Still controller

2016-02-14T10:31:13+00:00

I have recently decided to upgrade my still equipment to allow me to actually run a whole fermentor instead of 5l batches which is obviously incredibly inefficient in energy and of course time. So the set up I've gone for is a 100l keg that will have a 4" triclamp ferrule on the top and offset to that will be a 2 inch sight glass/ fill hole. And on the bottom will be another 2" triclamp with a valve as the drain for the set up. This is going to be electric and the idea is be able to use the elements in my brewery set up so that I don't have to spend more money on stainless elements when I already have some that wouldn't be in use if I was running the still.

So far the only things I have collected is the copper pipe and the triclamps, I believe I have sorted the column head part of things and a new keg is arriving tomorrow from crusader kegs.

What I have slowly started building is a control unit, I learnt the hard way when I built my brewery controller that rushing only makes you do a bad job and then makes you wish you had waited so this controller is slowly being pieced together as parts arrive from all over the world. It consists of an army surplus ammo container which are great as they are water tight, very robust but easy to work with as the metal can be drilled easily. The still will be running two 2.5kw elements and I want to independently run both of them so when imheating up I can run both of them on full power and then possibly shut one off once I'm at the desired output speed. Each of the controllers has their own heat sink and fan but from what I have read on home distiller this is their vulnerability and regularly the fan controller is know to destroy itself so I'm going to switch them off and run a computer fan In the box (depending on how hot the box gets during test runs) here's what I have so far, don't worry about the cable length I was just using spare cable to see how it all worked in the box, I have a proper connector box coming in the post to allow power distribution in the unit.

Statistics: Posted by Devon — Sun Feb 14, 2016 10:31 am

StillSmart

Still controller