Jayson_Black wrote:Although I am a newborn baby in the distilling world I have a massive amount of experience with thermometers. The thermometer that Still spirits uses in the T500 is an extremely cheap nasty (Less than $1 from china) thermometer with wild swings in calibration from one unit to another. I have had as much as 8 degrees C out from a calibrated thermometer. So I too even on my very first run based it extremely loosely on the thermometer and concentrated more on the output. Small spurt, drip, drip, drip, drip - Small spurt, drip, drip, drip, drip X repeat. I have to look into water control though as I live in a town of 1800 people and water pressure is all over the place even when nobody in the house touches anything. (Settles down around 10 pm) but I found the the Ball valve tap to be way too touchy. I would move it just 0.5mm and I would get wild swings in temp. Luckily I purchased a Voltage controller (to limit scorching after boil reached) and found I could better control the temp and output with that (To an extent). But also take what I say (other than the thermometer knowledge) with a grain of salt. Still, much experience needs to gain before I can say I know what I am talking about with T500 Distillation. GLA Happy Distilling!
Hick1960 wrote:Jayson_Black wrote:Although I am a newborn baby in the distilling world I have a massive amount of experience with thermometers. The thermometer that Still spirits uses in the T500 is an extremely cheap nasty (Less than $1 from china) thermometer with wild swings in calibration from one unit to another. I have had as much as 8 degrees C out from a calibrated thermometer. So I too even on my very first run based it extremely loosely on the thermometer and concentrated more on the output. Small spurt, drip, drip, drip, drip - Small spurt, drip, drip, drip, drip X repeat. I have to look into water control though as I live in a town of 1800 people and water pressure is all over the place even when nobody in the house touches anything. (Settles down around 10 pm) but I found the the Ball valve tap to be way too touchy. I would move it just 0.5mm and I would get wild swings in temp. Luckily I purchased a Voltage controller (to limit scorching after boil reached) and found I could better control the temp and output with that (To an extent). But also take what I say (other than the thermometer knowledge) with a grain of salt. Still, much experience needs to gain before I can say I know what I am talking about with T500 Distillation. GLA Happy Distilling!
Hi Jayson
Like you I use a t500 and quickly realised not to rely on the temp the thermometer showed and concentrate on product output flow. I had a similar issue with water fluctuations and looked at buying a water flow controller. Decided to build my own which is just a small container with a float valve to which the water source goes to and a small fish pond pump which provides a steady flow through the needle valve which came with the t500. Works a treat.
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