StillSmart

Evening all..

My AirStill has done something rather odd this evening - I left it on the timer and I'm told that it started at 4pm as planned. By the time I got home at 7 it had produced about 250ml of cloudy liquid in the collection beaker and leaked over the worktop.

I turned it off, and after it had cooled, poured some water into the lid to discover that it promptly came out through the fan housing.

A strip down didn't reveal anything amiss that I could see, and no holes in the pipe.

After I'd put it together, it looked very different inside the lid - both the pipe and seal now protrude into the cavity of the still, whereas before they were flush. Despite trying several times, I couldn't get it back the way it was before.

Seems to work ok - so I'm beginning to wonder if it was actually wrong when I bought it and the seal has simply worked further out during use.

Could one of you other AirStill guys out there post a picture of the inside of your lid so I can compare?!

Cheers

Hampk

This inside, or the inside inside?

Robert.

That is what mine looks like too. It is just a silicone gasket that holds the tube in there. Did it perhaps puke, get plugged and push the pipe out of the gasket? Otherwise, I'd guess that it puked / foamed and popped the lid.

Chuck

Thanks - that helps, and yes it's the right inside!

That's what mine looked like before things went pear-shaped - now both the seal and the pipe protude through the inside of the lid and aren't flush like htey are in these pictures.

Time to pull it apart again methinks..

Cheers

Hampk

Yep, sounds like some fiddling and Bad Words (tm) are in order.

Strips AirStill..
Utters Bad Words (tm)
Reverses seal on pipe
Utters more Bad Words (tm)
Rebuilds AirStill..
Tests with water (ongoing)
*smacks forehead against wall*

'nuff said!

Cheers

Hampk

Sounds/reads like a puke to me as well.

Not experienced this with mine though. Only "burping", before I knew better (I'd got puke spirit from my old SS super reflux, and was trying to clean up 80% spirit without letting it down to <40% first).

I suspect my post(s) on distilling injuries is still floating around the forum somewhere.........

hampk wrote:Strips AirStill..
Utters Bad Words (tm)
Reverses seal on pipe
Utters more Bad Words (tm)
Rebuilds AirStill..
Tests with water (ongoing)
*smacks forehead against wall*

'nuff said!

Cheers

Hampk

I understand - did the same with a turbine last week! Got to pull that apart again this week.

Yikes - hope that goes ok Mash! I'm pleased to report that the AirStill is back in action and working fine now I've got it back together right!

Cheers

Hampk