Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

What size and length copper cooling coil using a 4" diameter coloum
Eg 1/2" copper 4metres
Is there a formula?

It would depend on the type of still,the boka type would need ta be bigger as you only have one condencer were as with a bubbler you have two reflux and product condencers wich share the load to some degree,plus other variables like cooling water temp and flow rate and the amount of power used can skew the calcs ,my rough method woud be if a reflux condencer has say 8 by 150mm lenghts of 1/2 inch plus the cooling of end plates say another 300mm of 1/2 inch alone would be 1500mm plus say 6 by 400mm lengths for the product condencer and say another 200mm for end plates would be 2600mm,add the two together gives 4100mm of 1/2 inch tube for the average 4inch bubbler,so my rough guess would be a lenght of at least 4500mm to 5000mm to start with and power of no more than 4800wt and if ya go more power you would need to lenghten it perpotionaly,just my 2c worth.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

2" bokas run about a 200mm - 250mm double wound helix condenser, not sure how much tube you need to make it tho.
Its more about surface area than length with coil condensers. 2" use 1/4" tube, working with 1/2" would be fairly painful.
You could make a few different sized concentric helix coils and join them in a manifold as the longer they are the harder it is to push water through them.

This is probably why most people use shotgun condensers as they are easier to build and have a high cooling capacity, though not as high as a helix condenser..

Im using 7x 3/4" 80mm long tubes in my RC and 4x 1/2" 500mm long tubes in my PC.
When my still is actually built.

Idealy you want as much surface area with the least amount of space between to have the most effective cooling.
But you also don't want to cause too much of a restriction on your column either.

Digger, i run a 3'' col with around 450mm double wound coil INTO a coldfinger. My understanding is that the coldfinger adds to the efficiency. In a 4'' you have heaps of room to do nice windings, and could safely get a 3/8th diam in there. I used 1/4 for one and 3/8th for the other. NEVER had any probs with inability to knock back vap. Just get a bit of rope roughly the size of the tube, wrap it around your mandrill and that will give you a guide to how much copper you will need.. It does add up to quite a long length overall.

Thanks crew never considered a shotgun more research I think
Was going with the double helix design or even single helix in 1/2" but I don't know more research

So I think I'm going to go with a shotgun
Dispite the extra work to make it

What's more efficient though in terms of cooling?
A double helix coil or a shotgun

Ie water usage - knock down ability
I'm guessing size is everything
So thinking 4" shotgun with 1/2" tubes 500 mm long

Comments appreciated

You wont need 500mm for your knockdown i wouldnt think. 150 to 250 should be heaps. Guys are knocking 4 inch bubblers into full reflux using 150mm of 4 inch RC.

Are we talking about a boka style still or a bubbler type still ,bubbler RC;s for 4inch go from about 100mm to 200mm and use 3/4 down to 3/8inch cooling tubes as for how many ,check out a few builds and you make a choice,if ya in Tassie and are blessed with a cold climate and coolant temps then maybe on the shorter side ,go up north and going bigger is probably a wiser choice,then the more power ya wanna run means a bigger RC as well or more narrowa coolant pipes ,wich is all about the amount of sureface area you have compared to the power imput and adjusted by the coolant temp,500mm would be more like a 2-21/2 inch shotgun PC to go with the RC and again size would go by the previously mentioned local requirements .anyhooo.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

I liked what Magnus did in viewtopic.php?f=36&t=8803&hilit=magnus&start=20 with his coils.cheers hillzabilly ;-)