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StillDragon DragonFire Alcoholmeter

Hard to believe but it's getting time again to order another batch of 1000 DragonFires.

For all those folks that use them now, this is your chance to chime in if you can think of how to improve them.
DragonFire is the codename that @punkin named them to remove the word 'alcoholmeter' from the product for those that are sensitive to them being shipped to you with customs and postal inspection scrutiny.

It has the scale printed 3 times instead of only once so the numbers don't hide and it has a dotted line at azeotrope.

We cannot easily change the 20C requirement but any other improvement suggestions are welcomed.

This has been an amazing success story because a few minor changes have made this instrument more friendly to use. Up to you now to help make it even better.

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Comments

  • Pix for the unedumacated? ;)

    Hobby Distillers Association Member - Join us today!

    The only sillae question is the one you don't ask folks...

  • edited December 2013

    Yet another one of Lloyds ideas and inovations he has brought to the distilling world.

    image

    At the risk of it being copied. (:|

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

  • they work a charm! I do like having them in my parrot!

    It is what you make it!

  • I'm spewing I smashed mine. Waiting to order my next lot of gear from Punkin and making sure I get more than one this time haha

  • Any chance of moulding some bouncy rubber to the base of these, and reducing the height slightly to compensate?

    Your DragonFire Alcometers may not be shy anymore, but it doesn't stop them from trying to commit suicide :((

    Nah, all good @LLoyd, it's all in my fumbly fingers =))

  • edited December 2013

    Available in the land of "Yank" ? All I have is the one I got with the BH kit, and it's always good to have more than one of such things...

    I'm already salivating over a sightglass insert for my Brewhaus PSII HC tower...

    Hobby Distillers Association Member - Join us today!

    The only sillae question is the one you don't ask folks...

  • Yes available there is suspect...

    http://www.stilldragon.com/test-and-measure.html

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

  • thanki - I found my way into the store earlier and lost an hour looking thru every thing...Man!! .. Is it wrong to become aroused when looking those columns? I thought only expensive banjo's did that to me...

    I really like that Dash I SGK...

    Hobby Distillers Association Member - Join us today!

    The only sillae question is the one you don't ask folks...

  • No, its normal. Keep a bookmark on the page in case you blank out.

    The stainless tees and reducers pages have been toned down to be less erotic.

  • @Lloyd said: The stainless tees and reducers pages have been toned down to be less erotic.

    Umm.. Do you happen to have the original erotic pix? :)

    Hobby Distillers Association Member - Join us today!

    The only sillae question is the one you don't ask folks...

  • edited October 2014

    can anyone out there help me understand the scale on the StillDragon wash hydrometer? it runs on a scale of basicly 100 to 0, but how do I know when I start out at a 15 % wash

  • You need a wash hydrometer. DragonFire is only for distilled spirits. Order one from your SD distributor

  • The wash hydrometer doesn't have 0-100. Thats the alcometer. It can only be used to measure the abv of a solution consisting of alcohol and water. It won't work in wash because of the sugars etc.

    The washh hydrometer has a scale something like 1.120- .980 and measures density as the amount of sugar in a wash. Test the wash with the hydrometer when you first put it together after cooling to 20C. Write down that figure. Then test the wash when it's finished and it should be down to .990 or so Then use a calculator to tell you the potential alcohol in the wash.

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

  • @FullySilenced and @punkin are right, but, well, he did say wash hydrometer, his profile says US, so here is the wash hydrometer on the US site, but not the greatest pic... (image corrected by @Moonshine)

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  • Can you color code for simple reading... Yellow green red. So you can see ideal heart zone

  • edited October 2014

    Like below, but color code specific for distilling.

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  • That's for a simple pot still, right?
    Won't work so well with a plated column. A 3 plate or 8 plate will have a very different hearts reading. Typically when the ABV drops even half a degree, say 86% to 85.5% with 4 plates (depending on many factors), you go from hearts to tails.
    Add more plates and the ABV goes up, say about 95%+ with 8 plates (depending on many factors), and the transition from hearts to tails is even narrower - as little as 1/4 of a % or less. I suspect its less than 1/4 of a %.

    One flavor won't fit all.

    Cool idea though for a still that never changes. The color coding would need to be customized for a particular still but the minimum order for custom made alcoholmeters is an absolute minimum of 500 pieces. In the case of a drastic change, like the SD DragonFire alcos, the minimum order was 1000 pieces to get them produced for the first time and only 500 pieces for reorders.
    Low quantity, custom made alcos are a hard nut to crack.

  • edited October 2014

    I like the Number 2 scale With a yellow background a broken red line at 96% different colour lines every 10 degrees with a slightly thicker black line at 5 degree intervals and the rest in Black. I would have the Dragon Fire and Temp 20C down the side of the scale. Yellow makes it a lot easier to read imo. 8-X If you could order in Custom colours that would be what i would choose High Definition. Cheers :D

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  • that should read percent not degree :)

  • We use the alcometer mostly at the parrot and we have the azeothorpe line. Other than that I use it mostly at diluting for oaking strenth. Maybe we could have a line at oaking strength at around 62-65% ?

  • What I would like to see is an alcometer with a wide range between say 85 and 100, then a separate one that's can handle 85 and below. That way changes between 80 and 95 would be more apparent with the first one which we hardly ever use below 80 while running a plate column.

  • We are talking about a three range cheapy set and looking at them at the moment.

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

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  • There is movement at the station on these. If we do them they will be sized to suit the baby as well as the tall parrots though.

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

  • edited October 2014

    Not sure the small 3-piece set would work well with a tall parrot but they can be sized to fit the Baby Dragon glass parrot that we're slowly developing.

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    stilldragon_alcoholometer_comparison.jpg
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  • I was thinking we could offer the Alco with a pair of SD custom reading glasses for the old guys loosing their vision......I'll buy one at least Haha.

    They never told me getting old was going to be like this.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Loving the baby dragon parrot.

    mewantonenowmocs

    The day you quit learning is the day you start dying!

    "I am an incurable gadgeteer, and I like enormously to set up a theory and then track down the consequences" Murray Leinster youtube.com/watch?v=08e9k-c91E8

  • @Smaug said: I was thinking we could offer the Alco with a pair of SD custom reading glasses for the old guys loosing their vision......I'll buy one at least Haha.

    +1

  • definitely have the baby parrot made by a company that won't sell to the mile-high club.... and etching SD logo into it, correct?

  • :)) now make em cheap enough for me to buy in bulk and use as a sample glass for tours ;-) :))

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