Please excuse very poor grammar. I'm more concerned with getting the details across at this point than making them sound good. lol Please forgive the formatting too. I copy/pasted this from an email that I sent.

Here are my initial results using the Essential Extractor II with 1100 watt hotplate from Brewhaus.

Using digital Thermometer with sharp point just below final condenser take off.
89C highest temp reached with short column and no cooling flow.
93C with long column.

Using glass lab thermometer placed equal or just below take off.
98C short column.
99C long column.

Turned on cooling water with slightly kinked hoses and temp of lab therm at 99C. Temp dropped to 92C. Distillate of

water increased and then nearly stopped somewhere along the way in a short amount of time.


Switched hoses over to final condenser only and it started dripping water from the condenser tube into the

collection jar very fast at 96C.

Temp stabilized and drip ,almost a stream, remained fast at 98C. Cooling water rose to 27C/80F after 30 minutes or

so.

I can get and keep my cooling water lower as well as increase flow by keeping lines less kinked so I'm not concerned

about that too much yet.

I am questioning my heat and thermometer readings though. The lights on the same breaker as the 1100 watt hot plate

dim some when it is turned on. I currently am not using a diffuser plate but will be adding one later.
Is it possible that My hot plate is not getting hot enough due to low current? Do the above temperature and results seem

normal? Should I see a big change when I add column packing?

It got late on me and I had to quit for the night but I never did get it to output at equilibrium or fair rate in

reflux mode.

Any tips or suggestions that may help narrow the time I spend playing and experimenting to get down to distilling

would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for your time and help,

BTW: Water boils here at 99.4 degrees C

Allen



UPDATE:

A few more details from the next night of playing around while only giving it sporadic attention. ,I was more

preoccupied brewing some beer with a buddy of mine

Still distilling water. Heat on max. Using final condenser only with long column length. No diffuser plate. Cooling

water 21C/70F. Take off temp is 97.5C according to the lab therm. and 99C according to the digital. I lowered the

point of the digital from above post to try and expose more of it's stem to the top vapors. The top of the lab therm

bulb is level with bottom of the output tube to the final condenser and centered in the top. Digital is halfway

between the the lab therm and the opposite side of column from final condenser outlet. Output of water is 148 large

drops per minute or 2.5 per second. Still and cooling water has remained steady at this for the past hour. For

cooling I'm using a cheap thin garden hose wound in a coil around galvanized 3 foot fence wire half submerged in 20

gallons of water and half in the air being blown onto with a fan. Without the fan it will rise to at least 80F but

with it stays at 70F. Still will stop output when switched to reflux mode and not start back with cooling water at

21/70C and several half kinked spots in the cooling lines. Still not using any column packing yet.

1/2 hour later cooling water has risen to 79F and output has slowed to around half? didn't count drops just guessed.

Do I need to be looking at my heat source, cooling source, or current to heating source to improve results?

Next thing on the cooling since I already have the stuff lying around is another hose/fence tower as described above

but with a larger fan blowing up from current tower into new air cooled coils instead of down from top of current

coils toward water as it is now. The fan is strong enough to draw air in around lower coils and water surface and

blow it up through the upper coils. I may have to make up a picture to communicate the cooling structure but later.

That is not important for now. If cooler cooling water is what I need then I can add ice until I get everything else

worked out. Eventually though I would like to avoid wasting ice and or water and do the best that I can with

air/water/fan/coils.

I would like to be able to distill fairly pure water for beer and winemaking. I know I need to add some things back

that get removed but right now I'm more concerned with getting closer to the purity/efficiency point first.

Thanks in advance for any help. I need a lot,

Allen

Allen:

Not being mean, but go to the forum home and read the topics. Every setup can be different and what works for me won't necessarily work for you. As you have noticed, equipment varies as to accuracy. Play with it and you will find your comfortable setup. Personally, for my cooling needs I use two 80 qt coolers, and circulate water to the still and back. Condenser water is iced and I keep it below 23c. Exchange water is allowed to hit 30c then I just drain the cooler and fill it back up with fresh tap water and start the process all over.

We don't know you and you don't know us, so give it a little time. This is a great hobby lots to learn but the info is out there on the web and in the old messages.

Just to update this thread a bit after a little experience... Screw the water. I'm fairly sure a little more heat input will solve that one. Been focusing on getting the best alcohol out of this thing that I can while simplifying the process and keeping cooling needs at minimum to save water and electricity. I'm not too concerned about saving money so much as I am getting a pure product without increasing household fuel and water usage. I'm more about being self sufficient than I am saving a buck but they kind of go together in a way often. I'm still using the the cooling tower I described but with frozen soft drink bottles instead of milk jugs. They need replacing more often of course but keep the average temp lower. I have a couple of extra fridges for my beer making and storing but don't use the freezer sections for much other than freezing bottles so making my own ice is not much of an extra burden and beats buying it.

I did add elbow fittings to relieve stress on the hoses in order to reduce kinking. I also added two valves to quickly and easily switch all cooling flow completely from reflux to final condenser only for switching between stripping and refluxing. I found it more efficient when stripping a mash to switch to reflux mode for a little while when the temp gets high using only the final condenser. The top of the column cools down a bit and squeezes that last bit out a little better when switched back to final condenser only at the lower temp. I can ferment a 48 hour pure turbo 5 gallon with 15# of sugar in less than a week and strip it down to to 1 gallon of 75% in 5 hours from hotplate turn on to turn off. I can then reflux that to over a half gallon of slightly over 95% in a longer run. I do not use any ice or fresh water on the stripping run and only one replacement of ice on the reflux run. I'm pretty happy with the cooling now. The hot plate is a little more than I need for alcohol actually. I'll be glad when the diffuser plate is in stock and shipped. The mid run at 95% has smells only of pure alcohol and has almost no taste without carbon filtering. I'm putting together a carbon tower of 6' tall 2' pvc and a little over a bag and 1/2 of stone carbon from Brewhaus. Can't wait to taste or not taste what comes out of that. I love what I'm drinking now as it is really good and leaves no hangover even with a bit of over indulgence Hmmm... could be dangerous in a way. lol My ultimate goal though is to only taste whatever flavor I add to the finished product and nothing more. Is that possible? So far the closest I have gotten is the mid run of a second reflux run after an initial stripping run. Over all I am very pleased with my setup and seem to be learning a little more with every run.