StillSmart

hi all..... at the moment i use and airstill and im pretty much saticfied with the results i get..

i distill then filter a couple of times and what i get is about 55% that i cut to 35-40% .

thing is, im thinking of getting a t500 and want to know what benefits i will get over the airstill?... as it is i can just throw 4 litres of wash in and 2.5 hours later, iv got 800-1000ml of 55ish% spirit and so on and i was wondering how much better will a t500 be?

the idea of putting a whole wash in (25 litres) and then distilling it all in one go is very appealing but im reading more and more story's of the thing being difficult and it kind of putting me off buying one next week....

im no conorsur of perfectley tasting spirit as i only drink it with pop anyway so 100% pure tasting spirit is pretty much useless to me so iv no idea what to do...

with the t500, am i just able to put 25 litres of wash in and then keep an eye on the column temp and run it until it stops producing alcohol or is it more involved?

and, does the 500 spirit realy need to be filtered because my airstill spirit tastes and smells like a dogs arse if its not filtered

go easy with me folks cos im a noob to all the technical talk like heads, tails and so on lolol....

al.

First off, you should be cutting to 40% before filtering , but its all good.
The biggest advantage will be time, you will be all done with 25 litres in about 5 hours from the time you turn on the T500.
You will also end up with a cleaner end product that I personally dont filter and you will end up with more finished product.
Still spirits say turn on and 1 hour later it will start to produce (fairly accurate) you will collect the first 100ml and discard (keep for cleaning glass etc) then collect about 4 litres @ about 93% (this will vary depending on the wash and other factors) then dilute this to 40% (or whatever you want)
The more learned will say collect in jars and make cuts to separate heads, hearts and tails.
Things to remember, are you close to a water supply that you can use - check the fittings as many here have had problems connecting to their taps etc. Do you have the room for such a tall device ?
So, is it worth your while, it was for me but only you can answer the question.

yeah i put that wrong... i cut to 35-40 ish then filter and its ok for me..

im still not over convinced at spending 350 odd quid on a t500 though..

i think i need convincing a bit more.

al.

That looks suspiciously like one of the earlier SS Euro range:

A better and copper unit would be the go, my son just bought one of these: http://puredistilling.com/products/ and he loves it, easy to remove the packing for pot mode but I dont know how you would get it to UK etc.

Hi 'I don't drink'.
Prior to purchasing a T500 here in New Zealand where they are 'produced and marketed, I tried one of its modern competitors. The T500 by comparison, uses a fraction of the water, (less than 100 litres, compared to several hundred.) Its water flow valve is far more accurate than ones laundry or kitchen tap, and in my experience, once set for a distillation, it requires virtually no further adjustment. I am on tank water and live alone, so my water flow is consistent, consistency is important for any water cooled still though. The water control, and dual temperature thermometers, mean that the T500 is simplicity to use. Set it up, sit with it, read a book, watch tv etc. and watch the glass demijohn fill up with spirit, so clean and clear, you can sup it straight from the still - with the appropriate amount of lemonade of course.
Here in lower NZ. it is winter, so I wrap my still boiler with some rudimentary insulation, and from turn on, to turn off takes 4 hours and some few minutes.
With the water flow set per the book, you needn't be concerned about yucky end tails, for the still simply stops producing alcohol, though you can obtain tails with water adjustment, but why would you?
A bonus of the still, is that the heating element is not within the boiler, so doesn't come in contact with the wash. It, the element, is also much simpler to replace when it dies, than in many stills. You will note from my previous posts, that I too have found the condenser develops a slight weeping of spirit. This is being rectified under warranty by the manufacturer. My distributor loaned me a new reflux column...I imagine any distributor worth purchasing from would do likewise.
For me, the T500 rocks.

I started with an Air Still and graduated to a T500 which I am very happy with.

Major benefit is TIME!

The Airstill needed watching for each batch to take off the heads and stop it before you started getting rubbish out. I would also, quite often, filter the output and re-distill to get a cleaner, stronger final spirit. And you have to do this 6 times for the average bucket of wash

The T500 does 25L of wash in 4-5 hours, I only have to collect the first 100ml and then keep an eye on it till it's finished. The spirit is a consistent 95%. I cut it to 40% with distilled water, filter and drink it.

Well, my tuppence worth is that my T500 is the mutz nutz!

I started with the smart still, then graduated to a SS super reflux (now discontinued) and thought that was good for an off the shelf still. It took about 8 hours to run 25 litres of wash, giving about 85% spirit.

After reading the reviews, threw some money at a T500, and am glad I did. I now get 3.6 litres @ 94% from a 25 litre batch in 4 and a half hours.

Much cleaner spirit and that's from a single run.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

regards

P!

I went straight out of the box. No problems at all

lyonacre wrote:I went straight out of the box. No problems at all

Ditto

well what a ball ache this is.... iv been to the shop to have a look at the needle valve water controll and it will only fit a bleedin tap? WHY?...

iv scoured b&q to try and find some kind of connector but come up with nothing..

how have you mannaged to connect the valve on your t500?

al.

all the taps in my house have the right screw fitting - I didn't realize there even was a screw fitting until I got started in this. I just unscrews the aerator from the kitchen tap and got going.

I use a double male converter and a washing machine pipe that fits onto a copper pipe tap.

This any help ?

http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=480

I did mention the tap thing in my first post

I have a single column mixer with a "frother/mixer" on the end of the spout. That unscrews and the needle valve screws in