Reflux still cooling mod

by **marc83** » Mon Jun 28, 2010 12:05 pm

As i mentioned in another thread on a different topic,i have carried out Teddysad's mod to the cooling inlet hose as per the link

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 46&t=13264

This worked well along with insulating the boiler itself while distilling to have a rocksteady temp throughout the whole distill.I had a bit of an idea about including a Y-piece and a couple of simple ball type valves that split off and go to the column and the other to the product condenser,.Giving individual control over both and allowing the column to get a cooler flow rather than it going through the product condenser first.Any thoughts on this??Anyone tried it??Going to give it a shot,i think it would work well.

by **umpa** » Sat Dec 04, 2010 8:08 pm

I don\'t see the point in it to be honest. I seem to be able to maintain a column temp of (insert your figure here) by water volume. I usually run mine at 78C and it stays there until all the usable alcohol is gone.
Now insulating the boiler to save electricity is a good idea and one I have thought about doing myself, but I cant see it giving the rock steady temp you mention.
If I were to mod mine it would be with a fraction column, I have always fancied a bash at that..

by **Opus 27** » Sat Dec 04, 2010 9:34 pm

Umpa

when I insulated my boiler last week to do a run the area that it \"steaded\" was the bit at the start of reflux where I normally get quite significant variations for 20 minutes or so. Temp at the head leveled off to 78 within a few minutes but took a long time to rise to 79 where I normally collect.
Opus