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#1 Posted : Friday, March 03, 2006 5:14:35 AM(UTC)
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i am new to this hobby and just purchased a reflux still...what do distillers mean when they say 'more reflux' thanks
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#2 Posted : Friday, March 03, 2006 5:25:02 AM(UTC)
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The more you reflux, the purer the end product is. Refluxing is putting part of the distilliate back into the column for more distillation. To get to 92-95 % range you need to reflux around 3-1.
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#3 Posted : Friday, March 03, 2006 7:26:55 AM(UTC)
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Where did you get your still? I'm having problems getting one ordered.
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#4 Posted : Saturday, March 04, 2006 6:34:07 AM(UTC)
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What do you mean, your having problems getting one ordered Captain?
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#5 Posted : Saturday, March 04, 2006 4:59:43 PM(UTC)
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Just a problem with the manufacturer being behind on his orders. He has bent over backwards to make amends and promises to ship Monday. Great news as its been nearly three weeks. Sometimes these things happen.
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#6 Posted : Sunday, March 05, 2006 3:55:35 AM(UTC)
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I've also been waiting a long time. In the end I cancelled my order and got a similar product elsewhere immediately.
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#7 Posted : Wednesday, March 29, 2006 3:49:57 PM(UTC)
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Why not Order From Rick ? Great Guy, Service, In stock now...
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#8 Posted : Wednesday, March 29, 2006 5:18:26 PM(UTC)
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Maybe they did. I ordered about that time and experienced a delay which from reading this forum I assume is not normal. In the end though I got a great product that I'm very happy with and Rick is indeed a very cool and helpful guy to do business with. I understand supply problems so I won't whine about them. My only complaints or suggestions for improvement depending on how you want to take them would be the following.

Don't run out of diffuser plates. They are very necessary for some forms of distilling and one should be available with every still. When you no longer have enough diffuser plates to go with each still stop selling them separately.

Do something about the hose kinking problem instead of just offering 'fix it's'. 'fix it's are OK for a development product but not a final one.

For the product and the price I didn't mind dealing with those couple of things at all. Overall I'm VERY satisfied. I reached 96.2% without fresh ice or cooling water in my first two weeks using a still ever. That speaks for itself IMO.
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#9 Posted : Thursday, March 30, 2006 2:41:00 AM(UTC)
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I am glad that you are so pleased with the unit. I will be the first to admit that we had 'welder' issues, as well as delays on parts, that caused us to fall behind but we have these things under control now and can ship from inventory ,hence no delays,.

Diffuser plates were taken off the system as soon as our new site went live, because it maintains a copy of the inventory. We did not want to get more made by the previous company that we used because we have been able to get new plates made from a higher grade aluminum. We have also increased our purchasing of both the plates and our custom kettle parts to lower our costs enough that diffuser plates will be added to the complete units and kettles without having to increase the price. It was about 18 months in the works to get new moulds and dies for all of this, but everything should be here within a couple of weeks.

As for hoses, this tends to be a headache no matter how we handle it. Longer and shorter pieces tend to kink- it is not a matter of the length. If we add elbows, then we create more confusion on setup. We may have found a solution to this problem, but have to do a bit more testing before we can be certain.
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#10 Posted : Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:10:17 AM(UTC)
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I hope you don"t mind my ignorance too much but what"s a diffuser plate? And how are they used?
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#11 Posted : Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:29:00 AM(UTC)
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A diffuser plate is a thick aluminum plate that helps spread the heat evenly across the bottom of the boiling vessel, and also reduce the spiking with cyclical heat sources. They work like the thick plates that you often see on the bottom of higher quality stainless steel cookware.
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#12 Posted : Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:49:36 AM(UTC)
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I see, thanks!
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#13 Posted : Thursday, March 30, 2006 12:14:04 PM(UTC)
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Would you say a diffuser plate is effective enough to replace more old school heat distribution methods like a double boiler?
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#14 Posted : Thursday, March 30, 2006 12:31:37 PM(UTC)
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I doubt it would be quite that effective but it does help a lot. Especially if you have some solids or an uncleared mash. Last thing you want is a burned mash. I don't have enough heat input to use a double boiler well and don't care to make the changes that I would have to in order to do so. A diffuser plate suits my needs just fine.
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