Spacer under first bubble plate

jbierling

Is there any reason to have the spacing section under the first bubble plate immediately above the boiler instead of just having a plate right away? I'm limited for height and would like to add as many plates as possible.

Lloyd

It is usually there to monitor a boiler puke.

jbierling

How would it allow you to monitor since there is no window into the spacer? It seems like the first thing you'd see either way is a plate. I can see if the boiler was nearly full you'd want a little extra room, but if the wash is at least a column diameter away from the top of the wash, would there be a difference?

Myles

One of the reasons why they put a separate headspace on a lot of the old potstills is that it is an expansion chamber. If you do get a foam issue then the space gives the foam somewhere to collapse. The same could be true for a column.

The space prevents the foam being pushed through the plate. Look at the Holsteins with a side mounted column and you will see that they have a bigger chamber under the first plate too.

BenStiller

I once asked the same question and was told that one of the reasons for the spacing section is to hold the first plate if you want to keep the whole column assembeled. I disasasemble my column completely after each run so this was not an issue for me.

I run a dash 1 with no spacing section with my first plate installed directly on the ferule welded on the boilier. As expected, there are no issues and everything runs fine. The plate bubbles as it should and I saved vertical space, a straight section and a clamp.

jbierling

Great. Looks like I'll be using one of my currently unused plates.

punkin

Yep, it will work fine.

Philter

I always have 1 or 2 SG Tee(s) immediately above the keg to watch for puking and the "roll of the boil".

Yes you lose some height and it's an added cost, but you can also stick a plate on top of it ;)

jbierling

If I had the height I'd have 18 plates and a couple spacers!

Lloyd

@jbierling said: If I had the height I'd have 18 plates and a couple spacers!

Me too.

Smaug

@BenStiller said: I once asked the same question and was told that one of the reasons for the spacing section is to hold the first plate if you want to keep the whole column assembeled. I disasasemble my column completely after each run so this was not an issue for me.

I run a dash 1 with no spacing section with my first plate installed directly on the ferule welded on the boilier. As expected, there are no issues and everything runs fine. The plate bubbles as it should and I saved vertical space, a straight section and a clamp.

+1 The plate will perform just fine. Leave some head room.