Alcoengine Reflux Column

[nikolav]

Hi guys
To those of you if any who have the Alcoengine Reflux Column, what collecting speed do you achieve? The manual says 1.2L per hour, but I'm getting ~1/4 of this speed. It goes drip .... drip ... drip and it takes forever.
I'm using a circulating pump, which is with adequate debit, but it doesn't matter if I even connect to the mains and run at full speed, which is much ore than the minimum recommended of 8L/h.
Changing the nozzles doesn't change anything - same speed. I also played with a voltage regulator. Again, nothing changes if it is at 100% or 60%-70%
The alcohol comes at ~92%-93%, which is within range, but way too slow.
It is mounted on top of T500 boiler.

[BigRig]

Its been a few years since I ran mine, but i remember it was terribly slow, anything with a 2 inch diameter is though to be fair.

I pulled mine apart and found the build quality was crap, internal cooling coil was kinked and almost blocked.

If you can afford to, I would look at the fsd 2" boka which is a big step up from the alcoengine.

[WoodyD40]

Hello - if i recall correctly i was only getting about 1/2 litre per hour. I remember the first time i used it on top of a 65 litre boiler (approx 55 litres in it), it was approx 12 hour process before i shut it down. And that was for only about 4 litres of Hearts that i kept. :angry-banghead:

[nikolav]

Long story short, I pulled the thing apart and it looks good. I can't see anything obviously wrong. Nothing is blocked. That is 100% sure.
The last thing I haven't done is trying a different boiler, which I'm planning to do with my mate's newer T500. I'm starting to doubt in my own.
Anyway, guys, what boilers did you use? Anyone else with T500?

[TheRealMrMessy]

Boiler isn't likely the issue, unless its just not boiling high enough?? Turbo boiler should handle things just fine though.

What kind of packing in the column? No idea what they come with, but you could possibly change it to something less dense. Might lose a little abv but pick up speed.

[nikolav]

The packing is stainless steel mesh.
I tried even without any packing and without the restrictors, which I guess technically makes it pot still. No change at all.
To me it seems that either:
- Not enough steam goes to the coil
- It goes there, but doesn't condense enough
- Not enough liquid drops in to the collecting cup.

I don't think that it doesn't condense enough and I have losses. From the first run I got about 92-93 % and the amount of alcohol I was expecting to.

The idea for getting this column was to replace the T500, which works as expected, but I just don't want to fiddle with the water flow. So if I can't make at least 92% and easier than the T500 column, I guess I'll just bin it.

[nikolav]

Long story short, it's the boiler. I tried with a different boiler, again T500, but newer and it works fine.
My boiler is very old, so either it's not powerful enough, or the element is crooked.
It works fine with the T500 column, so I reckon it's the former.

[Professor Green]

Did you find it was taking longer to reach boiling point? That'd be a sure indicator that the element is malfunctioning.