Another Happy Customer

jacksonbrown

The other thing to consider with CM is how consistent is your water supply pressure? I started of on mains but it was very hard to maintain consistent flow rate as the water pressure at my place is all over the place. Between 4 and 6 it would plummet as the neighborhood went about their business. The coolant flow fell and the take off would climb. I had a few batches that had to be re-run because of it. Switching to a pump fixed it but that is another plus for your LM.

Nardy

@jacksonbrown said: It's the reflux that charges the plates and the plates that fraction out the components in order of BP, exactly the same as random packing or structured packing does. The exact same processes are driving it.
If you want higher separation with a lower reflux ratio (i.e. more product for the same power in) you want a bigger column (more plates).
If you're getting vapour past your coil in an LM then you didn't design it right from the start. A bit more length or packing around it will let you knock down what ever you want.

This actually makes a lot of sense. I'm definitely learning a bit here. I just spoke with spud who supplied the boka head and he suggested running more power. I've got a 2400W element in the 50L boiler now and spud reckons to run around 3000-3600W to get more reflux happening, allowing a faster take off. So pretty much what you've just said - either more plates or more power. And given that more plates would probably also need more power, I might start with a larger element. What's your opinion on that @jacksonbrown?

At this point I'm not getting any vapour past my coil, but given that it's only 2", I will have to keep an eye on it I'd say as I increase the power.

Nardy

Oh and my water pressure is good. I run a 6mm cooling line to the coil and have to really wind the pressure back otherwise I get leakage past the hose clamps. I haven't measured the temp of the cooling output but it's quite cool to touch.

jacksonbrown

I don't mean how high is your pressure, you need consistent pressure to get consistent flow.
Have you got the power to run a 3.6kW element? AU is 240V x 10A I think. I've got two 2.2kW ones but I need to run them on separate circuits. I only ever run one though so I don't know what the limits are on a 4" plated column.
But yeah, sounds like a reasonable plan.
More power = more vapour.
You can still run a generous RR over your existing plates to keep the ABV up but your take off rate will be higher.
If you just pour water in the top of the bok with the needle valve wide open what's the max flow it can handle? That might be the first speedhump.
If your coil is over 150mm with some mesh crammed in it, you shouldn't have trouble with bypass.

Nardy

Water supply is consistent, never noticed any issues with it throughout the day. I normally run late at night due to family commitments anyway.

I've got the correct circuit to run a 3600W element, yep. So we'll see how that goes next run (probably in a couple of weeks).

Good tip with checking the flow of the boka, I'll do that this afternoon.

Kapea

A pressure reducing valve set several psi lower than the lowest cooling water feed pressure you see will insure even flow rates - at constant cooling water flow valve settings.

My cooling water comes from my household plumbing. The pressure switch on the pressure pump (pumping water from my 20,000 gallon rainwater catchment cistern) is set to cut in at 40psi and cut out at 60psi. My cooling water flows from a hose bib through a fixed value pressure reducing valve that is set for 30psi. The flow though my condensor(s) only changes when I change the setting on the flow rate valve on the outlet side of the condensor(s). Toilets flush, washing machines wash, the pressure pump cycles on and off, and the cooling water flow rate through my condensor(s) stays rock steady.

I got the single value pressure reducing valve from an irrigation supply store. They come in a variety of fixed pressure values. You can get adjustable pressure reducing valves, but they are way more expensive than the single value (fixed pressure) pressure reducing valves.

jacksonbrown

I had one of those guys on the mains to my old shack in the mountains.
The pipes were a bit suspect and the area was renowned for ridiculously high pressure so it seemed like the smart thing to do. It worked fine until the missus started washing/showering etc. It was after I moved that the problems started for me. I went the recirc route after that but one of those jiggers on the feed line is another great option.

Nardy

No issues here. The Mrs had the washing machine and dishwasher going when I was running it last and she also had a shower half way through. No problems.

Nardy

Well I placed an order with @punkin last week for all the bits to go RC/PC, although he’s waiting on stock for the PC’s, so I’ll just have to wait a little longer to go the full hog. So I thought in the meantime I’ll stick the dephleg on the column and then the boka on top of that with the valve just wide open and use it as a PC. I was gonna give it a go this weekend just past but Australia Post is doing their usual and @punkin’s package didn’t arrive in time.

So I ran another molasses wash through my rig as it is with the boka head and also had a bit of play with a temp monitoring thing that I knocked up. I cut the thermistors off the thermometers that punkin threw in with my last order and wired them up to an Arduino nano. It was easy enough to get the code right for these thermistors, so it’s now measuring temp well. So as it is, it measures temp, displays that on the screen (in a quick rough layout for now) and also sends the temps over wifi to my PC. The idea there is to have the PC record the temps and then process anything else I like – such as sending alerts to my phone when certain temps are hit etc (so maybe on for heat up when things are about to get going). I built a simple web page that allows me to make notes from my phone (or any connected device for that matter) – when the note is saved, the temps at that time are also saved. I’ll put a few more thermoports in on the rig as I go. I know temps don’t really mean squat and taste and smell are king, but I like to take notes and this setup is similar to another temp monitor that I made for my smoker, so I just tweaked that setup a bit. It will all eventually go in a box, probably with the element controller (oh, and I ordered a 3600W element to go with the 2400W element that's already installed).

Nardy

Just an update, I ended up getting a PC locally as punkin's new shotgun with TC cooling ports really didn't suit my rig and I couldn't justify the expense for something that didn't work with my setup. I gave it a run with the new 3600W element last weekend and was able to hit around 4L/hr while still maintaining a great spirit (rum spirit run). I could probably run harder, but I thought I'd see how this batch comes out first. Set up a proper plumbing setup in my garage too, so I have a dedicated supply and waste for the new rig. I'll grab some pics and post them next run.