Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

scythe wrote:******* NEVER USE COOLANT IN A STILL COOLING CIRCUIT *******
A tiny leak into your product is deadly.

Just use plain water and if it eventually develops a corrosion hole the worst outcome is that your distillate %ABV decreases a bit before you notice.

Read about any coolant/chemical in its SDS before you use it, if you CBF'd reading about it definitely don't use it.

:laughing-rolling: the only thing I still seem to remember about high school chemistry is that the ONLY cure for Children that drink coolant is straight alcohol!! No joke!!
Coolants are an anticholinesterase (?spelling?) which means that it inhibits the chemical messenger between the nerve endings which means it shuts down ALL body communication and therefore for functions... But the coolant chemicals preferentially bond with alcohol! That is accurate as of 1997 year 11 chemistry!

Needless to say, the warning above is still valid - why risk it!?!

I am grateful of the responses RE: cooling. Will have to explore the local AC businesses to see if I can get a unit from them.

RumSponge - I thank you for your link; if I am successful in securing an AC unit and have any further questions, I'll give you a PM.

EziTasting wrote:Coffee Addict - Love that pump! Its my next pump (when one of the other 2 break) ... just having a bit of an issue when stripping - my 200L barrels of water gets 50+ degrees!! :scared-eek:
wondering if anyone has come up with a good way of recirculating water and cooling it (without the use of multiple bags of ice)...?

With a coolant manegment still,its a problem if ya water temp rises a fair bit,it will effect ya reflux ratio and production speed,wich will require you ta make several adjustments to maintain consistency,and will make back to back runs virtualy impossible without dumping the hot water and replaceing it,I have tryed 200lt drums and have an old air con unit that I used with my 2inch stills and 2000wt elements ,and that barely got the job done ,with no safety margin.If ya want to run 4800wt for stripping or 2400wt for long periods without probs I would reccomend a tank of no less than 2000lt,if ya lived in Tassie 1000lt would probably be fine ,but in a warmer place like up north in the tropics 2000lt would be the minimum.The other thing is these days I try and do most of my distilling in the cooler months as the tank loses the heat biult up quickly,were as it does not in summer time,so for me go much bigger with ya coolant tank and save ya self the trouble of ice and fans and radiators,your consistency will improve and you will not have the other stuff to worry about(wich in a hot climate will be less effective any way),and I feel anyone useing a big tank will readily agree with this.Used ta live in Mt Newman,in summer it often got hot enough to get the tar bubbleing up on the roads,not ideal for distilling,and remember in the olden days distillers set up next to a good reliable water supply for exactly the same reasons,it made there job so much easier.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

My major concern is the title of the post...not actually, but unless you are prepared to stuff around heaps, ice, fans and all that shit and waste a lot of water.. the whole inside thing...challenging.
Re circulation must be the aim of all us serious hobbyists..

Hillz... you are absolutely right about large volume... i live just outside of Melb (coolish area) and use a 1000lit plastic tank..quite common. Up till now it has been beyond my expectations as i used to use around 300 lit with the old T500 setup off the garden hose. This had a dual effect of great cooling and the stability of no pressure drop when the house was using water.Only a tad nervous of the upcoming summer (if we ever get one).

CoffeeA... thanks, you saved me trawling thru and getting a pic of the pump i use...the little green sucker, just like yours... i can bearly hear it run and need to stick me ear close up to see if it is actually on...so no noise issues at all. Efficiency...well, the 3 speeds are ATM more than i could imagine to ever need, as i use the slowest speed (even that crancked down with a controller) and it knocks down every thing.After hours of running it does not even get warm to the touch... excellent piece of kit...highly recommend it.

scythe wrote:******* NEVER USE COOLANT IN A STILL COOLING CIRCUIT *******
A tiny leak into your product is deadly.

Coolant can be tap water or simple H2O. For me I will use tank water - I'm really sorry for the misunderstanding if you guys go to a store for your coolant!

To quote Google search result;
coolant
ˈkuːl(ə)nt/
noun
noun: coolant; plural noun: coolants

a liquid or gas that is used to remove heat from something.

PS - that was a really funny reaction!

Is a 50 metre coiled supply routed through your refrigerator or freezer out of the question?

I've never tried it, but if your pump and your wife don't mind...?

Carbonator, he's right to have corrected me I had meant coolant capable of stopping the corrosion of aluminium in water. I was a little tipsy naughty me. So as it's potentially dangerous to use and Without it a radiator won't last long a stuffed aircon is a better idea as they are usually made from copper.

If you hunt around scrappies you can often get them for next to nothing and usually the fan will still work. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Kenster I believe that it was a post of yours that led to me getting one as my old pump didn't like the prolonged run times. So a big thank you :text-thankyoublue:

Homemade I believe that would work beautifully alot of beer keggers do the same thing if they can't do a separate fridge. Expect to take a hit at bill time though unless you run off solar.

When I visited Larks distillery in Tassie,they had put pipes thru the concrete floor and circulated the warmed coolant water thru them to cool it and maintain the distillery to a fermentation friendly temp,they also used it to maintain fermenter temp by running it thru double skinned fermentation vessels,in winter.Couple more possibility's I had not considered,anyhoo.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

whichever way you take ezi, remember that every component of your cooling circuit has to be scaled to match the rest. Radiator (or fridge) needs to be of a size suitable for your heating elements and the pump needs to have sufficient power to actually pump liquid through all the extra piping at a decent flowrate.

While perhaps not too helpful to the OP but just to keep the brainstorm going;

Has anyone tried routing water through an evaporative airconditioner?

Or mount one on top of a 44 full of water and turn the pump on with the overflow set too high or taken out, completely?

..Wouldn't have to pump the water too far if it is just outside the window.

Apologies, OP if this is ridiculously impractical to suggest for you but thought that I'd chuck it out there.

Homemade wrote:While perhaps not too helpful to the OP but just to keep the brainstorm going;

Has anyone tried routing water through an evaporative airconditioner?

Or mount one on top of a 44 full of water and turn the pump on with the overflow set too high or taken out, completely?

..Wouldn't have to pump the water too far if it is just outside the window.

Apologies, OP if this is ridiculously impractical to suggest for you but thought that I'd chuck it out there.

All good. Ingenious lot you all are. I reckon I would be fine for pot runs, the bath tub holds 250l. If I run on days I need to do water changes on the 5 foot fish tank which holds 420l, I can use 150l of that straight in the tank and it will be close to temp at the end of the run too. Skip a shower for the day and I break even :laughing-rolling: or water the garden if it needs it and I am ahead. :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: Proof will be in ability to stabilise temps for the run of course. Ice as a back up for the first run will be a good security measure, will see how it goes. No ability to scale up though.. :?

..Or just squirt it with a fire extinguisher? :violence-smack:

Come to think of it, has anyone ever tried the old 'kero/thinners soaked rag in the wind' trick to cool a can of beer?

Perhaps you have a rag and a spare bit of wind?

It seems that you've got it sorted now anyway, so I'll just stop so nobody thinks I am stupid. :romance-kisscheek:

rumsponge wrote:whichever way you take ezi, remember that every component of your cooling circuit has to be scaled to match the rest. Radiator (or fridge) needs to be of a size suitable for your heating elements and the pump needs to have sufficient power to actually pump liquid through all the extra piping at a decent flowrate.

Our pump rate doesn't seem to be an issue, and in case i was too ambiguous, this heating issue was for stripping runs! so only the PC was getting water...
Normally we have the RC connected to the garden hose (almost a trickle) which has, so far, not had any issue knocking down what we throw at it... recirculating the PC water only at this stage as it takes a much larger volume I find... I was simply amazed at how hot it got.

Ultimately, since large tanks aren;t convenient at this point, we will be looking for alternatives that allow us to cool 200L volume, so I really like the old AC idea... Another notch in the old learning belt! Wish I could build that new shed!!

hillzabilly wrote:When I visited Larks distillery in Tassie,they had put pipes thru the concrete floor and circulated the warmed coolant water thru them to cool it and maintain the distillery to a fermentation friendly temp,they also used it to maintain fermenter temp by running it thru double skinned fermentation vessels,in winter.Couple more possibility's I had not considered,anyhoo.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

Thats another great idea - not that I need ground floor-heating where I live!

Homemade wrote:While perhaps not too helpful to the OP but just to keep the brainstorm going;

Has anyone tried routing water through an evaporative airconditioner?

Or mount one on top of a 44 full of water and turn the pump on with the overflow set too high or taken out, completely?

..Wouldn't have to pump the water too far if it is just outside the window.

Apologies, OP if this is ridiculously impractical to suggest for you but thought that I'd chuck it out there.

Yes I have a small evap unit(to small) it knocks about 15degrees of a 200l barrel after 3 runs water normally about 45 now more like 30. But not practical in winter.. Going to switch to a split system aircon condenser and fan soonish.

tell the neighbors to fuck off if they have a problem thats what i'd do lol

The illegal nature of our hobby means its best to keep your neighbours either happy, oblivious or both. Telling them to 'fuck off' is a good way to get yourself in the shit. All it takes is one phone call - 'hello officer, yeah I'm pretty sure my neighbour is making drugs' :law-policered:

coffe addict wrote:

mms_20161003_172536.jpg

$60 from fleabay and you have no idea it's running the boiler makes more noise. Even with 8m run and through a 1/4inch double coil it's got plenty of flow.

i have to agree with this, this pumps works so good, and very quiet.

Zak Griffin wrote:The illegal nature of our hobby means its best to keep your neighbours either happy, oblivious or both. Telling them to 'fuck off' is a good way to get yourself in the shit. All it takes is one phone call - 'hello officer, yeah I'm pretty sure my neighbour is making drugs' :law-policered:

I'm from the country mate i spose if the local Sargent wasn't my footy coach i could have a problem lol but yes definitely keep everyone oblivious is the key.