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User asking about our Electric Parrot

edited October 2017 in General

Hey folks,

There is a user on the ADI Forum that is asking about reviews on our StillDragon Electric Parrot. If you any of you have used, or are currently using the parrot, can you please respond on the ADI Forum. If you're not on that one, please respond here and I can try and link him to our forum. As the vendor, I don't feel it's our spot to respond. The link is below. Thanks.

electric parrot @ ADI Forums

Chris

StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

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  • I have one and found that it reads quite accurately. That is if I make a change in power or reflux you can see the change starting to happen in 10 - 20 seconds rather than minutes with a conventional parrot. Over winter it worked really well, but as I am using my garage to do the distilling I have height issues. The electric parrot sensor is right near the ridge at the hottest point in the shed. We had a rather hot day last weekend when I was doing a spirit run. The heat in the roof affected the electric parrot and caused it to read about 2% low. I'll do another spirit run this weekend and try having a fan to move the air around a bit and see if that corrects the situation. I don't blame the parrot for this, it's just a location issue caused by the size of my shed.

  • We were pleased because it takes some weight off the end of a copper pot still, less pressure on the condenser. This is also important on a bubbler when using a gin basket as well, much better balanced.

  • Chris as a vendor i can say that i have supplied somewhere between 50-100 of these units in Australia and New Zealand. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, so much that our standard commercial systems do not come with a conventional parrot unless the customer specifically asks for one.

    They are bright enough to be seen from across the room, give a real time reading and also give a quite accurate temperature measurement.

    Our standard small parrot holds 200ml of condensate, that's 200ml of smeared output. The electric parrot allows for finer cuts as there is no smeared product and avoids the delay associated with 200ml of pooled spirit and giving an average reading on it. It is also much more accurate than a cheap alcometer that could be off by 2-3 points from one to the next. Assuming most people would not risk their certified alcometers in a parrot.
    Also depending on the flow rate through the parrot (say a 6" unit running 10l an hour) the flow will push an alcometer up 3-5 points resulting in a low reading.

    Combine the cheap alcometer error, the flow error any temp error and smearing delay it's a surprise that we get any usable information at all from a parrot.

    It is also not much more in price than a standard parrot.

    As you can see, i'm a big fan of them, it's only after you've used one that you realise what a dated system the old fashioned parrot really is.

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

  • edited October 2017

    Hard for anyone from the SD team to post the benefits on that forum without coming across like the super salesy used car salesman schtick that seems to be common for the dude from Missouri. We just don't want to go there.

    Punkin, ChrisSD is one of our sales guys here at SDNA. Just an honest evaluation is all we wanted...Just like here.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Yes mate, i know who Chris is and i know how it is on ADI. Honest evaluation of my personal thoughts is all you got. I think they are an outstanding evolution, especially for the price.

    I make more money selling traditional parrots, but the commercial systems come with the electric ones because they are just plain better.

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

  • edited October 2017

    Sure thanks Punkin. I wasn't sure if Chris actually introduced himself to the group yet.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • I got one and sold my standard parrot cheap to a mate. The EP is everything that has been posted above. I 100% recommend the EP.

  • thanks every one for the comments im glad i found this thread and got some info i didnt get much of a answer when i posed the question on adi . and have no worries smaug none of the still dragon people ever come across as a salesman from missouri , but that sure made me laugh . anyway my son and partner is an electrician and is forever pushing me towards electronics , sensors , digital this or that kind of thingamadingy and he came across the electric parrot . even tho im very stuck on things like a dial thermometer and other primitive mechanical devices , the electric parrot caught my eye too. punkin put my concerns about mechanical parrots perfectly , the margin of error is huge . not to mention the delay response of reading the alcometer , draining the parrot waiting for it to refill then reading it again . now where would the perfect spot be to put the sensor , im guessing midway between top of column and product condenser . also should the sensor be in bottom of pipe pointing up or side of pipe pointing in or top pointing down . the most favorable spot for us would be in the elbow at top of column but not sure if that is good spot or not .

    thanks in advance for the help .

    tim

  • The best spot would likely be several inches away (perhaps more?) from the vapor inlet of your PC. Evidently it is possible for rapid vapor collapse to skew the accuracy if the probe is too close to the PC.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Anywhere away from condensors and where it won't be hit by any liquid. So long as it's in the vapour stream.

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

  • thanks smaug and punkin . so in the elbow at top of the column would be fine if so that would be perfect as we can leave it there as we move other configurations around , and it could be used on our continuous stripping still as same as our spirit still .it would be fun to see what the stripping still is doing but really doesnt matter in the big pic , its our spirit still that needs proper monitoring . thanks again i will take this up with our son when he has time to look at it .

    tim

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