Cleaning my T500

[spudnik1954]

I just purchased a Turbo 500 Still and I have a few questions. I was wondering do I dismantle it and clean everything after every run? Also I have made a Rum wash and I was wondering if I should put both the Copper and Ceramic saddles in my stack. I have read that you can use other things instead of these that would do a better job what do you experts think? I'm in Canada and there is not a lot of local expertise in my area. Any tips will be greatly appreciated. I am reading the forums but there is so much to learn!


Thanks!

[poompy]

Hey,

before i used to strip my tpw i would only run hot water through the still. But every 3-4 runs i would pull everthing out, soak the cermic saddles in steradent and the copper in citric acid, give the insides a good flush of hot water.

It never smelt funky and the product never seemed to have any bad taste.

Others might have some better options but that worked for me

[spudnik1954]

Thanks for the reply Poompy! I'm going to run a Rum wash this weekend hopefully it turns out OK. Any hints on this I was told not to put the ceramic saddles in and not to filter it after as well. should I age it for a while before I indulge?

[poompy]

Im not sure they handle being run with out all the saddles. If anything you could remove some and reduce the reflux (reduce water flow). This would help the flavour carry through. Def dont filter it. Make sure you collect in jars of about 200ml, let it sit for 24-48hrs. Work out the good stuff and stick it on oak for at least a month. I got some stuff that is now 9months old and it is very nice :D
You can keep the cuts that you didnt want and then run them again.

If you are after making rums then I reckon the best thing you could do is get a pot still to suit your boiler. I got one through macstill. It uses the same screw fitting to attach to the lid. Check out the commercial section and hit up JayD, his gear looks very nice. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
I think macstill might be able to do something as well through his FSD gear (all nice and shiny stainless :handgestures-thumbupleft: )

I only ever use my t500 still for making a neutral from tpw.

[DaveZ]

:text-+1: what poompy said.

I tried running my T500 without the packing once, the product condenser is barely able to keep up. Plenty people have reported leaking stills after running them this way too. I know the manufacturers instructions say you can, but it's not a good idea.

[watoom]

Yeah not a good idea to run the SS T500 without packing, the T500 artisan on the other hand can be run with packing (reflux) or without packing (pot ...sort of...). I run the artisan as a pot still and the results are quite good, you are advised by the manufacturer to keep the water output temp between 60-65 C...

[spudnik1954]

I read somewhere that people;e use pot scrubbers are they the copper or stainless ones? I'm from Canada I don't have a lot of access to different products so I'm looking for home solutions.

[NotBenStiller]

Dunno what the T500's are like these days - but they used to have a black plastic cap at the top of the column.
Bad news if you want to run detuned for a 'pot-still' mode. The extra heat running detuned will very likely leak plastic shit into your product.

If you are handy with soft soldering SS to copper you can easily replace the plastic c(r)ap with bit of extra copper instead.
Like this
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1599&p=20915#p20915

But already mentioned - even then the PC is piss weak and can't handle much. It's coz it's a weird inside-out-type condenser - water runs down the middle and the jacket contains the vapour - instead of the normal config the other way round

[spudnik1954]

thanks for all the reply's guys I'm trying to get my head around all this there is so much to learn! I like the idea of replacing the plastic cap with a copper one I might have to do that. I'm more of a Rum guy so I have to come up with something other than just adding the essence to the product.