Novice distiller seeking advice

[gremlin]

hi guys,
as you will immediately realize, I am new to this game. I have bought myself a copper reflux still through ebay from copper still man and I have mounted that on a 25l stainless electric boiler. First attempt turned out a mixed success with temperatures starting condensation of ethanol at 78 C but then regularly fluctuating up to 95 C ; I aborted after I had collected approx. 3 litres of a 55% mix.
At that stage I had stainless steel packing in the column, but was unsure whether I had packed it correctly. I have now packed the column up to the condenser level with Raschig rings and had another go.
It all seems to go alright with a steady flow of approx. 2 liters per hour ( as per instructions) and I am getting a 80% mix. Problem is, my thermometer in the head of the column shows anywhere between 50 C and 65 C. I swapped it with a glass one and checked the position ( probe at condenser inlet), still the same.
How can I be distilling ethanol at those temperatures in the column head?
Increasing and decreasing waterflow has made no difference to the head temperature, even so I can vary the water output temperature from 40 C to 60C.
One problem I can see with this design is that it only has one cooling jacket with the inlet at the bottom of the condenser section and the outlet at the bottom of the reflux column jacket. Does that not lead to an airpocket in the jacket.
I tried to ask copper still man for a comment, but no response.
Surely one of you guys must have a logical explanation for this abnormal temperature reading in the column head.

Looking forward to a comment

cheers
Erwin

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[MacStill]

Ah well the cranky old bloke strikes again :doh:

If people researched these forums before they bought stills off ebay things would be so much better for everyone, nobody wants to tell you that you bought a POS still from a dodgy ol' coot but thems the facts.

There's a few members here that have been caught out with the same still, I'm sure they'll be along soon to help you get the best out of your rig.

Welcome aboard, just wish you'd found us earlier ;)

[gremlin]

Thanks for the prompt response, even though it does confirm my fears that I bought something which will be hard to work with if it can be useful at all. Yes I should have done the research first, just goes to show that old age does not prevent you from doing stupid things

regards
gremlin

[MacStill]

I doubt your stupid mate, just excited & that can make anyone a little naive :D

It will work but your going to have to have infinate control of your water flow to get stable temps & high ABV% output, if there's no lead solder used in it this rig will be ok as a stepping stone to better things.

Cheers.

[bundy]

Welcome Gremlin
i bought one from cranky old bloke, i could never get temp to stabilize properly,would fluctuate from high 80c to low 60c. the whole exercise was very stressful,and a waste of time for us old blokes. :angry-banghead: i cut mine up and used the 2inch column to make a pot still. lost some money but no more stress.
Bundy

[gremlin]

I apologize for having included the sketch of the still twice and upside down. I don't expect anyone to stand on their head to make sense of it, but most users will have the necessary software to rotate a picture like this. :oops:

[maheel]

i would be interested to see what the effect of putting a tap to restrict the flow of water on the "OUT" end of the cooling system would result in. Maybe by allowing you to fill the whole system under water pressure then slow it down might result in a more stable environment for temps. the design wort of makes me think water will just fall into the main column and not really stabilize anything ?

something worth a try...?

one thing is you have a good boiler. pretty easy to adapt that to plenty of other still heads.

dont worry most of us here have made plenty of mistakes and wasted some $$$... you should see the pile of copper and associated crap in my shed...
sometimes being old just allows you to do stupid things on a grander scale.... lol ask my wife

[Glow]

Hi Gremlin,
I also have one of those and they are a bugger to get right.
As well as two taps to control water flow in and a pressure controller on the mains tap to help fine tune the last one I also ended up putting a copper vertical pipe from the water exit up to the same height as the water entry point. This stablised the temp but the take off dropped to an amazingingly slow 350 - 400ml an hour, as slow as the water in was, there was too much reflux happening in the tower.
I think the idea was right but the height was to great.
Controlling the water in is the biggest factor, on the water outlet, try bending the hose up a bit so that the water does not just run away and this will create a well of about 2 - 3 inches is in the bottom of the tower, run the water in very slowly so that the bottom well is maintaining temp and not cooled down to fast from above, you'll get a temp drop when the pressure in the tower pushes a bubble out the hose but like I said it took mine an hour to stablise with the pipe but now I am using a thick copper wire looped around the tower (so I can adjust the height) to lift the hose a few inches to see if I can get a similar result with a better output.
The design of this still has so many flaws, condensor is to small and the tower jacket too long and its almost impossible to get it to work well but having said that its not impossible either, just damn hard.
Let us know how you go.

[bradsgonetrekkin]

Mate I also learnt on one of these. It'll be fine to use it as a pot still for stripping runs and spirit runs, but trust me you'll go nuts if you try to use it as a reflux column. Its just too fiddly to maintain the required temp at around 78.1 degrees c, a problem with a lot of the cooling management still designs. Just ignore the temp (or use it as a really rough guide only) and research these distilling forums about making cuts. It'll be fine for rums and bourborns and such. I'd look at making or buying a separate vapour management reflux column if you want to make vodka (neutral) cause there are so easy to run and produce consistently, but you still should do stripping runs before doing the spirit runs so it hasn't been a total waste for you.

[QLD.Andy]

Just wait till after Xmas, we will see heaps of these popping up.

[gremlin]

Thanks to all you guys for your helpful advice; looks like the vapor management columns are the go. But that is not something you find on the " ready made" market for an affordable price. Where would I start looking to buy one of these? I notice that even in your classifieds there are none on offer. And how do I make sure I am not buying someone else's problems again?
Unfortunately I do not have the skills nor the tools to make one myself, even though there is an abundance of detailed plans on the net.
I must admit I have enjoyed browsing through the various areas of this forum and the reading has been informative with a good sense of humor prevailing.

cheers
gremlin

[MacStill]

Hi gremlin,

Have you checked out these yet http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=875#p9975 ??

You can rest assured these are a proven product, we have a few members here that have purchased these items and are very happy with them.

There are other members here also that will build you what ever you want, I'm sure if you put an add in the wanted section you'll get some responses ;)

Cheers.

[The Stig]

And if you real close at some members sig's you may just find some offering to build custom setups "cough" stubbydrainer, 5Star "cough"