StillSmart

Last Saturday I was lucky/unlucky enough to witness a surge boil from my airstill

Why did this happen? Because I used those ceramic boil thingies as my only precaution (big mistake) As you can imagine hot liquid spewing out all over the place is not pleasant and definitely not safe and I'm just glad the kids were not around when it happened!

Since then I have been using distillers conditioner with old pennies and had no further problems, please don't cut corners people if you want to avoid injuries.

only happens once,, and never tell her indoors,, or she won't let you use it in the kitchen
I did it once,, now i use pennies and boil enhancer

Sorry that happened brewhunter.
I started with ceramic rings,soon added copper chunks,never,ever used conditioner, and I always run it on the kitchen draining board.
These days it is only used for Gin or trial runs of something funky.

Robert.

It's probably the one single best piece of info we should get over to new users.

KerryW wrote:only happens once,, and never tell her indoors,, or she won't let you use it in the kitchen
I did it once,, now i use pennies and boil enhancer

Spot on!

@brewhunter did you use condtioner or just use the ceramic saddles
You should of used conditioner along with ceramic saddles then
You probably wouldnt have a surge

I don't think so. Conditioner is to prevent excessive foam production at the top and the still puking. Surge boiling happens at the bottom and you need some sort of physical thing there to cause bubble formation.

For extra fun, leave out the bits in the bottom and heat the still to boiling. Then remember you left them out, pop the top, and drop the them in. Instant Boiling Wash Volcano! Mine hit three feet. Burns, but no fire, and I was drunk from the fumes by the time I got it cleaned up.

Chuck

Blimey chuck that sounds up there with my oven fire when toasting oak staves. Good work.

Magnu420 wrote:@brewhunter did you use condtioner or just use the ceramic saddles
You should of used conditioner along with ceramic saddles then
You probably wouldnt have a surge

Yes it was just the saddles, until then I'd been putting a bit of butter in there but for some reason I didn't that time.. Lesson learnt

Not agreeing is healthy?

I have never used conditioner, butter or anything other than physical boil pieces.

I have never had a problem.

Now, if anyone would like to buy six numbers from me, I am available by PM.

Robert.

..Not agreeing is healthy?

You will live forever Robert!

My
For the time that I used my A/Still I read somewhere about cutting thin rings from a short length of 15mm copper pipe. I did use conditioner at first, then on one run I found I had none left, that was it I never used it again.

I think you find out what works for you, what's safe to use and then stick with it...ask 10 stillers a question and you'll get 11 answers...

Icefever wrote:

I think you find out what works for you, what's safe to use and then stick with it...ask 10 stillers a question and you'll get 11 answers...

Absolutey agree - but its still coinage that stops surges bestist

Icefever wrote:
I think you find out what works for you, what's safe to use and then stick with it...ask 10 stillers a question and you'll get 11 answers...

Well, I will have at least two answers for you, try and do the math.

@brewhunter... This happened to me also. Id had my smart still about two years and used the little ceramic boil enhancers. It was a very violent surge - blew the top right off and showered half the room, leaving only about a liter in the pot.

Since then I replaced my ceramic boil enhancers with new ones and added half a bog of the T500 copper boil enhancers. I also started adding three cap fulls of the conditioner. I immediately noticed the lack of 'thumping' during a run and have not suffered a surge since.

My advice is if you are experiencing a thumping noise and notice the lid lifting ever so slightly its time to act. Change your enhancers for new ones and add copper.

Here is a http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3423&p=24455&hilit=makum101#p24455 to my Surge story...