Stilldragon Dash 1 Experience

jonno

Thats good to know. Ill give this bad boy its first real run tomorrow hopefully. I'm looking forward to it.

punkin

DIY controllers will be here in a few weeks. I'm very glad you got it worked out, if it will knock down 2400 watts of steam, it'll knock down much more than that in vapour.

rossco

2400 watts is all I use, you don't need a controller unless you want to speed up initial boil time.

If I knock it back that much I end up with one of the plates dry.

Rossco

jonno

I haven't had a drama with dry plates just yet. Now that i think i've got the knockback worked out i gotta get my washes right. I think that may be affecting my take off speeds a little bit

cooperville

from memory 1-2 litres /min should be enough to knock it all down im using a 4500w element i have added copper mesh to my dephlag holes which seems to have given me a bit more control

jonno

I'm running through about 7l a minute to get knock down. My next run I'm gonna setup the temp probes and see what's happening there.

Had my first drink of the stuff coming through the bubbler and jeez its a different drink. Tastes to clean lol but still really nice. So if I can expect that from a run that didn't go to well I can't imagine what a good run will be like

moscca

7 L/min ? I have only less than 4L/min available @ 28°C and I have only a few drops coming through with my Dash 1. all my plates are nice bubbling. The first minutes I have a few more drops, but then it slows, higher alcohols are gone then i presume.

jonno

So ran the still a few more times and i'm pretty sure i got it down pat. So glad i got one of these systems, definately worth every dollar and definately a hell of alot cheaper then what other people offer. I'm glad i worked a 18 hr saturday to pay for this system :)>-

cooperville

Exactly @mossca once those heads are done she stops dripping as much , I'm not sure how regular that timing would be depending on you low wine ratio but it's a good sign to slow the water and take your first small jar for testing hearts If your pushing 4 litres I would say you have a high cooling water temp And an inline chiller may be beneficial

cooperville

Oh jonno i love mine

moscca

@cooperville said: Exactly mossca once those heads are done she stops dripping as much , I'm not sure how regular that timing would be depending on you low wine ratio but it's a good sign to slow the water and take your first small jar for testing hearts If your pushing 4 litres I would say you have a high cooling water temp And an inline chiller may be beneficial

Yes my inlet cooling water is already 27-28C. But it is only a few ml who come through/20 min. That must be nasty stuff. For my 8" I'll put copper pipes in the dephl. because I want to avoid the chiller.

punkin

Great to hear Johnno.

jonno

Okay so i built my new power controller today with a voltage/amp meter.

I think i've come to my problem of why i've been having a bit of trouble knocking back what i thought to be 2400 watts. Bloody hell punkin, when i ordered 2 x 2400 watt elements from you, ya must of accidentily sent me 2 x 3600 watters.

Can't wait to give this bad boy a run with full control now :D

olddog

I hope you have a 30amp circuit to handle that much wattage, that's some serious current flow.

OD

jonno

All is good :)>-

punkin

Shit, apologies Johnno. The wattage is written on the brass nut of the element. I check that with each one i send out for the very reason that OD has stated. Could you do me a favour and check what's written on there?

Maybe a factory error :-O Which would be even worse.

Law_Of_Ohms

measure the resistance of the element with a multimeter.

240V x 10A = 2400W = 24ohms
240V x 15A = 3600W = 16ohms
240V x 20A = 4800W = 12ohms

I can't knock down %100 when using 3600W

They dont call me law-of-ohms for nothin!

punkin

@Law_Of_Ohms said:

They dont call me law-of-ohms for nothin!

:))

Smaug

@Law_Of_Ohms said: measure the resistance of the element with a multimeter.

240V x 10A = 2400W = 24ohms
240V x 15A = 3600W = 16ohms
240V x 20A = 4800W = 12ohms

I can't knock down %100 when using 3600W

They dont call me law-of-ohms for nothin!

Was really starting to wonder when you were going to jump in there and demonstrate that you are who you said you were.

jonno

I'm gonna dread pulling my enclosure apart but i'll see if i can be find the strength to do it on the weekend punkin.

I'll bring the meter home on the weekend and give her a test again aswell

BenStiller

@Law_Of_Ohms said: measure the resistance of the element with a multimeter.

240V x 10A = 2400W = 24ohms x (10A)^2

240V x 15A = 3600W = 16ohms x (15A)^2

240V x 20A = 4800W = 12ohms x (20A)^2
I can't knock down %100 when using 3600W

They dont call me law-of-ohms for nothin!

There, I fixed the math for you.

Sorry about that, could not help myself.

Law_Of_Ohms

240^2/24 = 2400
240^2/16 = 3600
240^2/12 = 4800

now you making me think.... STOP IT!

punkin

Now shutup.

Law_Of_Ohms

No, you shut up!

punkin

You are just making something as simple as the law of ohms look difficult and complicated now. :))

jonno

Okay, just measured with my meter. 16ohms it is on both. I'll pull up apart my enclosures tomorrow or sunday when i get the chance.

Shoot me a pm punkin about what we can do about it

Cheers

edit - Just pulled my enclosure off for a quick look, doesn't seem that the wattage is stamped on the back (connection side).

punkin

I've checked through all my emails and PM's and can't find a conversation or order where i've sent the elements to you or even mentioned them Johnno. If you could find that for me it would be good.

The wattage on the elements is stamped in the side, you'd have to pull it out of the guard to read it.

If as you say you have the curcuits to feed them i would certainly suggest that you use a controller on one element and a switch on the other and you will have the very best of both worlds. Super quick heat-up and complete control.

On the other hand, that one is a 2400 and i thought i was out of stock on them. You've made at least one customer very happy by making me go out to the shed. :)>-

jonno

Pm sent

jonno

So it was really good to be able to finally run the Dash properly now that i know i had 3600 watt elements lol.

RC was able to knock back 3kw fairly easily, i didn't think to try and push it to see how much it could actually knock back. I use a 300L drum as my water resoivour so towards the end of this run the water was getting pretty hot and wasn't able to control as much at the rc so was using power adjustments.

In the end i'm really happy with how the thing runs now

jonno

So did another run today. I think i've sussed out the sweetspots for the still now. 2.8kw @ 3 turns of the needle valve and i'm in full reflux.

Anyway, after having done a few runs and not pulling the still down for about 6 weeks i thought i'd pull it down and give it a clean today and boy was i a little shocked at what i saw. All i had done after a run was keep the still as a whole, turn the still upside down and fill it full of water and drain it and fill it again and drain it again. Turn it round and round and get as much water out as possible.

I'd sit the still on one of my spare kegs in my bar area just for show until it was to be used the next time. Anyway it'd been about 6 weeks since i last had it pulled apart and done a few different whisky runs. I had all this black looking stuff on the bottom of my plates and in the ferrules and on my silicone gaskets. I didn't get a photo of it before i gave it a clean and even now i haven't gotten all of it off. But i'll give it another go with soapy water tomorrow. At the moment i've got the plates sitting in some boiling backset as i knew that was the easiest way to give them a clean but not sure on the stainless.

I've gotten most of it off with soapy water and a chucks cloth and abit of hard wiping, will give it another go in the morning while i'll doing some other stuff with my brew stuff.

Not sure if this is a warning to atleast pull your still down every fortnight or so but dont leave it as long as i did and hopefully someone can tell me what all the build up was

Cheers lads