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New to the StillDragon community!

aczesz
edited April 2017 in Introduction

Hi guys! I have been distilling with an air cooled pot still for about a year now and decided its time to upgrade. I stumbled across the Baby Dragon. Well, I decided to order one last night and I am super excited about it! I have been reading up as much as I can about using a reflux setup but I still have some questions. First, my setup is going to be the Baby Dragon on top of a mile high 8gal milk can with a 2000 watt element. I'm going to be controlling the warm up with a PID on a gradual ramp, then take over with a manual controller (SD small DIY controller). Both will be mounted in a box I got off of Amazon. I got the Baby Dragon with the thermal well on the 180° bend for a thermocouple. Now on to the questions.

  1. I see that some people do a cleaning run and others wash the parts by hand before their first run. What would you recommend?
  2. Since I am new to the whole reflux thing, should I run high reflux rates in the beginning and then as i get more comfortable with it turn down the reflux rate to speed things up?
  3. Does it come with a manual, or is there one online I can study before I buy it?
  4. Is there any general advice you can offer or any extended reading that you would recommend that is more specific to this column?

Mods if this is in the wrong place please move it for me

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Comments

  • punkinpunkin

    Hi and welcome.

    1. There isn't the flux and solder that would be on a copper still you have built yourself so a good wash in some detergent to get the machine oils off will do.

    2. Yes have a play with different settings, take good notes in an excersize book and learn to drive as you go.

    3. There is a manual in the stickies at the top of the page labelled Dash Manual. The internals of all the units are the same therefore all the behavior is the same and the manual applies to all models.

    4. All the stickies.

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

  • aczesz

    Sounds good thank you punkin

  • crozdogcrozdog

    Welcome @aczesz

    i'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with the baby dragon.

    When you start a run, set the unit up so you get 100% reflux. let it sit like this for a while say 30 mins. This will help concentrate the fores & heads at the top of the column, then you can slowly bleed off the fores 7 heads then increase for hearts.

    you can regulate column in 2 ways, 1 adjusting the amount of heat you apply & 2 varying the flow rate through the reflux condensor. i'd recommend only altering 1 of these at a time. Do a few runs trying each and work out what works best for you and the product you are making.

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