Air still mods

[Merlot]

Hi folks
I've had my air still for about six months. Got it off eBay with the $30 freight and the $170 bid ended up paying too much, anyway it has certainly paid for itself easily. I joined the home distiller forum and highly recommend that people avail themselves of the enormous amount of info there if they haven't already, I'd be careful posting though as they absolutely roast newbies.

Air stills are frowned upon at the HD site and I have seen many threads where airstill owners are crucified. It seems the biggest problem with these things seems to be is the size of the boiler- too small to make decent cuts and ends up with a smearing of heads and tails through the run. Also there is the issue of plastic in the path of the high abv distillate. There is a thread on modifying it to remove said plastics there. Here is the link-
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=17245

I have carried these out and am happy with the outcome but realise I still need a better still. I removed the plastic and added some copper pipe. Here is a pic

202-09-11 18.25.07.jpg

I have since shortened the collection nozzle to above the bend but I am yet to try it out. I also now add copper pieces to the boiler and I have shoved a few copper nails up the vapour path hoping to get a bit of reflux. I don't think the nails have helped with reflux as the abv of my runs did not change as I had hoped but they may have improved the flavour...

Anyone else modified their air still? Ive seen one bloke just bought a 10L electric urn and put his condenser on top. That would really help with making cleaner cuts I reckon.
Look forward to hearing what others have done :)

cheers
Merlot

[kiwikeg]

Ive seen one bloke just bought a 10L electric urn and put his condenser on top.

Hi merlot thats sound like a really interesting water saving concept gots any pics or a link? 18l urns are on sale at the WareWhare. :think:

[Merlot]

Yeah, I read it some time ago, just gone back and found its only an 8L urn. The post I found is limited but there are pics http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=25340&start=15
Its the second one down
I' not sure whether the condenser would cope with 18 L but I guess if you ran it it slow enough :think:
Cheers

[kiwikeg]

thanks m Thats quite a tidy job lookswise , I had seen that one before . checked with the The warehouse and its 8.8l urns on sale that look the same as the one that guy used.