Super Reflux Mod

[Opus 27]

On a number of occasions I have had a problem of the column flooding on my Super Reflux. I also find that the final purity can be in-consistent varying from 75% to 88%.

I know that this still is a compromise between the Air Still and a Full Reflux Still and I don’t expect to get 95-96% out of it. I would however like something consistently in the 80% range.

Having read until my eyes hurt I came to the conclusion that the biggest problem was in controlling the temperature in the column. The only means of doing this has been through the cooling water and this is not ideal.

For some reason Still Spirits have not identified the heater element power either on the still or the packaging but searching the net came up with a spec of 1380 watts.

When I ran mine through a load meter it was running at 1420 watts which is not far of that spec.

All the info I’ve obtained suggested this is exceptionally high and that something around 700 watts would be more appropriate once the still was up to reflux temperature. With this in mind I decided to look into the possibility of controlling the heat output without invasive work on the still. The solution I’ve used is a 1500W pulse /speed controller ((£28.00 incl p&p). I’m attaching Pics for anyone interested.
Once installed I proceeded as follows;

Initially controller was is set to max giving 1400W+ this setting was left until reflux was beginning i.e. temperature rising rapidly in column. Power was then progressively reduced sufficient to hold temperature at required level to keep output to about 4-5Ml per minute. There was a certain amount of fluctuation in power requirement at the beginning but I found the “Sweet Spotâ€

[Bottleofrum]

**Pat on back**
Nice work there mate, keep us updated on how it goes as

I might have to PM you on were to buy and make this

little treasure!
BOR

[umpa]

That’s a really good idea,
I always get 85%, but I do this by running the still on a timer with the water flowing much faster than the instructions. The result is the temp never goes above 85oc. It takes a full 12 hrs to distil but I get 4ltrs of the good stuff.
I might look in to this idea, it shows promise....
I run the still at night using the cheep electric by the way.

[Phantom]

Hum? an excellent idea Opus, though the actual testing/working out of how much juice is getting the pass through is a bit over my head at the moment - it\'s been a very long time since I had to do any of that kind of calculations (the books and other info have long since gone the way of the dinosaurs....)
did you time it to work out how long it took you to achieve the result of the 2750mls @ 86%
Plus I\'m still looking around to see if someone will lend me some welding kit (gas) so I can manufacture a parrot, then I can monitor my output at a glance and if it takes longer with the still running to make sure that it\'s got the last of the alcohol out of a batch, not necessarily good enough to use directly but still Ok to add it to the next batch being distilled i.e. being able to seperate heads, heart and tails just by \"watching the numbers\"
If I can find someone who\'ll lend me some gas kit, then I\'ll be throwing some money toward a proper reflux still head, something like a bokabob mini, though a bit taller. Then I can fit copper mesh to the lower part and still run it at a reasonable speed.
The only thing I haven\'t worked out where to get, is a needle valve that will go on 6 or 8 mm ductile pipe. That would allow me to set the recovery rate as well as the reflux ratio......
Oh and yes, if you don\'t mind maybe you could also PM me the details of where the pulse/speed controller came from, then I can send off for one to try as well..........