the detailed reply. i know it was a lot of questions but i wanted to know the answers and i thought it would be a good resource for the forum also. i would have never guessed that it had the equal cooling power to such a large liebig. sounds great.

[Ricky]

punkin dont worry about grabbing the attention. from what i can tell from your condenser they both look the same but different. i might be wrong though. we can get coors in a 5liter "mini keg" here and i am thinking about putting a 2.5in pipe in a 3in pipe to make my inside cylinder and putting it all in the 5ltr keg. i know i will still have to circulate water but if i figure right it should be equal to a 6ft liebig. and with the proper paint job would look like a mini wooden keg. should save a lot of space and look cute to. not to mention should be plenty of condenser for a 15gal keg or a 12gal copper still. i hope.

[punkin]

Sounds a very ggod idea, Ricky.
I reckon it'd work well.
The only difficult bit will be making the end caps, but if you use bought caps like i did it's not so hard.
Either use a holesaw the rigth size, or do what i did and use a die grinder.
Finnish with a file.