4" Dephlegmator, V1 or V2?

Hi Guys,

Just a quick question, I'm looking at getting a 4" Dephlegmator to go with my 4" plates, my question really concerns the power I have available.

I can only get 3 kW from my domestic supply, with this amount of power would the V1 be perfectly adequate for my needs, I see the V2 has more vapour tubes but with my limited power, I don't think I could take advantage of the extra capacity of the V2, what do you think?

Comments

  • I run a 4" set up in the UK also. I have the V2 but also have a 5500w element. A local electrician dropped a 32amp supply right out of the fuse box in my kitchen with 8 meters of heavy duty cable. He even wired up my controller and element for me (I told him it was for beer). Cost about £100. I guess your other option could be to plug a second element in to another circuit in your home?

    It's good for quick heat up and I'm finding about 4700w to be an ideal running speed.

    I guess what I'm saying is you might want to upgrade your wattage to get the most out of your kit at some point so if you can afford it go for the V2.

  • 3kW is bugger all. I run a 2" with a lot more than that.
    Bigger won't hurt it'll just be more efficient, so will use less water.
    Your water output temps will be really high though which isn't an issue.
    With a super efficient condenser the water coming out will be close to the vapour temp so you can really use it to judge to reflux ratio, its the flow rate that you need to watch.

  • My guarage is a good 30 meters from my fuse box, it has its own ring main so I could possibly push a little harder but I'm not planning on upgrading the supply, The V2 is about £100 more expensive, which I can't justify if the V1 will be good enough for the job.

    Also my waters cold enough, probably only getting to 10-12°c in summer, also it's not metered so I'm not too fussed about being super efficient.

    That said, so long as the V1 will allow full reflux at 3kw without being too wasteful on water it should be ok I guess.

    Any idea what sort of product collection speed I could achieve with this setup, if I have 4 plates, (2 x stadard and 2 x Procap) and the V1 into a 2" bend and 2" product condenser long?

    At present I'm using 3 x 4" plates with a six section Baby CD filled with SPP and a big baby dephlagmator for neutral, it good for 2lt an hour but the long term plan is to go 4" all the way to increase collection rate.

    Getting tired of the long spirit run times when limited by a 2" section.

  • with a 4" set up the way you can get 4 liters per hour no problem. But the big baby condenser looks like it should have enough knockdown for running 3kw though? On an all 4" kit I think your power will be the limiting factor for your run speed.

    Have you considered a gas burner in the out building?

  • Hi mark85, yeah I'm sure the big baby could knock down 3kw, I just assumed it would limit my collection rate, only having 3 tubes through it compared to the 6 tubes in the 4"V1, maybe I might go for a 4" packed section on top of my plates and try the big baby first, see what I can get, or does anyone think maybe more than 3 tubes are needed to get 4lt and hour?

  • No of tubes isn't really what it's all about.

  • edited October 2016

    From where you are at now there are three things I would do to run faster for neutral.

    • More power
    • 4" packed section
    • Bigger reflux condenser

    If I was short on money I would probably approach them in that order of importance

    Out of interest where did you get your SPP?

  • edited October 2016

    @mark85

    I got the SPP from Poland.

    It took ages to arrive, about 30 days from memory, plus no communication from the supplier, I actually created a despute with them via PayPal but it turned up the next day, all swell that ends well I guess.

    If I'm using my packed section, I can't even use 3kw as it floods, I'm going to add a 4" packed section with a reducer into the big baby, see what happens I think.

    @jacksonbrown

    Any chance you care to explain what it's all about, might be more helpful :-)

  • @anavrin Wow, that spp is pricey everywhere isn't it. Think il stick with steel mesh for now...

    If you're currently flooding then yeah a 4" x 500mm section is an easy and relatively cheap way to see some form of an improved takeoff rate. Goood luck :-bd

  • Cheers, can I ask where you got your 5.5kw element from? Will it fit in an SD Element Guard?

    I've been thinking about what you said about increasing my power, I need to upgrade my power supply to my shower with a 10m2 cable, if I buy a 50m roll I could do the shower and have enough spare to reach my guarage

  • edited October 2016

    Good plan.

    I bought this, don't know if it fits the SD kit because I don't own one but it's just a screw in element so is easy.

    Camco 02962/02963 5500W 240V Screw-In Lime Life Ripple Water Heater Element - Ultra Low Watt Density @ Amazon

    When your whole column is 4" the extra power will really help.

  • Thanks Mark, that looks perfect, I also believe it has a 1" imperial thread which will fit the SD element guard kit, I'm going to add a 4" V1 plus a 4" 500mm packed section, I'm pretty sure the V1 will suit needs.

    I've used my big baby deflag as a pot still condenser with no problems in the past with almost 3kw power.

    I have the 2" long PC but I was limited for height with my pot still setup so tried the big baby deflag, it worked fine, so I'm sure the 4" V1 will Be fine.

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