keggomax reflux still

[bear74]

gday all,
i have been using a kegomax still on a keg boiler now for well over 6 months and it has been very good. i see the that some knock them for whatever reason and was curious what makes them so bad? now i havnt owned any other still but it seems to work a treat putting out numerous litres of very good neutral and i will be taking some packing out to do the next 5-6 generations of rum!

cheers
Bear

[620rossco]

We have found that the neutral has a real sulfur smell that is not present with other rigs.
Not overly fussed with the thermometer setup.
Other than that they work good, use a really small amount of water and they are a compact design.

[MacStill]

Hi Bear,

I've seen these rigs and they look pretty well made and haven't heard of any rust or leaking issues with them, nor have I seen anyone knocking them.

All you need to make them a little better is some copper packing in the vapour path.

They are a CM (cooling management) design and a lot of people dont like this, a gate valve on the coolant outlet can really help with temp control on these rigs :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers.

[bear74]

cheers fellas, i do notice a slight odour but i thought it was using raw sugar so a mild rum odour. until i find someone else in the territory who makes there own i have nothing to compare quality with. how much coppper should i use in the vapour trail to get maximum benifits? currently i use about 1 cup of copper pipe offcuts near the top of the unit which sits on ss scrubber. i have 2 ss scrubbers which hold ceramic raschig rings in place inside the column. i put the raschig rings in myself and they obvious have significantly improve output of the still.
will removeing the packing from this design be good for making a full flavour rum or should i just reduce the packing?

[MR-E]

You can remove the packing & only run the water through the product condenser, that will give you more flavor.
Keep the copper off cuts in though.

[620rossco]

how much coppper should i use in the vapour trail to get maximum benifits? currently i use about 1 cup of copper pipe offcuts near the top of the unit which sits on ss scrubber.

Sorry we are currently working on this, the still was purchased recently for a close family member. We are still experimenting but it appears that the makers assumed that the copper scrubber below the thermometer would be sufficient. Next move will be to replace all the scrubbers with copper mesh. Also they recommend a hole above where the outlet port exits the still. We fabricated a copper take-off.

As far as CM stills go I think that this is a well designed still. Ease of operation is excellent.

[bear74]

if i run it as a pot still is the 2200w element going to be to much? 50l keg boiler.
cheers
bear

[620rossco]

if i run it as a pot still is the 2200w element going to be to much? 50l keg boiler.

No i think it will be fine.
The water jackets should be able to cope but you may need to increase flow rates above what you would use in reflux mode.
I run my pots with two elements at once for stripping runs.
As i guess do most here.