by Onlyalittlebitdodge » Sun Apr 08, 2018 6:16 pm
I spent some time doing some experimenting today. Turns out the issue come down to operator error and a lack of patience.
I was running the water through a t-piece which fed both the PC and the RC, and then the outlets of the PC & RC went again to a t-piece before returning to the tank. Trying to balance both flows created variables with not much tolerance for error, and temperature control was the other variable.
Using the t-piece was inconsistent as the water would naturally take the easiest path, essentially a non-linear flow resulted when trying to restrict only the RC flow while the PC flow was completely open. The 3m head back into the tank didn't help with the RC & PC outlet flows using the same hose also.
I was trying to balance flows and the element. I didn't have enough power going to my element to properly load the plates. Fluid would build up in the bubbletee and just sort of sit there with no observable bubbling going on. But the fluid was still building up. This had me looking for other issues rather than simple matter of not giving it enough grunt. With the plates loading in this way and vapour slowly heading up and out I was trying to reduce the cooling to the RC. When the RC was no longer doing its job because I had reduced the cooling flow and the plates seemingly doing not much but vapour still rising this then resulted in the gush.
With no way of testing pressures at my disposal I can only hypothesise that the vapour would build up until there was enough pressure and it all exited like last night's curry.
At the end of the day I learnt a few things, in particular the need to find the balance for your rig. And today I managed to run a neutral run with the 4" plates and 2" RC and packed section without having to swim out of the room