i have made several good batches, and never experience a problem with my heat untill yesterday. i have been using an 1100 watt hot plate. normally it takes 2-3 hours to get up to temp., but yesterday it took 6-7 hours. this is the first time i've experienced this problem. after my run i took my heater apart to check the integrity of it's inner workings, and everything checked good. i know it was much cooler yesterday than it's been any other day i've ran it. but i guess i'm asking if it would be in my best interset to go to a 1500 watt heater. also i run mine inside so i don't have worry with wind or anything like that

thank you. i hope this will work.

Hello Buzzman, try checking out the thread/post above, titled 'Rick or anyone-Please help me' ,I think 'freebrew made the last post to this thread on 12/20/05,. There are some very helpful photos embeded in the begining of this post, that show you how to do this as well as supplemental comments that should have you 'cooking' fairly quickly. I don't recall if this was an 1100 or 1500watt setup that was being modified, but I've been running a small pot still with a leibieg type condenser, on 1100watts for quite some time now. Just takes me a little longer to get up to operating temp, but once you're there, it'll cook right along. I've never tried to prove this, but I think that 1500watts of 'unbridled' heat 'MAY,?,' cause you a little more problems with cooling the ,you might get more 'spitting' and vapor than distillate, vapor in a small still ,20liters or less,. Not really sure, anyway; what I do is heat my pot on the kitchen stove then ,CAREFULLY, move it onto my little 'hotwired' 1100watt hotplate to finish the run! Hey, it works for me!
Course you wanna decide for yerself though.
Lotsa luck,
Spiritmaker

Hey buzzman, Spiritmaker here, have you considered using this setup to get yer system up to temp on 220 volts and then unpluging it from the 220v and plugging it into a 120volt pigtail? This ,so I am told, will reduce the wattage and allow you to manage your pot still a little easier. I have also been told that doing this actually reduced the wattage to just one quarter. ,Example: 1900watts
240v reduced to 120v now=475watts, I still have trouble getting my mind around this, cause i always thought that watts were watts and volts wuz volts. In other words if you halve the volts, I thought you would get half th watts or in this example, 950watts! As for saving on cost of electricity, you'd be consuming fewer watts wouldn't you? I dunno, yer th electrician and I'm POSITIVE that you have forgotten more than I've learned about th subject ,seriously,, so mebbie you can help me here? In any case i'd also be interested in what kind of ,how much it costs and where I can get one too,, rheostat yer talkin 'bout.
Thanks a million buzzman,
Spiritmaker

first off thanks very much don, your heater has peeked my interest and i think i'll look into that. secondly, to spiritmaker, you are right on your thinking. if you half your voltage you will essentially half your output power ,or wattage,. with the rheostat you will put a voltage drop across it to limit your output to the heater. basically just like a dimmer switch in your house. and since you can get rheostats that are variable, i could set it up to heat up at full power, then adjust it down to whatever i wanted to. i haven't yet had time to price one, however i'll keep your interest in mind and let you know where to get one, price, and if needed how to wire it up. after all that's why we're here, to help each other.
thanks alot,
buzzman

hey there spiritmaker, for some reason after reading your last post something clicked in my head. not only could this be achieved with a rheostat, but i've used a variable transformer somewhere before. i'm currently getting price quotes on both. as far as your question on how much heat ,wattage, is needed to distill a 5 gallon wash, off the top of my head i'm not sure. however i know i read about some interesting plans of doing an internal heater in a book called making pure corn whiskey. but now that i think about it they were using a 12 gallon wash. still the book was interesting. now i'm really wanting to give you a better answer. i will see if i can find the book, and let you know more. right now i just got work and i'm quite drained and my mind aint functioning right,need a few good shots and a bed,. i will keep you informed on what i find. thanks for the interest.
buzzman

Hey Buzzman, well bless your lil pea pickin heart. I'd say I love ya man but that would be going WAY too far! So I will just say thanks a gazillion bro, I thought I had it right but I just could'nt comprehend the physics involved with halving one thing and ending up with less! As for the rheostat you mentioned, $34.00 is a lil steep, but I would be willing to pay that ,especially if it works, and lasts a while,! Thanks too for answering my question about the heat up time for 20 liters at 750watts. I think, ,if I can get one of those rheostats, I will run my element on 230vac until I get up to operating temp, then switch to 120vac ,making the needed adjustments via the rheostat, till I finish the run! I just made a brandy run today with my 20-liter pot and just hadda sample a wee taste an that may be why I'm seeing everything a lil bit blurried tonight! Danm that stuff is good and I didn't even take time to let it age yet either! I gotta get a handle on my thirst ,impatience, and wait a coupla days, huh? In any case, where can I get this rheostat you mentioned? Also, I really could use some advice with wiring this rig together, so if'n you wanna share ennythang, PLEASE DO SO! Thanks my friend, I. gink I'm tetting a lil grunk or sumpin here! Damn thats good stuff! Burns like fire! Wheeeo! Wish I could share some with you guys, but I only got a little more than a gallon and a half of finished ,after making generious cuts and diluting with a little water, of product, so I guess there jis ain't 'nuff to go 'round, huh? Bye th way, I used 'pot distillers yeast' and canned grape juice to make this stuff and it sure did make some powerful ,high abv, stuff! So, thanks again Buzzman, I really do apprecialte your help and for that matter, all yer postings. And a special thanks to Rick for making this forum available to us in th' first place! God that's good stuff!
Spiritmaker

Hey man, just ask an ya gets it! I just ran off a tad over 3 liters today from a sugar/water ,plus 2oz. tomato paste for nutrients, wash. It is quite good but it will be better after I let it set and marry with a little oak for flavor and color. As for my brandy, I cheat! I make a simple ,cheap, grape ,or whatever fruit juice you wanna use ,,no citrus!,, canned or concentrate, dosen't seem to matter much, wine using a 'Turbo'ed' wine yeast!

I like Lalvin EC1118 for wine ,brings out the flavors,, I use three ,sometimes four, of the little sachets of yeast all at once. It works fast but will not finish off higher than 15-16%abv, so this last batch I added more sugar and half package of 'Pot Distillers Yeast' ,from Brewhaus, to kick it on up to around 20%.

Then I distil it once, toss the first 50ml, and making very tight cuts ,collecting a lot of not so bad tasting tails for later use, bottle the rest. I then add a generious amount ,your taste, of sweet raisins to the brandy and let this 'marry' ,shaking up the fruit/brandy mix a little each day, for two to three days ,again, your taste, and serve at room temp on a chilly evening! Hot DAMN, thats good!
I might mention that the 'Pot Yeast' doesn't make a really great tasting wine ,in fact it's so damned strong I'd rather distil it before drinking it!,

If you are into wine making then you can ignore my suggestions for making that and just distill whatever you alredy have on hand. In any case, I'm betting that you will have a good product in the end, just drink enough and you won't really care anyway, at least til the next day! LOL
By the way, I rarely ,never, get a hangover cause I use good yeast, either 'Prestige Vodka Yeast', 'Pot Distillers Yeast' or 'Lalvin' AND I make very tight cuts ,I can always recycle the taols later,! Give it a try, I'm betting you will like it.
Spiritmaker

are you out there spiritmaker? hey i'm getting some of that lalvin you told me about. i would still appreciate some more insight in the recipe. i'm not sure if this recent chaos on the forum has kept you from answering, but if you're out there and don't mind, drop me a line. if you want you can send me an e-mail direct. i guess my info will come up if you click on my name. i really hope to here from you soon. not trying to bother you, just want to keep going with this wonderfull hobby. thanks in advance. oh yeah, by the way i got my thermostat in. just made some feet for the heater. so it's not sitting on the floor. fixed some pretty sweet leveling feet out of some 1 inch stainless steel round stock. can't wait to try it out. hopefully with some good brandy, with your help of course.
buzzman