Ricky wrote: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.
