StillSmart

hi I've seen some of these that say different wattage levels. I heard that the water versions are 580 watts and the alcohol ones are 300 watts. I've also seen water distillers that are on ebay that say they are 700-800 watts as well they all look the same but obviously I'm wondering if they work differently. If you get an alcohol still too hot ie too high a wattage will you get loads of water as well?

Mine is 320 watts if that helps

I believe if you have too much heat you won't be able to seperate heads, etc as cleanly if at all .

Only just started though so could be wrong on that one lol

Iain

The ones factory modified for alcohol distillation are around 320 watts. The higher wattage ones will heat up faster and give you a faster output. I have never used one, but my guess is that you would get more smearing of heads and tails. It should not affect the purity (percentage of water wise), more power just means more vapour produced.

Chuck

The problem with higher power in this type of still is the capacity of the condenser.

In the Airstill and similar configuration the ability to condense all the alcohol vapour is critical as any vapour escaping uncondensed would be potentially very dangerous - explosive even. So higher power in that configuration would be a very bad idea.

AM

EDIT - THIS POST IS INACCURATE - SEE BELOW!

What you are trying to do by distilling a liquid is to turn it into a vapour. As you know, water does this at 100 degrees C (near enough for the purposes of this explaination!). Alcohol (Ethanol) is nearer 78.4 degrees. An AirStill is basically a big kettle with a condensor on the top.

So, to distill water you need to heat it to around 100 degrees, at which point it will turn into vapour. This rises through into the coil and is condensed by the cooling action of the fan and drains out, leaving impurities like heavy metals, etc in the still.

If you're wanting to distill alcohol, you're trying to also leave the water behind so you don't want the still to get anywhere near 100 degrees otherwise all you'll basically do is end up with the same thing coming out as you put in, minus a few solids and whatnot.

The lower wattage (320 is correct) means that in theory the still should heat the liquid to around 78 degrees - obviously it's not exact because the heat source is at the bottom, external temps can vary, etc etc - it's a basic method, but that's the general idea. You can distill water with an AirStill for example, but it takes much longer (6 hrs plus).

Hope this helps!

I've got a water version that I converted. It's branded 'O de V' 'Water of Life' which is kinda cute.

5 minutes with a soldering iron and some lead/cadmium free solder fixed the chlorine vent in the coil and I used an old pc power supply case to house a power regulator as the heater is 450w. On the factory converted stills the fan is upgraded but mine isn't. Doesn't really matter as I run the heater at low power. I've just measured it and it's 175watts which gives a lovely product 1st run although it takes almost 6 hours so I run it on a timer.

Seems almost everything to do making booze is better if it takes longer.

In the Irish language, Whiskey is 'Uisce beatha' - literal translation "Water of Life" and the name 'Whiskey' is an Anglicisation of the Irish name.

Isn't life strange!

AM

Jimmy wrote:So, to distill water you need to heat it to around 100 degrees, at which point it will turn into vapour. This rises through into the coil and is condensed by the cooling action of the fan and drains out, leaving impurities like heavy metals, etc in the still.

If you're wanting to distill alcohol, you're trying to also leave the water behind so you don't want the still to get anywhere near 100 degrees otherwise all you'll basically do is end up with the same thing coming out as you put in, minus a few solids and whatnot.

The lower wattage (320 is correct) means that in theory the still should heat the liquid to around 78 degrees - obviously it's not exact because the heat source is at the bottom, external temps can vary, etc etc - it's a basic method, but that's the general idea.

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Technically this isn't accurate, you cannot influence the boiling point of the liquid in the still. It will boil at a temperature determined by the make up of the solution. This changes throughout the run as you are removing the alcohol and some of the water, changing the concentrations of each left in the still, this is the only thing that affects the bp.

It doesn't mater if you throw 400w or 4000w at it, it will still boil at the same temp.

Think if you boiled a pan of water on a little camping stove it boils at 100oC (at sea level), put the same pan on the large ring of the kitchen hob, and it still boils at 100oC, Even if you stuck it on a 3 ring banjo burner on a full roar, again its 100oC. this is a physical property you cannot change.

Using different power setting will affect the product, but this is down to things other than the boiling point of the wash (which we cannot change).

OK, lets see if I understand you properly!

Are you saying that while we can't change the physical properties we
can change to a bigger pot provided we don't change the wash

AM

All I was saying is we cannot change the temperature that the wash boils at. Jimmys post says that the air still uses a lower wattage so it dosn't heat the wash up to 100oC - this is not the case, the temp that the wash boils at cannot be controlled with power, it a a physical\chemical property, that's why you don't see still controlled using a wash temp probe.

Running slower as you know can produce a better quality spirit, this is more to do with the vapour speed, natural reflux and other things within the still, that are not really linked to the temp that the wash is boiling at, more to do with how quickly the vapour is being generated (which is link directly to the power applied) but is not linked to the wash temp.

If you measured the wash temp it might start boiling in the low 80oC, and gradually increase to the high 90's by the time we quit collecting- it would be boiling the whole time.
It wouldn't matter if we were doing a fast stripping run with lots of watts and done in an hour or two, or a slow and steady spirit run that takes 5 hours, the wash would be boiling the whole time we are producing vapour, the temperature will change depending on the amount of alcohol (and other things) in the boiler, and not down to the power applied.

Apologies, I've dragged a noobs questions on the stills a bit off topic, and probably caused more confusion in the process

First one in with the star trek quote

"You canna change the laws of physics, jim !"

I'll get me coat ................

Iain

Good idea! Beam him up Scotty

AM

Captain the engines can no take it she's gonna blow

Think I've caused some confusion here - of course the boiling point of a liquid is dependent on the properties of the juice, and it's going to boil at the same temp regardless of the power going into it as the Capt points out. That's why you can distill water with a modified AirStill, and why you can distill alcohol with an unmodified version - although neither is particularly efficient.

To go with the cooking analogy, what I was trying to illustrate was that you're trying to get it to a simmer rather than full on boil, with enough heat to maintain an element of control in the still and keep the output stable. The temperature will of course differ throughout the liquid because the heat source is at the bottom and there is an element of reflux from cooling vapours, etc. The point I was trying to make to the original poster was that an overpowered still will be inefficient and hard to use to make decent product. Unfortunately, I tried to explain it without engaging my brain.

I definitely didn't intend to mislead anyone, so sorry about that and thanks to the Capt for the corrections and also for not calling me any rude words in the process!

It's Distilling Jim, just not as we know it!

AM

See what you started Iain