Home Distiller

Running a small pot still (10 gallon boiler) with a straight-pipe jacketed condenser transfers a lot of heat to the cooling water, particularly late in the run when the alcohol content is getting low. If you don't have a creek running through your property or a desire to pay for lots of city water, recirculating the cooling water is a must. I usually run the still at about 1 gallon per hour, so it's a fair amount of heat. (Forgive me for not trying to calculate the BTUs.) To avoid getting REALLY hot condenser water, I pump it from the outlet of the jacket directly to this contraption. It's a (slightly leaking) Toyota Corolla radiator and I built a box around it using plywood scraps with a window fan to draw air through. It required plugging a few odd holes for connections here and there.

Obviously in view of bad historical tradition, I do not use it to condense the distillate, only the cooling water. Of course today's radiators aren't soldered brass any more.

Working on a day in the low 80s, I was able to run for 2+ hours pushing out a quart every 15 minutes and the same 15 gallons of condenser water never got past 110º. Naturally it's limited by the ambient temperature. I make sure the hoses are long enough for it to sit outside in the open air. Pumping the water in at the bottom and out at the top keeps air from accumulating inside. The air coming out of the fan is noticeably warm, so it's sucking out heat. Using plastic hose barbs sealed with some silicone and stainless steel screws makes for a leak-free operation. It's cheap and it works. See if you can get a used or minimally leaking radiator from your friendly mechanic.

Great idea. I was going to do this but went with a little different option: I cool my water directly with a fan.
I was getting 1 gallon an hour thru mine with a liebig as well. I built a new "shotgun" styled condenser to increase my cooling capacity and I ran off a gallon yesterday in 40 minutes with it.

I like it . If your reservoir was bigger I expect that you could hold lower water temperatures .

True enough. More water takes longer to heat up. Still the same amount of heat going into it.

Another option I've been considering is using a kiddie pool as my reservoir. Spread out the water, more surface area to contact with the air, etc.

That or spraying the water into the kiddie pool. There's an old technology called cooling ponds where hot water gets sprayed into the air to lose some heat before falling into the pool.

Pierrot Lunaire 55 wrote:True enough. More water takes longer to heat up. Still the same amount of heat going into it.

Another option I've been considering is using a kiddie pool as my reservoir. Spread out the water, more surface area to contact with the air, etc.

That or spraying the water into the kiddie pool. There's an old technology called cooling ponds where hot water gets sprayed into the air to lose some heat before falling into the pool.

We have 2 coal fired power plants operating off the spray principal you are talking about .
One member was drawing cooling water from his swimming pool .
Each individual has to develope what works for them .