StillSmart

Hi guys

Run a wash through my T500 today everything going well had 2.5 liters out of my wash then the temp went hay wire and the liquid was flowing out like a tap and cloudy.

Couple of question what happened for it to do that, hope the boiler isn't knack-ed, and if there is nothing wrong with the T500 can I put the liquid back in the boiler and do a re-run.

Peter

Always water any spirit down to 40% or less to rerun it - I usually let mine down to about a max of 30%.

You have to watch the water supply closely. I used to get a 5 degree swing by just filling the kettle for tea.

Some who've found this have used pressure stability valves (designed for caravans) and then setting the flow rate accordingly.

The haywire and cloudy thing sounds like the column/condenser was getting flooded.

There's also power controllers that can be made or adapted so that you use full power to get it up to temperature and then reduce the power a bit. If you insulate the boiler some, it makes life a bit easier too......

Cheers Phantom

I don't how it can be water pressure I run the still next door in my sons house whilst he is at work. Anyway as long I have not wasted my wash that's fine will try again tomorrow.

Cheers for the advice.

fatlad wrote:Cheers Phantom

I don't how it can be water pressure I run the still next door in my sons house whilst he is at work. Anyway as long I have not wasted my wash that's fine will try again tomorrow.

Cheers for the advice.

Ah, you'd be surprised........ there could be a number of reasons for even tiny variations in external water pressure plus it depends where you are. Some water regions are worse than others.

Plus I find mine can be a pain, because it can swing 3 or 4 degrees with less than a 1/16th of a turn of the needle valve. Its very stable once its going, but as I say, flush the bog or fill the kettle and it swings very quickly.

All part of the learning IMO.......

Sounds like a puke. Can happen when you have a wash thats not fully degassed, or surge boiling.

Just water it down, and rerun the the lot. I had this a few times when running A t500, sometime giving the column a shake to resettle the saddles seemed to sort it (I found this after getting several pukes in a row)

Cheers Guys

I've given the top of the T500 a good clean and going to do a re-run today hopefully everything will go to plan.

Thanks once again for the info.

Peter

Just run the wash again with no problems, returned three liters at 92%.

Capt-Cudellez reference to the degassing I have a degassing tool and with my power tool I gave it twenty minutes of degassing until no more bubbles.

Thanks once again for the help and everything seems fine.