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Reflectix Bubble Tee Jackets?

I insulated my boiler with Reflectix yesterday and got thinking about the column. So I started playing around with some scraps and came up with this insulation in a few minutes. With a little Velcro they could be easily made to be removable for cleaning. Thoughts?

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Comments

  • needs testing, with and without, and recording data like product output flow rate, and various temperature.

    Need to be able to prove its benefit.

    looks great!

  • edited August 2013

    Thanks, LoO.

    Agreed, testing is needed to get an accurate idea of the benefits. At the very least I think it would help keep the plates loaded in a cold or air conditioned environment, which is what motivated me.

    I have been running a hybrid for several months but recently ordered enough parts to upgrade to a dash2. I'll go ahead and make some jackets up using this template and take them through several stripping runs and a final spirit run... Then disassemble for a good cleaning and repeat a cycle without the jackets and compare the results. Been working a ton of hours lately so this will take a while, but I'm sure it would be easy enough to compare against another users uninsulated rig.

    Something keeps nagging at me though... Has this been done before for bubble tees? Sorry, I suffer from a terrible case of CRS syndrome.

  • @LunaBrille, CRS syndrome is usually a side effect of information overload.
    I'm not sure if insulating the Tees will be positive or negative. Uninsulated gives a bit of passive reflux to the plates while, as you say, operating an uninsulated column in a cold environment could also pose issues.
    I insulated some Tees and ran it about a year ago but due to my advanced CRS syndrome I can't remember now what the benefits were. Must not have been spectacular because I only ran it the one time.

    Write a note to yourself to remember to post the results.

  • I am interested in this idea. I have made a perforated plate for my torpedo but its very unstable and dumps its fluid if you look at it wrong. Have wondered about insulation.. to try to stabilize fluid levels thru the run Perf plate is 1.5mm holes at 5mm spacing with a standard SD dowmcomer. It fills then dumps in a cycle thru the foreshots and heads then stabilizes for a few jars of hearts then floods with the tails.

  • @211 I have had the same issues with perf plates. They are cheaper than bubble cap plates but, to me, more finicky to operate. Its my guess that they behave differently with the ABV that's present in the boiler.
    Dumping during the fores could only be caused by a very sudden temperature change, not enough boiler power or a buildup of pressure above the torpedo perf plate. Is that a packed column above the torpedo?
    Flooding during the tails with a SD downcomer was resolved awhile ago by drilling the downcomer holes to 4mm. Perhaps you have an older downcomer?

  • I do have copper mesh above the torpedo. I added it back before I got the torpedo when I was just running a pot shot and was getting sulpherous offtastes. The mesh fixed that easy. Hmm will measure dc holes tomorrow. I have a standard bubblecap plate I just havent tried it yet as I was hoping the perf plate would work. I will try without the mesh or maybe put it below the plate. Thanks 211

  • @Lloyd said: LunaBrille, CRS syndrome is usually a side effect of information overload.
    I'm not sure if insulating the Tees will be positive or negative. Uninsulated gives a bit of passive reflux to the plates while, as you say, operating an uninsulated column in a cold environment could also pose issues.
    I insulated some Tees and ran it about a year ago but due to my advanced CRS syndrome I can't remember now what the benefits were. Must not have been spectacular because I only ran it the one time.

    Write a note to yourself to remember to post the results.

    @Lloyd, ok... what were we talking about? ;)

    Actually it must have been your experiment that was nagging at my CRS. I thought I read it someplace. And you are correct about information overload, everything is short term memory at that point.

  • luna I was at that point,but my printer and "save as folder" has help lots,but damn what folder did I put that in? =))

    It is what you make it!

  • edited August 2013

    Got a package at the post office this afternoon. So I set to work making the rest of the jackets.

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    This is how I cut out the "necks".

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  • That's awesome. I didn't realize that was you.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Thanks, Smaug. With all the Reflectix It's starting to look like something from NASA.

    Thanks again for the excellent customer service this evening!

  • edited August 2013

    Spacey dude....

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  • Do you have previous run data to reference or will you simply make informal comparisons? Looks great.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • I don't have previous data for a dash... I've only been running a 3 plate hybrid with a packed section so far. I think I'll know soon enough if its successful at meeting my original goal of keeping the plates from dumping. If that works then I will start to take accurate records to share with everyone.

  • very nice write up Luna looks like a perfect solution for such an awkward shape data would be interesting but thinking outside the square i would think that it would just run differently (as far as temps go) looks like some kind of space station!

  • Coop!

    To quote Lev Andropov: "This is how we fix problem in the Russian space station!"

  • You what Luna? Cover em up... :))

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