Filtering; does it take ages?

[lejomr]

Hi, have just finished my first ever distillation. I put the spirit in the filter arrangement which came with the air still. The carbon had already been fitted. I held it under the hot tap for 45 seconds to activate. Now after 45 minutes only a very small amount has collected in the second container. Have I done something dumb? I dont think there was a cover over the cartridge but nor did I take it off to check.
Any advice appreciated.

[lejomr]

I can confirm i did something dumb! Turns out the cartridge had been installed with a plastic washer at each end, thereby stopping anything getting through. Problem now solved. Live and learn.....

[Whiskers]

Lejomr-Im new to this too and did my first filter a day or two ago. I just loosened the big chunky grey washer a bit. Did you take the two thin, flexible washers (next to the carbon) off? I havent done that-perhaps thats why I couldnt discern any difference after filtering.... From what Ive read its not a great filter anyway (surely it just runs through the central hole and bypasses the charcoal?), but not sure what the alternative is.

[bluecap]

If it’s any help when I use to use the air still, I just used a cut down Schweppes bottle directly into the collection container, cut at a angle so it wedges under the spirit outlet and stuff the teabag filter in the hole not to tight or it can over flow, or cotton wool in the hole and loose carbon washed in boiling water first

[phlogiston]

I found the cartridge filter a real pain in the neck. Tighten it up properly and it doesn\'t flow. Loosen it up, or remove the foam plastic washers (they are meant to be there), and the spirit bypasses the filter.

[lejomr]

On more research, turns out I might have been double-dumb! Those plastic washers it turns out are meant to be there. What I have done is keep the bottom one in place and removed the top one. I\'ve also screwed the cartridge in very firm, but not over tight. This appears to have worked. Filtering a litre takes around 2 hours or so and the filtrate does appear to be coming out through the cartridge itself, not just through the central hole. So I will perserve with this for a while. However as has been noted here and elsewhere, the general view is that this is not a particulary good filter.

[lyonacre]

Greeting lejomr!

I too started fairly recently - last Easter - with an Arstill and the filter set that came with it. There are lots of things about this set up that are a pain!

First off you do have the foam washers each side of the disc, they make it seal!

Next the flow rate:

If you hunt around the form/net you will find many people have had problems with the flow and this setup. The solution I found, and used, was to cut a couple of slots in the sahft of the grey plastic screw to ease transition from the upper chamber into the middle of the carbon disc.

Did that and things improved for the first disc and then nothing! Turns out that sometimes (lots of times for me) you get a carbon disc that is \"packed too solidly\" and nothing will go through it! The guy at Wineworks explained this to me and replaced a box for me. He said block the hole on one side and blow through the other. If you can\'t get any air through it may well be blocked.

If this is the case then try soaking it in hot water until it sinks and all the air bubbles are out of it. Have to say that has worked a couple of times for me.

What I took to doing was trying the blow test first and only using discs I could blow through. The failure rate was/is quite high.

All this is even more of a pain when to do 6 litres of spirit you should really use 3 or 4 of them (I didn\'t and the final spirit was smellier than it should have been the more I put through it.

I have just given up and splashed out on an Essencia filter and the results are brilliant! Expensive but so much easier, and it works.

Have a look at the stuff about washes because when you find your spirit is a bit smelly the answer will lie therein.

Good luck

[lyonacre]

Forgot to say, yes it does take ages once to sort the flow out, overnight for a couple of litres

[lejomr]

Thanks Lyonacre. My thinking is that I too will explore other options, eg the filter you recommend!

Cheers

[lejomr]

Forgot to ask Lyonacre, I see the cartridges are close to 20 quid each. What are your thoughts on the cost per litre filtered? Possibly a bit dear, but also worth it for the quality?

[lyonacre]

Using the SS carbon rings and the bakers yeast wash (excluding buying the still in the first place)my cost per litre is £0.94.
The cost of the carbon filter on the essencia should not make a huge difference, perhaps 30p at worst BUT if you do your own recharges, as talked about elsewhere on the forum, you can get that down to something like 2 or 3P which would make it cheaper than using the SS carbon discs.
At retail price that means that my cost per litre is now in the order of £1.26 until I start refilling the filter.
Is it worth it?
I have buggered about with all sorts and looked at making one up using copper pipe and caravan filters and plastic tube and lots of other things. Every approach - other that shake the spirit up with carbon granuals and drain it through a coffee filter - was going to cost between $30 and £40 and still wouldn\'t be ideal. The essencia is simple, works, and easy to get hold of.
As fort he taste..........Light years head of anything else I have tried.
So for me, yes it is. Remember just one batch save you enough dosh to buy a filter!

[Phantom]

Well I use a \"still spirits Z filter\". It takes about 4 hours to run 10 litres of 40% spirit, so I tend to run it twice.
Yes, it works out about the £50 mark but if you then follow the guidance in Gert Strands ebook about carbon filtering, you can rinse out and re-use the carbon with the minimum amount of replacement of new carbon.
Seems to work fine that way....

[optic]

I have both the Z filter and the Essencia and IMO the Essencia makes a far better job of filtering,im now using the Z filter to filter tap water for brewing my beers,I just leave the filter full of carbon submerged in one of the buckets filled with water and it seems to keep the carbon ok between brews.

[lyonacre]

Bought mine from http://www.creativewinemaking.co.uk/

[thursty2]

Being a bit of a handyman, and having all sorts of stuff lying around awaiting recycling, I built my filter from 1 metre of 40mm reticulation pipe (PVC) with a cap fitted to one end. A 3 litre fruit juice bottle with the bottom cut out was hot glued by its neck to a plain pvc joiner which in turn was glued to the other end of the pipe to create a funnel.
A 1/16\" hole was drilled in the cap and a stainless steel scrubber pushed into the pipe down to the cap to act as a retainer for the carbon. The pipe was then filled with activated carbon (around 500 grams).
My method of use was taken from the web.

1. Charge the funnel (fruit juice bottle) with a known quantity of filtered water (2 litres is sufficient to flood the pipe). Place the now empty charging container under the filter to catch the output.
When the water in the funnel is nearly gone, fill the funnel with product to be filtered. Keep the funnel full to exclude air.
When the previously empty charging container has collected around 2 litres of charge water, replace it with your product collection container.
When the last of the product is about to disappear from the funnel into the filter pipe, re-charge the funnel with the water previously re-collected in the charging container.
Once that water disappears into the filter pipe, remove the product container and put the (once again empty) charging container in its place to re-collect the 2 odd litres of charge water. Do not discard this water as it will contain some ethanol (up to 30% ABV) and can be used as is, or added to the next distillation.
Good luck.