Kimbo wrote:...just see how it performs when you hook it up to your condenser...
Gave it a trial run last night on a 2" reflux column and 2,200W element combo with a 6mm double wound coil condensor. Very happy with its performance.
I read somewhere on one of the forums (probably here or HD) that it's better to control your condensor flow from a bypass valve (the valve connected to the T in the diagram above) rather than putting a control valve in the direct line between the pump and condensor somewhere after/above the bypass valve. Less pressure on the pump, or something like that. It works pretty well, but on a pump this big I found that your minimum flow rate through the condensor with this setup is about 1100mL a minute. At that rate, with cool water in your tank on a 2,200W element, that's slow enough to have the condensor output quite warm.
The water temp in my ≈200L drum was 13 ˚C when I turned on the pump, about 15min before the column got up to temp. After just under three hours the temp in the drum had climbed to 36 ˚C, which is the heat-up rate I expected based on the estimate I got by plugging the numbers into Rad's 'Heating Time to Temp' calculator over on the HomeDistiller parent site (http://homedistiller.org/calcs/rad14701).
But before I pushed the pump in water any hotter than this I thought I'd ask: The Owner's Manual for this pump says not to run it in water over 35 ˚C. Do people on here run their pumps in water hotter than 35 ˚C? Just curious about the effect this will have on the pump.
:handgestures-thumbupleft:
For anyone else wanting to use this pump, the following table shows you roughly how long it will take the water in your tank to get to 35 ˚C when you're running a 2,200W element at full power. The times assume that the water in your tank is 15 ˚C when you turn on the pump. The times do not take into consideration the heat generated by the pump itself and assume no heat loss to the external environment.
Tank vol. L : Time to 35 °C
200 : 2hr 7min
400 : 4hr 13min
600 : 6hr 20min
800 : 8hr 26min
1000 : 10hr 33min
1200 : 12hr 39min
1500 : 15hr 49min
2000 : 21hr 6min