"The thermostat on your hotplate is most likely just a switch, not a power controller. So it literally switches power on and off based on the temperature surrounding the switch. All of that switching is going to affect the vaporization rate in your boiler.

If you're running a pot still it may not be a huge issue. If you're running a column it will cause the temperature in your column to move all over the place -- which is the opposite of what you want when you're trying to reach a steady state during reflux.

So if it prevents you from reaching equilibrium, refluxing and/or getting good separation (due to all of the temperature instability), then yes, bypassing the thermostat and using a RSC can lead to a better product.

--JB"

"It sounds like your thermostat is not cycling off when you run it wide open (it never gets hot enough to open the circuit). If you try to run with less power, you'll probably see the fluctuations.

If you're satisfied with your results, I wouldn't change anything.

Something I should mention, I only run full power when I strip (pot still). When I do my spirit runs (full column, fully packed), I _always_ charge the boiler with low wines at 35-40%. So I can drop the power considerably to prevent smearing. I've never actually attempted a spirit run (through the column) with a new wash (10-12%)."