cooling my Alembic pot still condenser...it's better but...

[Orpheus123]

OK, so I've been at this for about 6 months, and I've done probably about 10 or 12 runs (I have notes on them but I've lost track of exactly how many I've done).

I started out just blocking both the top and bottom in\out ports for water, filling the bucket with cold water and frozen bottles, and that was it. I was also distilling in my garage at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. It was January. I noticed the water was heating up pretty good by the end of my runs, so I figured I needed a better method. After much trial and error, this is what I came up with:

Still Set up.jpg

Basically, a 10 gallon cooler filled with water and ice blocks, a fountain pump connected to the bottom of the condenser bucket, and an hose connected to the top which sends the overflow back into the cooler, and circulates the water. This works fine for a 90 minute strip run, but the water in the condenser and cooler gets up to about 120 degrees by the end of the run. I mean, it works fine and it beats having to constantly empty water out of it, but I was curious if anyone had a better idea thats still relatively simple. Maybe some "super ice packs" that stay colder longer than these Wal Mart specials? Maybe a bigger cooler so there is more cold water to start? Maybe a better cooler (this one tends to sweat out...I'm definitely wanting a real cooler not just styrofoam)? Maybe the cooler needs to be drainable so I can keep putting cold water in it...a pain but better than what I was doing before...Any other suggestions?