Essencia Carbon Filter

[Admiral Toad]

about quarter of a bag of alcotec carbon so less than a coule of quids worth
just reread the essencia instruction and realised when they say change after 5 batches they mean 45 litres ie 5 diluted stillsworth not 5 top resevoir charges eee aaaw im a donkey

[MrCat]

I've succumbed and ordered an essencia filter this morning..

[MrCat]

It's arrived at last and the ceramic filter is in two bits

and I had a load of stuff to run through it..

[MrCat]

Anyone had problems with the ceramic filter?? It's allowing maybe 1 drop through every 2 seconds and it's contaminated with carbon. It was a brand new filter yesterday, I primed it but it's just not working right.
The first ceramic filter was broken and it took over 2 weeks to get a replacement...

I bought this filter to make my life easier and so far it's just ben a load of hassle

[Admiral Toad]

You did give it a good soak to prime it mate ?
I read somewhere that you can get an airlock in there that slows it up

[MrCat]

I'd been told by the shop to soak it in spirit so I soaked it for three hours on monday evening then put the unit together and put about 5 litres of spirit in the top bucket overnight. By tuesday morning it had filtered about .5 litre so I took it all apart again and left the ceramic filter in spirit all day.
Got home last night, put it all back together, put 5 litres of spirit in again, left it with the tap open and a demijohn under the tap.

Came back two hours later to find nothing in the demijohn, stripped it all apart and noticed there were smears of carbon on top of the lower carbon filter.

I removed the ceramic filter and it was dripping spirit and carbon from the hole.

I put the carbon filter back on (with no ceramic filter) and filtered the carbon out from the spirit.

I'm not sure what is up with the ceramic filter but it isn't doing what it should.

Once the spirit had been filtered I removed the carbon filter and just put the ceramic filter in place. I again filled the upper bucket with spirit, left the tap open and a demijoh under the tap.

(this is pretty much where I posted last night)

This morning the demijohn had about 1/2 litre of spirit in with a suspension of carbon and the lower bucket was grey with carbon.

I'm really frustrated, I ordered this on the 19th June, it took over a week to get the filter through the post, then a further 2 weeks to replace the broken filter that was sent with the original unit, it's nearly a month since I paid for it and I haven't managed to succesfully filter one drop of spirit..

[Admiral Toad]

Hi mate

cant work out how carbon is getting in or on the ceramic filter as that is in the top bucket above the carbon filter ie the first thing the spirit runs through

[MrCat]

The ceramic filter also contains carbon - I think perhaps there is a paper filter in the hole that stops it leaking out but maybe it's torn or detached

I've got the broken ceramic filter put to one side - I think I'll have a look at that and see what I can see.

[Almanac]

My original report on this very problem, posted last year, was deleted by a departed 'friend'.

I too had experienced the 'no throughput' problem and after contacting the manufacturers by email, they actually rang me from NZ and recommended filling the upper chamber with water or spirit and to keep topping it up until the upper and lower containers were at max capacity and then leave it for 24 hours.

In my case this did fix the problem. However, while the symptoms you've experienced are similar to my experience there is clearly a serious problem with the ceramic cartridge in your case. I'd definitely hammer the supplier for an urgent replacement on the basis that it would be preferable to you returning the whole thing for a full refund because it doesn't do what it says on the tin!

AM

[MrCat]

Thanks AM. I'm giving that a try now.

I had a look at the original ceramic filter that was broken - it contains about a cup full of carbon and there is a metal mesh filter in the 'spout' of the filter. I doubt the metal filter is enough to stop the carbon 'dust' getting out of the spout.

The carbon in the ceramic filter looks like normal activated carbon which is why I'm guessing it's just little bits of very fine carbon dust that is coming out of the ceramic filter spout.

The lower carbon filter is only partially effective at removing this dust so I think eventually I'll just run the spirit through a series of coffee papers.

[MrCat]

I got a new pair of filters the other day, primed them as per the instructions (rather than with spirit as suggested by the shop), then ran water through them (as suggested in the book) and finally it's working well.

I've filtered 2 gallons of 45% and it's a very nice neutral now for making this years strawberry vodka from

[Almanac]

Happy for you Mr C

AM

[Runningman]

Hi Guys
To all of you stillers out there who have recently purchased or have owned an Essencia Spirit Filter. Do you think its still good value considering its £80 to buy and £25.90 & £21.90 for the Ceramic Dome and Carbon Filter.
Any thoughts realy appreciated.
Regards
Runningman

[Almanac]

Simple answer - Yes! No question.

However, the carbon filter can be re-filled very easily and the proper sized carbon, 0.4 - 0.85 mm is readily available from HBS that cater for distillers.

The Essencia adds about £0.30 pence (MAX) per liter of spirit which will still leave the total cost per liter for your spirits at well under £3.00 if you are just an occasional distiller. Currently, my cost per liter is just under £1.20

Although the Essencia appears expensive in terms of initial outlay if you spread that initial cost over a three year life (I have mine more than two years and still perfect) and take into account that you'll only have to buy the ceramic dome filter after every 500 litres filtered and you'll re-fill the Carbon filter 4 times from a bag of Activated Carbon costing about £6.00 (1.50 per fill) then divide that overall cost by the number of litres you expect to produce in a month/quarter or year and you'll find it's very little indeed.

Final word, you and you're will be drinking the spirits you make so you'll want the cleanest result you can possibly get and until a SS version appears on the market or you build one the Essencia is the Dogs Bollox.

AM

[Robbo79]

Can this not be primed in the 40% spirit rather than water so it dont soak up water and dilute the spirit wen run through?