StillSmart

So yesterday, about 3 gallons or so of varying strength spirit (all having been \"strip distilled\") into the boiler then topped up to the second ridge (about 25 litres) give me a strength of about 55 to 60 % ABV - take a gallon out and add a gallon more water and it\'s about the 45% mark.
Newly cleaned and repacked the reflux chamber with copper mesh.
Fire it up - no problem, but it doesn\'t matter what I do (faster cooling water flow etc) still insists on hanging about the 80 degree\'s C mark.
Dump the first 35 to 40 mls and then took 100mls to test. Ok, about 88% ABV to start.
Fill a DJ and then change for another one. The first DJ is measuring up at about 82/83 % ABV
Then the weirdness. After about 1.5 litres it\'s dripping at less than 1 drip per second - very slow and I\'m thinking that it\'s like the first time I used copper mesh in the reflux chamber.
Obviously it\'s refluxing too much in there.......
Ok, turn the water off for a second and then back on, but slower.. after an hour, no difference.
Now I\'ve already worked out that the total content of alcohol will be about 11 litres - but as I\'m not gonna get the whole 100% of it, allowing for 85% ABV, that should give me about 9.5 to 9.75 or so litres at 85% ABV.
Damn, why so slow????????
Ok thinks me, turn the water off and back on again.....
I wish I had an accurate way of measuring the water flow, as all of a sudden, it\'s running well i.e. about 3/4 litre per hour and it\'s coming out at 92% ABV.
Stupidly, I fall asleep in the arm chair and when I wake it\'s almost at the neck of the second DJ and it\'s measured up at an average of 88% ABV - so I\'m quite pleased.
Switch it off and bed!
It\'s given me from yesterday 2 gallons/9litres or so with the average of 85% ABV as I\'d worked out, so today it\'s now got the gallon of spirit I took out back in and when I\'ve got my shit together I\'ll fire it up again as there should be about another 2 litres or so to get at about 85% - then I\'ll just leave it running to get the tails to go in with the next batch.......
My conclusion ? dunno really, it does (and always has been) a bit of a bugger to control - I\'m pretty sure that there\'s something that varies our water pressure enough to make it an issue, but it\'s not within the house. It is capable of getting over 90% on a second distillation, but it\'s very picky about doing that and there\'s no real way of monitoring whats going on in the reflux chamber.
If I ever manage to get my home made still finished, at least that should allow me to experiment a bit more, which things like the density of the reflux packing (currently pushed in by hand and them \"rammed home\" with a wooden spoon, so it\'s in line with the top of the reflux collar/jacket).
We\'ll see......
p.s. unless, Richard does manage to stock the t500\'s for about the £300 mark - for that, I\'d rip his arm off ;-P

Throughout reading your post i thought maybe your packing may be packed too tight??Very frustrating sometimes i know.I had a cooling issue with mine that i put up with for a few runs,Ended up modifying the cooling inlet,and insulating the boiler,Rocksteady temps throughout the entire process now.

That\'s what made it weird Marc, there was swings in temperature of up to about 4 degree\'s - it did seem to perform best when it sat at a steady 80.1 C i.e. the fastest, but also the highest % output.
Plus, it does seem that while knitted copper mesh stocking, is (anecdotally) the best, it does appear that it has to be quite tightly packed otherwise the vapours just come flying through with little or no reflux occurring.
I don\'t really want to have to \"kick the arse out of it\" i.e. get a couple of 225 litre drums, pump (with variable control adapters etc) to make it \"closed circuit\" cooling - as that\'d probably need a pumped bar chiller as well to cool the drum/water reservoir as well.......
Though maybe that\'s what it needs........

These dont usually use the mesh packing correct??I may be wrong,but if not,how did it perform with the other?

These dont usually use the mesh packing correct??I may be wrong,but if not,how did it perform with the other?

No they don\'t, but having read about how copper mesh is supposed to be so much better, I first changed to rashig rings, which are an improvement over the "ceramic" saddles supplied with it, and the copper mesh is supposed to be better again.
It\'s just a case (or so it seems) with these "coolant management" type stills, it can cause too much refluxing though it seems that when I get it right (which because of the way the coolant is increased/decreased to get the refluxing correct - is a little hit and miss without good quality flow control), it does work quite fast, producing a high% ABV.
I\'m hoping that when (if ;-P ) I get my home made model built/working, that the adjustment of the reflux will be a lot more straight forward and easier to manage......
I\'m also thinking of making a parrot, which should give me constant updates of changes to % ABV and make life easier and more controllable....