Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I notice with mine if I keep the power up and the flow right, the plates all stay loaded. when I start turning the power down too low (4000w) with the controller the bottom plate starts to dry up. so, as the other guys have noted, it's getting your balanced right.

100ml per 2mins is 3L/hr which is a bit fast if your junning just a straight wash.

Might be ok if you using low wines with more available alcohol.

Slow it down to 2L/hr and see if that helps.

One of the reasons I love sight glasses is the fact that you can watch goings on,your downcomers will give you critical feed back as to how much reflux is happening,with 4 or less plates for rum or whiskey the amount of take off would be equal to or a little less than what was flowing from your downcomers to the boiler,with a neutral run your take off would be less than a 20% of what was flowing from the downcomers .In short 4 or less plates 40-50% collection to 50-60% reflux,neutral 10-20% collected to 80-90%refluxed,as a rough guide.So watch those downcomers for blow thru as well wich will cause a plate to flood as the reflux cannot go down the downcomer with vapour running up it.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

Finally got back to having another go. Replaced the 3 way valve outlet and repacked the packed section. Ran like a dream. Appreciate all the comments as it really helps when troubleshooting :handgestures-thumbupleft: