Easy Still Problem - Adivice/Help Needed
Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:51 pm
Yesterday I was about half way through distilling 4 litres of 20% fermented turbo wash when the pressure inside lifted the top up and the hot wash blew all over my walls and ceiling! It's a good thing I wasn't standing over it, as I would have been seriously scalded. I cleaned up the mess, and several hours later, continued on, and had the same thing happen again. What a day!
I have been using the Easy Still successfully for about a month now, and so far nothing like this has ever happened, although occasionally the top will lift up a little, which lets off some steam and some wash runs down the side. It's a little messy, but mostly just annoying, up until yesterday.
For those of you not familiar with the Easy Still, the top consists of a fan and cooling coil which justs sits on top of the boiler. There's a silicone gasket and just the weight of the top holds it down.
I ran another batch this morning with the fan shroud off, hoping to get additional cooling around the coil, and had the top lift up a little twice and some spilled over the top. Boy did that make me edgy!
Some additional facts to help with the analysis: the ambient temperature both times was around 21 deg. C. When I first got the Easy Still, I filled it with water and left on for about 90 min with the top off. The water never got over 90 deg. C. It is a genuine Easy Still, bought brand new and not modified at all, other than the original conversion done by the Easy Still people.
I'm thinking of putting piece of 1"x2" across the top with a threaded rod on each side to apply some downward pressure to hold the top down, but I'm worried about excessive pressure building up inside, and not being able to release, short of blowing the pot wide open.
So, has anyone ever had this happen, or heard of it happening to someone else? Any and all thoughts and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Dave.
I have been using the Easy Still successfully for about a month now, and so far nothing like this has ever happened, although occasionally the top will lift up a little, which lets off some steam and some wash runs down the side. It's a little messy, but mostly just annoying, up until yesterday.
For those of you not familiar with the Easy Still, the top consists of a fan and cooling coil which justs sits on top of the boiler. There's a silicone gasket and just the weight of the top holds it down.
I ran another batch this morning with the fan shroud off, hoping to get additional cooling around the coil, and had the top lift up a little twice and some spilled over the top. Boy did that make me edgy!
Some additional facts to help with the analysis: the ambient temperature both times was around 21 deg. C. When I first got the Easy Still, I filled it with water and left on for about 90 min with the top off. The water never got over 90 deg. C. It is a genuine Easy Still, bought brand new and not modified at all, other than the original conversion done by the Easy Still people.
I'm thinking of putting piece of 1"x2" across the top with a threaded rod on each side to apply some downward pressure to hold the top down, but I'm worried about excessive pressure building up inside, and not being able to release, short of blowing the pot wide open.
So, has anyone ever had this happen, or heard of it happening to someone else? Any and all thoughts and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Dave.