Thanks for all the replies.
Strip down the fridge/freezer to remove the compressor and coolant lines
That honestly sounds like an ingenious plan rushn, but well beyond my skill level! You can bag me out once you've read what I come up with!
I don't have the space for a big tank (and would prefer to keep things as compact as possible). I also run off solar, so no real cost to run the little freezer. I think (??) I've now got the cooling system sorted using the bar freezer I scored.
Here's what I've done:
- Hose in via the top of the freezer door (front-facing) for incoming, warm water off the still
- Using a bit of flex hose to accommodate door opening/closing, it's then attached to a copper coil sitting on the top shelf.
- The copper coil then feeds the water into a reservoir on the next shelf (via a short piece of open hose).
- Then the overflow from reservoir #1 feeds into another reservoir on the the 3rd shelf, and again on the bottom shelf.
- The outflow then goes through a hose fed through the bottom of the fridge door (again, flexible to accommodate opening/closing of the door) and into my 30-40L reservoir which sits lower (water is gravity feed from the freezer output hose). A submersible pump then feeds the chilled water back into the still.
I fill each reservoir in the freezer at least half way and freeze it solid before running the still. The beauty about this little freezer is the shelves are made from what feels like tin foil! And the cooling lines are exposed and visible under each shelf, so very easy to avoid. I've just punched a hole in the shelves to run the overflow hose for each reservoir.
My little hand draw diagram might help to explain:
IMG_3087.jpg
I've set it all up relatively neatly with hose fittings and washers etc, but there's still some tweaking to be done and some more permanent sealing and fastening.
The 2x test runs have been positive. I'm sure there are plenty improvements that could be made. As a backup plan, I had a large wiz bin full of water on hand should the pump reservoir start to warm up, but I didn't need it. I may need it in summer or with longer runs. The output water which returns to the still is very chilled even after 2-3 hours.
I really only went down this path because I had the bar freezer on-hand and wanted to make use of it. Plus it's been a lot of fun getting it setup - even though I'm a hack and totally making it up as I go.
I'm relatively happy with the way that's all working BUT I'm still not confident with how the reflux still is running. I think that's another problem best posted in the reflux still section (feel free to jump in when I post there!)
Cheers,
RR
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