New member, new T500

Just starting out and need some advise? then post it in here.

Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:44 pm

The Stig wrote:How many times have we heard “they say it’s supposed to leak like that” :teasing-tease:


Too many Stig. Even with my very limited knowledge of the workings of a still I'm not buying it.

I asked Dr. Google to look for similar complaints and there's a fair few of them on the interwebs. It seems the distributors are being told to spin the "it's supposed to leak" line, probably to deter a flood of warranty claims. IMHO it's a design flaw - if there's supposed to be some sort of pressure relief device then there ought to be a one way valve or the like in that part of the column.

Simple fact is I rinsed it after the vinegar run and it didn't leak at all. Then I did a "Water Distillation" run as per the instructions (which can be found online), took about 1L out of it, waited for it to cool and then rinsed it again. Now it leaks like an old codger with an incontinence problem. :angry-banghead:
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Tue Jan 21, 2020 7:57 pm

So it seems the leak is not as bad as it was last night. Have sent pics off to get the HBS guy's nod of "this is normal" (I'm not expecting he'll say there's anything wrong) before I do a run on the weekend.

But I'll have a small mirror on hand to check for vapour leaks :-B

Will wait and see I guess :-ss
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby scythe » Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:46 am

If it was worse when it was warm take a photo when it is warm, as that is the temp it will be when you are using it.
It should not leak there.
Would be dangerous vapour were to leak from that join.

Even do another water run just to make sure.

If it was designed to leak there then it would from the get go.
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby bluc » Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:23 pm

Dont know why the engineer of this still thought plastic would be good to use...boost sales after failure perhaps..
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Wed Jan 22, 2020 4:17 pm

scythe wrote:If it was worse when it was warm take a photo when it is warm, as that is the temp it will be when you are using it.
It should not leak there.
Would be dangerous vapour were to leak from that join.

Even do another water run just to make sure.

If it was designed to leak there then it would from the get go.


Thanks scythe, good idea. I doubt it was designed to leak there. Even with my limited knowledge of still design I can't think of one reason why.

bluc wrote:Dont know why the engineer of this still thought plastic would be good to use...boost sales after failure perhaps..


bluc, I reckon it's purely cost over quality. Even if it gets replaced or not, I'll be looking at modding it to something a but more safer, reliable and practical. I'm thinking it won't be too hard to make something similar from copper that will replace the plastic bit. Could even have a vapour thermometer option, like the previous versions did.

Funny thing when I googled the operation manual. The latest version of the manual has an extra entry to the Trouble Shooting section compared to previous versions. I won't repeat it verbatim, but it's along the lines of "the column leaks when I wash it". The answer is "it's vented at the top, this is normal. No need to fix". :scared-eek:
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby bluc » Wed Jan 22, 2020 5:41 pm

Some stills need to be vented at top but they should not leak water or vapour through vent unless something is very wrong..
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Sam. » Wed Jan 22, 2020 8:31 pm

The only stills that need a vent are liquid management and vapour management still where you are controlling the output from a valve that can be shut. If there is not vent this can lead to a potential bomb scenario.

Cooling management stills and pot still do not require a vent as they are open to atmosphere.

It's my understanding that the T500 is cooling management? Shouldn't leak.
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Doubleuj » Wed Jan 22, 2020 9:18 pm

Yeap, it’s definitely a cm still and shouldn’t leak. But I’ve always thought that the plastic piece is definitely a cost over quality like Tesla said. SS make these things for the lowest dollar in order to mass produce and maximise profits.
Take it back and get a refund then upgrade to something better.
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:11 am

Doubleuj wrote:Yeap, it’s definitely a cm still and shouldn’t leak. But I’ve always thought that the plastic piece is definitely a cost over quality like Tesla said. SS make these things for the lowest dollar in order to mass produce and maximise profits.
Take it back and get a refund then upgrade to something better.


I agree WJ, from what I've learnt a CM still shouldn't need any venting either.

Seriously considering taking it back and getting something better from FSD instead.
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Sun Jan 26, 2020 7:28 am

So, the HBS sent the pics of the leaky column to SS, who came back and said that they would replace the whole lot under warranty.

Got the new one home. Repacked the column (took about 60 stainless saddles out), plumbed it up and tested for leaks, gave it a wash, then a vinegar run. Let it cool down overnight and rinsed it out this morning, did not leak one drop. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Will do a sacrificial Turbo wash run today and then my TPW wash will be clear and ready to run next weekend.

Planning on doing the stripping run with the pot still (named "pot head") and then the spirit run with the reflux (named "skinny bitch").

Gotta give a shout out to the guy from the HBS. Top class service and great communication throughout.
Last edited by Tesla101 on Sun Jan 26, 2020 7:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Bullrout » Sun Jan 26, 2020 10:45 pm

If the t500 is designed to leak, why is there a orange o'ring seal at the top? :angry-banghead:
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby db1979 » Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:01 am

Tesla101 wrote:Gotta give a shout out to the guy from the HBS. Top class service and great communication throughout.

:handgestures-thumbupleft: good on him, glad you've got it sorted.
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Tue Jan 28, 2020 11:34 am

All done with the sacrificial & practice run over the weekend. (Turbo Pack wash that came with the kit)

Stripping run with "Pot Head":
25L charge at 11.6% ABV. Took just over 2 hours and collected 5.8L between 67% and 30% ABV. The run went to plan, with the recirculating cooling system up to the task - between 20C and 30C. By the time I let the boiler cool down and emptied it (all that black crap!), I decided it was too late to start the spirit run today.

Spirit run with "Skinny Bitch":
Lined up 14 x 200mL jars. Charge came out at 45% ABV, diluted with 2.9L to bring it down to 30% ABV (I wanted a buffer so I didn't run the boiler dry).
Ran the cooling on full flow and let it reflux for 45 minutes after the first drips, which is how long it took to fill the 200mL foreshots jar.
Adjusted the flow rate for the "drip, drip, dribble" - between 46C (start) and 52C (end) on the cooling output thermometer. Maintained the "drip, drip, dribble" throughout the run.
Filled another 13 x 200mL jars between 95% (jar 1) and 93% (jar 12). Jar 13 was at 91% and tasted pretty bad so switched it off after jar 13.
Total run time was about 4.5 hours. No issues with cooling system - ran between 25C and 35C.
Letting the jars air for 24 hours and will do practice cuts tonight.

First run under the belt, with no issues. Looking forward to running the TPW wash next weekend. :happy-partydance:

Thanks to WJ for the Running a T500, the Proper Way post, as well as everyone else who helped me get this far :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Tue Jan 28, 2020 8:00 pm

Did practice cuts tonight.

First disclaimer - I have no sense of smell, so I enlisted Mrs. Tesla to do the smell part and we both did some tasting. Smells ranged from "apple like" at the hearts end, "just alcohol with not much smell" in the hearts range and "stinks like texta" at the tails end. Tastes ranged from "sour, but not much burn" for heads, "a bit sweeter, with a bit of burn" for hearts" and "bitter, lots of burn" for tails. (actually, both of us refused to taste the last couple of tails jars)

Overall, being a Turbo run, there was 1 x 200mL jar (#5) that we both thought was "not too bad" - but overall it was all pretty rough. Ended up with 1-3 heads, 4-8 hearts and 9-13 tails.

Diluted the hearts to 40% for 2.3L for something to drink for a while and chucked the rest into the "future cleaning runs" bottles. The TPW will be done way before we get through 2.3L, so most of it will be "cleaning fluid".

Overall, a good practice session and will be interesting to compare to the TPW next week :)
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Sat Feb 01, 2020 3:16 pm

OK, it's first run with TPW weekend :happy-partydance:

I did a stripping run with "Pot Head" (T500 boiler with alembic pot still). Everything went reasonably well. Started with a 25L TPW wash at 10%ABV.

Boiler took an hour to heat up. By the time I had enough spirit to take an %ABV the vapour temp was 86C and the first 200mL came out at 69%. Output was a steady dribble, right down to 13% almost 2 hours later, where the vapour temp reached 98C. (I wanted to see what would happen if I went right down to 13%, even though I know there's not much good stuff down there). Ended up taking 6.5L at an average of 43%ABV. I think the take off rate was a little on the high side, but I don't have a power controller yet to slow it down a bit. Anyway, onto the spirit run...

Emptied out the boiler and let it cool down. I added 1L of filtered water just to be on the safe side, which brought the charge down to 30 %ABV. I put Skinny Bitch on top (T500 reflux condenser).
Started up the cooling... eek! Cooling output was already 36C, from being used for the stripping run. Anyhoo, switched on the boiler and kept a steady eye on it. My plan was to let it sit at around 40C with cooling on flat out and let it reflux for an hour or so, before dialing it into a drip, drip, dribble.

After about 17 minutes the temp shot up to 51.4C already and it went straight into a fast dribble. Compared to my sacrificial run with a Turbo wash I wasn't getting into 51C territory until about half way through the run. I pressed on and took foreshots at 92% and then a couple more heads jars.

Then I decided that I'm probably smearing heads all the way through to tails, so I decided to abandon the run. I'm pretty sure my cooling just wasn't cool enough to start with so it was almost running like a pot still. Take off speed was just way too fast. I had two choices - run it from the garden tap and waste all the water, or let my tanks cool down and run it tomorrow.

Since it's just started raining and the garden doesn't really need the water I've decided to leave the run until tomorrow... :whistle:
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Lesgold » Sat Feb 01, 2020 4:22 pm

Hi Tesla,
Good to hear you have both bits of gear up and running. I have a similar setup to you and do run the power controller. On stripping runs, I only use it to slowly take off foreshots and then run it flat out to complete the run as quickly as possible. Use the controller in a similar manner when running spirit runs reduce the power slightly. Normally I’ll run down to about 20% abv. The returns diminish rapidly after that considering the power and time required.
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Lowie » Sat Feb 01, 2020 5:36 pm

Welcome mate :greetings-waveyellow:
Not sure why you would want to carbon filter a sacrificial run. Sacrificial is as it sounds - you bung it out.
Having said that, my first still was the predecessor to the T500 and all I did was run boiling water through it to "run it in'", but that was many moons ago. Made a lot of good booze on that still! I'm going to get caned for this statement, but I ran all my spirits through the plastic carbon filter unit that still spirits supplies with their kits. I'm not dead yet. Now, having said that, I have since built a stainless steel filter system (similar to the one that 5 Star sell) and the cleanup of the spirit is so much better.

Don't be put off by any T500 naysayers, you've made the first step and I'll put your house on it that you'll upgrade sooner rather than later if you take the advice offered on the forum :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:16 pm

Lesgold wrote:Hi Tesla,
Good to hear you have both bits of gear up and running. I have a similar setup to you and do run the power controller. On stripping runs, I only use it to slowly take off foreshots and then run it flat out to complete the run as quickly as possible. Use the controller in a similar manner when running spirit runs reduce the power slightly. Normally I’ll run down to about 20% abv. The returns diminish rapidly after that considering the power and time required.


Hey Lesgold,

Thanks for the feedback, always good to hear how other people are running their rigs. I'm definitely looking at getting a power controller for this rig as well, although it's a balance between spending money on this one or saving up for a better rig.
At the moment I can't really take out the foreshots on the stripping run (with Pot Head), which is why I wanted to run the spirit run a lot slower - so I could really stack up in reflux mode and take my time sorting foreshots, heads, hearts and tails.

Your not kidding past 20% on the stripping run. I took a taste of the 13% and it tasted like something my old flatmate left in the fridge for 6 months. :puke-huge:

Anyway, it's all a good learning experience. Hopefully I'll get a better spirits run tomorrow.
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby Tesla101 » Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:28 pm

Lowie wrote:Welcome mate :greetings-waveyellow:
Not sure why you would want to carbon filter a sacrificial run. Sacrificial is as it sounds - you bung it out.
Having said that, my first still was the predecessor to the T500 and all I did was run boiling water through it to "run it in'", but that was many moons ago. Made a lot of good booze on that still! I'm going to get caned for this statement, but I ran all my spirits through the plastic carbon filter unit that still spirits supplies with their kits. I'm not dead yet. Now, having said that, I have since built a stainless steel filter system (similar to the one that 5 Star sell) and the cleanup of the spirit is so much better.

Don't be put off by any T500 naysayers, you've made the first step and I'll put your house on it that you'll upgrade sooner rather than later if you take the advice offered on the forum :handgestures-thumbupleft:


Hey Lowie,

Thanks for the greets. I never ended up using the carbon filter for my sacrificial run. I've only used it to clean up some rain water. But good to hear that you did and it didn't kill you. :o

To be honest, if I'd found the forum before buying the T500 I never would have, but having said that I do think it's a good rig to cut your teeth on and learn the basics. I do have my eye on a FSD 4" Visualiser, but gotta win over the minister for fun & finance first. Either that or sell a kidney. :))
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Re: New member, new T500

Postby RC Al » Sun Feb 02, 2020 10:14 am

The power controller will be needed for any larger rig you get anyway, just get an appropriate sized one for the future upgrade :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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