by emptyglass » Mon Dec 03, 2012 9:40 pm
My first still used the tap water to drain method. While I felt no guilt dumping perfectly good water down the drain, I thought of the cost.
Then, when the drought hit a few years back, I went with a worm and bucket. Worked real well for a little while, then I had to replace hot water with cold. This gave a thermal shock to the pot still, and changed the way it produced every time new cold water was added.
So I plumbed cold to the bottom and took hot water off the top, with a needle valve to control flow through the flake stand/bucket. Nothing new here, but I would make 50l of hot water for a 45 litre run if I didn't empty the bucket between runs.
Enter the bubbler. One look at the condensers on a bubbler and you know these suckers are going to want some water. A self contained system is really the best way to go. That could be a 1000 litre "pod" and a pump, but I'm told even that big and they start to heat up after a run.
A car radiator is the go. I run a pump out of a factory "swampy" or evaporative cooler, a 240 volt ceiling exhaust fan to move the air and a 50 litre tank (old kerbside recycling container). It takes up a lot less space than 2 drums do, and uses no water. Some is lost to evaporation but like 5 litres a month.
Blow the air, dont suck it. Use a cowl/shroud. Make sure the radiator runs full, don't just let it feed into the top and trickle down. With a lot of work, you could duct the hot air out of the radiator and feed it to the burner area, better efficiency, less gas used. I have had to elevate my tank when mucking around with tall stills to compensate for head height and its effect on the centrifical pump. :teasing-blah: :teasing-blah: :teasing-blah: