StillSmart

I haven't had any problems with my Airstill until last night when I was (finally) doing the spirit run on some neutral.

It had all been stripped and diluted to ~30%, didn't think I'd need any anti-foaming conditioner as I haven't before with rum or neutral.

Foreshots came off (and tossed), started collecting heads in 125ml jar, got about halfway through the first jar and I heard a loud "pop"? I looked over, and my whole counter was sprayed with hot steamy wash! Luckily neither the dog nor I were nearby at the time.

No idea what could have happened, I shut off the power, cleaned up, reseated the lid, fired it up again and lo and behold, the same thing happened 5 minutes later!

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I suspect it was a surgeboil, and adding some copper washers would likely help. Maybe some pennies?

Yes, I have had that happen. I now always run with some pennies and some rough gravel (broken granite, not smooth river rock) in with the wash or strip. I don't know if anti-foaming conditioner would prevent surge boiling or not. I can tell you to not add pennies or gravel immediately after having a surge boil. Unless you are aiming for The Mother of All Surge Boils.

Chuck

I only ever use conditioner in stripping runs but boil enhances are a must have for all runs in the Airstill/Smartstill

The ceramic rings supplied with the Airstill are usually good enough but I found two packs were needed.

You could also get a 12" piece of half inch copper pipe and cut quarter inch pieces off and semi crush them with a pliers so they don't just roll around in the still. These will do the same job.

Thankfully nobody was hurt this time

AM

i use both,the copper and the boil enhancer aswell as the distillers
conditioner

Thanks for the input, I've got plenty of pennies, which are being phased out anyway. Don't think the mint would mind if I bent a few for use in the still!

My airstill didn't come with any raschig rings, although the LHBS does sell them.

I'll try out the pennies, boiling them to sanitize them first, and I'll give it a go this weekend.

I made a copper coil and placed inside my airstill .I,m sure the wash is going in and rising to the top .Have had 0 problems . I have used butter in the wash also

I think I will be using some pennies in my next one,,

So I bent about 50 pennies in half, boiled them, then threw them into the wash. Worked like a charm, could hear the little buggers jingling around a bit inside.

One problem, I noticed the next day when cooled down and I dumped the dunder that some of the pennies had started to oxidize, and left black smudge on the bottom of the still.

I'm cleaning them in some vinegar now so I can read the dates, but I suspect the ones which oxidized were not pure copper, and plated steel or nickel instead. Anyone else experienced this?

I use all old (at least 1970 or before) pennies and they do oxidize. That is the point. Soak then in a cup of hot water with a teaspoon or two of critic acid to clean them up. Vinegar or any acid also works, but I dislike the smell of vinegar.

Chuck