Condensation on same Plate during Run

vooharmy

After my a successful run of white rum on 6 plates. I am now doing a rum on 4 plates for aging. I don't know how well it comes up on the picture but the plate second from the top has had condensate on the peeper all run. I am wondering what the reason may be? I got out the spirit level to make sure the boiler was dead level and all plates are loaded and running well. ABV is currently 92%. What might be causing this and how can I fix it for future runs?

Unrelated here are my new cut jars.

Sealable, breathable, measurements in imperial and metric, love them!

Lloyd

Remove the lens and clean the oil from the surface. It was probably the lowest lens in your previous configuration and has a slight oil film on it.
It could also be an indication that the lens is not sealed perfectly but I doubt it, more probable it has a film of oil on it.
Let me know if it feels oily or not. If it doesn't then it could be a structural problem. The Tee was not manufactured to exactly place the lens plumb which could be corrected by turning the Tee upside down. That would be a defect on our part. Oil is much more probable.
You mentioned Rum and that is well known to have oily tails and tails are concentrated on the lowest plate(s).

vooharmy

It did feel oily, unfortunately I finished the run before I read this so I can't test it. That being said the tees look flawless so I would be very suprised too. I will make sure I give them a thorough wash before my next run which probably won't be until Feb. The yield I had this time was much larger than I expected leading me to believe I got a bit trigger happy with my cuts last time.

Talking about cleaning.. This time I emptied the boiler and filled with water and just let the steam run through it for 15 minutes. The only piece that didn't seem to be clean was the parrot. I'm hoping to avoid the black gunk, do you think this will do the trick?

23L of 65% aging on dominos! I kept the deep hearts for white dog rum. Pretty pleased with the run the more I drive it the more I like it. Hope OD is OK his controller is a beast!

punkin

I have had a couple of customers tell me the surge breaker harbours some gunk in there from the manufacturing process. I good wipe out in the crevices with a cotton bud dipped in ethanol is recommended.

Lloyd

Oh yes, a 15 minute steam cleaning should keep the black gunk off of your copper.

It took a long while for me to notice it was the tails that were causing it. I flush the column with fresh water after every run now and haven't seen the dreaded gunk again.

vooharmy

I made a point of cleaning all the lenses but the condensation issue returned. I will examine the tee in more detail once I finish the run but I believe its the same tee. I made double sure to line up the plates and seals, what else could I check? Next time I am going to make a point of checking the plates, I had forgot about the issue because its been a few months since I ran the still due to work and such.

Lloyd

I still think it is residual oils inside the column or on the glass.
Do you think the rum run could be producing a new oil film inside your column?

vooharmy

I steam cleaned it at the end of the last run and it has had 5 strips of weetbix wash through it, I used the tee in question minus the plates to get some extra height but I did not steam it again. I did wipe it down and give the sight glass a very through washing (Not the tee). I will amp up the cleaning at the end of this run and make a TPW as a test batch. Its an odd one because visually (apart from the condensation, I cant see anything else different. The only curious point is that its in the same position, plate 2nd from the top. On a side note these are the sweetest cut jars imaginable!!

Smaug

Are the inside of your tees dry prior to running?

grim

Swap the glass to another position?

Lloyd

The condensation on the second to the top lens happened when? At the beginning, middle or toward the end of the run?

On a typical run for me, the glass fogging starts at the bottom of the column and indicates the beginning of tails. I don't have any recent rum making experience but I understand that rum oils and foaming is part of the beast.
My understanding is that foaming (puke from the boiler) is mostly common at the beginning of the run and rum oils are toward the end of the run. If this is incorrect I hope someone with more experience with rum will chime in.

vooharmy

@grim I just swapped the lense to another position and it's still persisting on the same plate as before. I also checked the positioning of the seal and the triclamp and seal seems good

@Smaug Everything was dry at the beginning of the run, I wiped everything out and checked for any oil films.

@LLoyd The condensation appears at the beginning of the run and sticks around until its done, its always present. I am not running rum presently, this one is a vodka run and I am using a weetbix feeder stock.

Not sure what else to test other than moving the entire tee, unfortunately its very hot and quiet heavy otherwise I would.

grim

@vooharmy - If it didn't move with the glass, it's clearly not the glass or residual oils. It's ok, we can solve this.

What you are going to need is a vial of holy water, a bible, and a crucifix. It would be helpful if you were able to secure a priest, which I suspect should not be any problem ... given the amount of whiskey you have.

:))

Any chance you have a pinhole leak in the dephlegmator? Can you pull it off the column and run it pressurized? This is probably more of a long shot than the exorcism.

vooharmy

@grim well I can atleast agree that I have a lot of booze :)) I will work on the priest first thing in the morning and get back to you with the results of my exorcism... I think there is a good chance we might lose the priest through, best get me a nurse from the university hospital up the road... Just in case.

vooharmy

This was a pic I took after the run finished. I had charged the boiler with fresh water and was steaming it. There is definitely something suspect going on here. Good news is it shows up even without alcohol so I should be able to run some tests tomorrow and sort this out.

punkin

If you want to test the reflux condensor for leaks just charge it up in place when you are not doing a run and put a valve on the outlet to maintain pressure.

You'll see if it drips.

vooharmy

That last picture was just steam, the dephleg wasn't turned on. I have had the dephleg fully pressurized in the past and there was no leaks. Here is what I know so far.

1. There's no oil film on the glass.
2. Dephlem is not leaking.
3. Condensation appears on glass all run.
4. Condensation appears even when only charged with water.

Now that the still has cooled down I'm going to examine the top two tees in greater detail and see if I can work out was going on. Now that I know the problem is present regardless of what the still is charged with it should be easier to diagnose.

vooharmy

After lots of trial and error I believe the problem is the sight glass silicon o ring. For what ever reason its slightly larger than the rest and I think it is creating an air gap when the lense is screwed down. I will order a new o ring and hopefully that will be the end of it! Thanks for the help in nutting this out.

brewsmith

Yea, based on what you have said, and given that you have switched the actual glass pieces out, the issue has to be located somewhere on the tee itself. I would assume a leak there somewhere, or a gasket malfunciton

punkin

Send me your address again mate, i'll send you a couple of o'rings gratis.

Mickiboi

@punkin said: Send me your address again mate, i'll send you a couple of o'rings gratis.

The best backup service you can get without a doubt. This puts a smile on my face knowing I now own a StillDragon.

punkin

TNT has picked your new system up already this morning mate. You'll have it tomorrow or Wednesday :-bd

vooharmy

Yeah service absolutely top notch, let's call it the SD advantage. Anyway I'm putting together an order of odds and bobs tonight, once I finalise the list I will contact you.

punkin

No worries at all mate, just leave a note in the comments about the o rings and i'll chuck them in. Cheech and Chong said it best, i reckon they were thinking about my goldfish like attention span when they coined this ;

My momma talkin' to me tryin' to tell me how to live
But I don't listen to her 'cause my head is like a sieve

Mickiboi

@punkin said: TNT has picked your new system up already this morning mate. You'll have it tomorrow or Wednesday :-bd

Thanks mate can't wait. :D