Plate still operation

Perforated & bubble cap plated columns

Plate still operation

Postby Dude » Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:14 am

Found this on youtube and thought it was interesting. I am not trying to "diss" this guy for trying but am curious as to why the bottom two plates are not "loading"
its all a learning curve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krOfBe3 ... el=H20JNKY
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Re: Plate still operation

Postby scythe » Fri Feb 19, 2021 12:07 pm

After a quick look at the video and now watching the while thing, maybe he needs to throw more power at it to get more reflux happening so it loads all the plates.
Mainly thinking this as plated still load from the top down
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Re: Plate still operation

Postby RuddyCrazy » Fri Feb 19, 2021 12:40 pm

scythe wrote:After a quick look at the video and now watching the while thing, maybe he needs to throw more power at it to get more reflux happening so it loads all the plates.
Mainly thinking this as plated still load from the top down


Yep from my understanding and experience the plates do load from the top down, now when I used my 3 ring crab burner my lower plate would never load up and when i made that copper BD burner man did it make a difference as now all four plates fully load including when I'm taking product off. Heatup times are also reduced by half but at the expense of using more gas. Out of a 8.5kg gas bottle I got that steam run done to clean my still and a full spirit run and I reckon with whats left will heatup another run but will run out soon after. Owell with the better performance it's a trade off I can live with. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Plate still operation

Postby bluc » Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:13 pm

Could be s leak to atmosphere or inside around plate :think:
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Re: Plate still operation

Postby BSC_Kilby » Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:32 am

It could also be too much heat. Too much positive pressure at the bottom and the plates won't drain condensate back down, making it run almost like a longer lyne arm rather than a fractionating column.
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