T 500

[alan]

just orderd a t500 from wineworks,early christmas prezzy I hope its as good as people keep telling me
alan

[i dont drink]

i spent a good 6 weeks looking at the pro's n cons al but still bought one lol..

i was shitting a brick when i put my first turbo wash through it but it was drama free!..
yes the water temp went up and down by 1-2ºc but that was it.... i did only put half a wash in but i got just over 2 litres of 95% spirit that was extreamly clean in taste and smell and i was absolutelly over the moon... infact, i havnt even touched the spirit yet cos im on nights but iv got another wash to go through it in a few days lolol..

one tip i found was to not have the mains tap on full blast!... i turned the tap down to a near enought trickle and then i found it 100% better to adjust with the needle valve to the recomended 400ml per second, or you can actually get an adaptor from still spirits that fits onto a washing machine type tap for about a fiver and its a good buy, or you can (like i did) just take the small adaptor ring that comes with the valve and youl find that standard 15mm copper pipe will fit into it, so all you have to do is solder the pipe into the adaptor and then you can fit standard garden hosepipe onto the 15mm copper pipe and then into the needle valve!.. voila!

also make sure you dont ram the column too full or it wont reflux.... just put the copper ones in first and shake them down, and then put a handfull of the ceramic saddles in and tap them down until its about 2 inch from the neck... you should still have a good handfull of saddles left in the bag.

hope this helps

al.

[alan]

just finished putting my new toy together,I will need to adapt a fitting to go between the needle valve and the cold tap but that's no problem
alan

[i dont drink]

i soldered a bit of 15mm copper tube into the little threaded thing that comes with it and then put that onto a hosepipe.... worked perfectly

they do a washer tap conversion too !

[alan]

just done a trail run with hot water and some vinegar to clean the still and check for any leaks, only found one were the thermostat goes in on the return side, easy fix with PTFE Tape,going to run a molasses wash in the morning
alan