StillSmart

Hello! I am a new to distilling as well as the t500 still.

The problem I am having with my still is that when my temperatures get to where they need to be my exhaust water has an alcohol smell to it and is very hazy. Im concerned that there is an internal leak and that my sugar wash is boiling into my cooling system. Also after about the second hour it produces very small amounts of alcohol and then my vapor temperature at the top will not raise above 60 degrees unless I completely turn off the water supply which in turn raises the water outlet reading. Has anyone had this problem?

Hey NN60, welcome to the forums. Can you take a pic with your phone or camera, and upload it with something like photobucket to see how you have your still plumbed.

Something sounds very very wrong.

check which way around your water pipes are. Knowing how a T500 is put together I'd be surprised if there is a leak (there are only a couple of joints where contamination could happen and then it would be more likely to be water escaping into the column)

Check this thread to make sure you have the pipes the right way around.

http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1200

Cheers Mr C, I couldn't locate that thread.

It's cunningly hidden as a sticky at the top of the T500 forum

Tuesday Night is Mojito Night.


The internet falls out with me after the second one

I double checked the diagram on the thread posted. It is set up correctly. Howevrr when I initially started the boil I did have the water inlet hooked up to the outlet but I quicky fixed the problem. Would the excess pressure maybe have pushed something out of place on the inside? When it was set up incorrectly at first the water would just fall in to boiler.

Ok, so you had the water from the tap hooked up to the product output from the condenser.

Yep - that would make water go into the boiler.

What happens when you set the T500 with an empty boiler and turn the water on??

It should go into the condenser out, up through the little clear plastic tube at the top and then out out by the temperature sensor.

If you put a piece of newspaper over the top of the boiler you should be able to see any water leaks

I did not have the water from the tap hooked up to the product outlet. I had the tap hooked up to the water waste part and the the waste part to the drain. I fixed that problem immediately. I just took apart the condensor and found a hole at the bottom of the coil. It looks machined so im not sure if there is supposed to be a plug there or not.

MrCat wrote:Ok, so you had the water from the tap hooked up to the product output from the condenser.

Yep - that would make water go into the boiler.

What happens when you set the T500 with an empty boiler and turn the water on??

It should go into the condenser out, up through the little clear plastic tube at the top and then out out by the temperature sensor.

If you put a piece of newspaper over the top of the boiler you should be able to see any water leaks

I just tried it and water poors into the boiler.

Yeah, that doesn't look right, the water should just flow down the tube and out the outlet. It shouldn't be able to escape into the column I'm just trying to find a photo of mine.

There were some pictures of one disassembled on another thread but I could not find it.

If you Google t500 there is a video that shows how to assemble it correctly, if you think that my bethe problem. I would post the link but I don't know how. Sorry

What I do to post links is left click on the address bar, which then turns blue.

Right click and then left click 'copy' from the drop down menu. To post the link, right click the post you are making and then left click 'paste' from the drop down menu.

Hope this helps.