"Just got a brewhaus HC 3"" tower and hooked her up to a 15.5gal electric keg- ran a couple cleaning runs then packed the colum with copper scrubbers- also packed some around the top condensing tubes. Completely insulated the colum and keg and added a 6 gallon sugar wash- I have a 1500w element in the keg and after an hour of heating up it started shooting the temp up and I cranked the water on. The temp stuck at 180f and I was getting a drop every second or two- I tried turning the heat down (have it on a router control) to get it to the 172f that i seen recommended to run them at but at that temp I got absolutely nothing out of the still. With the heating element full on and water running full bore to both condensor and reflux it held the 180 through 4 hours of run before the temp started to rise--- and all that I was able to collect was 400ml throughout the whole run with the highest ABV of 75%.... Here is the way it came after throwing the first 50ml out-
1st 100ml-- 75%
2nd 100ml-- 75%
3rd 100ml-- 72%
4th 100ml-- 68%
Was this just a problem with my wash?? Or am i doing something wrong here..."

Yeah, something suspect there. Your setup sounds correct, although I never have to turn the heat down, the water controls everything. I always get around 94%, with a steady stream. Somewhere between a bunch of drops & a steady flow.

OK - so there was no stripping run 1st? I have never tried a reflux run w/o stripping first. I pot still & then reflux - output is about 75%, but flow is heavy and amounts collected are large as I will collect the strips up to 90*

Also, with a correctly packed column running too slow wold mean less vapor. And less vapor means less reflux.....Less reflux= lower ABV.

So with a correctly packed column, more reflux can provide for many more distillations occurring within the properly whetted packing material.

Be mindful not to flood your column.

And a strip run first will give you lots more stability as Rat alluded too.

Let your column equalize for a good 50-60 minutes prior to collecting also.

ok- so just should be doing stripping runs first? Colum is packed lwtcs and heat and water were both cranked full bore to maintain a steady temp of 180-(any lower of a temp and I wouldnt even get a drop) If I cranked the water down at all it would start almost a small stream but my temp would shoot right up to 190+ so i just left both water valves cranked.. IDK- maybe I need to check out my thermometer and make sure its not way off!!

are you reading your prcent of alcohol correctly?--you seemto be doing all correctly?

"Well I ran my first stripping run last night and it turned out great! Got 6 quarts ranging from 65% down to 35% from a 6.5gal tomato paste wash. I think my whole problem might be heat- durring the stripping run (removed bottom half of colum, packing, and just ran water to condensor) I only had a slow trickle comming out- took around 4hrs total with a little over an hour heat up time- and this was at full heat with my little element- once it was down to 35% it almost all but stopped outputing anything. While it seemed to be a great run I think it was pushing the envelope as far as heat went- at the end when she shed most of the alcohol it seemed the heat could do nothing more. Not that I wanted it too of course but yeah at the heats limit it could do nothing to boil the remainder. Im going to try switching to a slightly bigger element here this week and have 3 25L wash's that should be ready by the weekend that ill try stripping with a little bigger heatsource and see how that goes. Learned ALOT on this stripping run!
BTW- I collected 200ml at a time to practice Heads, hearts, and tails look great (all clear) just all smell different-taste different- there was one 200ml batch at 42 % that turned cloudy after setting and has a slight oily film on the top now- guessing thats where the bad stuff hides!"

Forgot one thing, it should all be clear, the way you decern cuts IS the smell. 6 quarts from a 6 gallon wash is taking way to much.....if your not stripping. Since this was a strip run your gonna pour it all back anyway so thats cool. You said your heat shot up to 190 with no water running so it sounds like it should get hot enough ya just need to figger out the water to heat ratio for you setup. There are some yeasts that are not gonna give you a supper high proof output, like bakers yeast. Some folks think if I get 190 proof thats the best hooch. Well, some yeast just cant live in that enviroment in the fermenter, the alcohol kills them. Thats why some like Turbo yeast. And with that yeast you can get 20% in the fermenter, which will give you a higher proof output. So you will have to try them all and see what you want to use. None are wrong just different, yeast makes ehtanol and co2 -- and -- some other things we dont want. Thats their only job --to make alcohol so you have to decide which is better for you.