Hi guys, I recently purchased a plated column still from my local hbs and have attempted to run two 25l TPW's with minimal success.
My still is currently set up five bubble tee's high with a packed column and is powered by 2x 2200w elements. The cooling system is recirculated tank water using a 350w pump.
Trying to balance the plates in full reflux has been extremely difficult as one element doesn't seem to create enough heat and when I set the second element to 88deg using a PID it can't hold a constant temp as it's either ramping up or cooling down.
I've recently bought a variable voltage controller from eBay to hopefully solve this problem with temp fluctuations but haven't tried it as it's yet to arrive.
When I finally do manage to balance the plates and begin the process my abv starts off at around 94% then quickly begins to drop at a steady rate throughout the entire run.
I'm hoping that the problems with abv are directly caused by inadequate temp control but I just thought I'd ask here to see if it could be due to other problems. I've checked for leaks during both runs and haven't found any.
Any feedback would be appreciated as the sooner i can learn to drive this thing the sooner i can get started doing all-grain whisky runs.