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Boilers

jezjez
edited April 2016 in Configuration

Hi guys I'm looking at building a 120lt boiler my question is. Would it be better to make it with a greater surface area/wider or a smaller surface area and deeper. I will be using a gas burner for heating.

Thanks for any advice

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Comments

  • punkinpunkin

    Doesn't make any difference as far as the evaporation rate. Greater surface area on the bottom may be more beneficial for the gas assuming you are skirting it.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • jacksonbrown

    I find wider sheds foam better making foam overs less likely. Also slows how quick they climb if they do happen.
    The over all height of the still is something to think about too but Punk was on the money with the first post.

  • grim
    edited April 2016

    From scratch? Or repurpose/modify? If so, whatever vessel you can get your hands on that is of appropriate size and shape.

    The kettle is a pretty utilitarian thing. At that sizing, you are going to be hard pressed to beat a stainless drum. A local guy had a nice little 30 gallon (120l) stainless tank he was getting rid of, flange top with TC fittings, I am still kicking myself for not buying it, would have made a great starting point for a gin rig. Welding on all sorts of ferrules, etc, is a breeze with the stainless. If it's a closed top drum, and height is an issue, just turn it on it's side, and you can get the anti-foam benefits that @jacksonbrown mentions.

    Or you talking about getting into copper work?

  • jezjez

    Thanks guys for the advice and info. At this stage I was looking at building from scratch with 1.6 stainless.

    @grim I didn't even give copper any thought but now that you have mentioned it is there any real benefit from using copper.

  • jacksonbrown

    Lots, but they might not be relevant to what you're doing. Are you on electric?

  • jezjez

    @jacksonbrown ok. No I'm on gas.

  • jacksonbrown

    A wide, heavy copper base would be best.
    You'll use heaps less gas.
    It'll get pricey though

  • richard

    For 120L I would rather go 2mm or even better 2.5mm. Primary reason is that there is almost no material money differance. The biggest portion of cost goes to the dome spinner whom seem to charge a surcharge on thinner materials.

    But more importantly is ..... the weight of the collumn is huge and especially if you are going to have an axial load due to a gin basket. Your top dome will shortly cave in / collapse with 1.7mm.

    Look at it another way ... 50L kegs are 1.7mm in thickness. See how flimsy the top dome is with a large collumn on.

    My sixpence worth.

    I will shortly be building a 500L boiler and because of the above it will be configured with a double collumn and with seperate gin basket as well as PC at the side. Here I am using a 3mm wall thickness and believe that I can get away with this configuration.

  • jezjez

    @jacksonbrown id love to go copper for the heat side of things but would be very pricey. Stainless steel will only cost me the price of material all rolling and fab would be free so trying to make the most of that

  • jacksonbrown

    Well sounds like the decision is made then, you spend a few hundred to save a few bucks in gas if you go copper.
    Stainless is also more hygienic too.

  • jezjez

    I will have a chat to a couple of blokes at work next week on the price and fabrication etc and see what feed back I get. A lot of work to keep copper in good shape

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