Hey All,

My first attempt at using my HC PS II is now history. I learned a lot and have some questions. I'm at 4700 feet and my temperatures didn't look right to me. First I did a 50/50 vinegar run. Then a steam run to flush. My steam run sat at 210.5 +/- .3. I used propane and had a difficult time controlling low fire. I had a gallon of cheap wine and wanted to run it to experiment. First though I had to modify the thermocouple assembly to get it closer to the flame and elevate my burner platform to provide more room between the pot and the burner. My modifications worked great. I was able to turn the flame down without it going out and control the flame as well. I tracked the column temp and when it was around 125 and rising I turned on the condenser water. I rushed through to 180 something before I got the head water on and reduced the flame to stabilize. After dinking around for a little while I was able to stabilize around 155 -160. I collected about 20 ml as I had 10% wine and only a gallon. I figured I was in ethanol by now. It stabilized around 165 and eventually crept up to 195 before I shut it down. I thought the temps were a little low so decided to err on the side of caution and shut down then, I was also tired as it was 4:00 am. I wanted to know more about how elevation affected me so I looked up some info. I'm posting what I found. Does this seem right? Is it really this easy... see below

Precise ethanol boiling point...

Whatever your altitude, and the atmospheric pressure on a specific day, this method will let you find your true boiling point.

- Fill a pot with water, place it on a burner and bring to a full boil.
- Place the probe of a digital thermometer in the boiling water, and note the temperature.
- This reference boiling point is applicable to your exact location and atmospheric pressure.
- To find the boiling point of the Ethanol: Multiply the reference boiling point by: 0.81556

Example:
Say your boiling point was 210 deg. F then:
210 X 0.81556 = 171.27 deg. F
Therefore ethanol should boil at that time and place at ≈ 171.3 deg. F.
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I'm about as green as you get and I hope some of you seasoned fellas can help me out.

I wasn"t sure when to cut because of my temps???

I got about 12 oz. of 80%... again I was using 1 gallon of wine at 10%.

Any suggestions or constructive criticism is welcomed.


Thanks

MT
It's not worth doing if it's not done right...

Hey bubba! I live at ~5300 ft. so I know what you're going through. Turns out every 1000 ft. is equivalent to 1 in Hg. So at 4700 ft. you'd be at a vacuum of 4.7 in Hg. What does that mean? I don't know I just thought it was fun!

For me EtOH comes over around 74-75*C depending a little on barometric pressure. Compared to 78*C at sea level it's not too big of a difference. However with higher boiling point liquids the difference can become more exaggerated i.e. if you were bp checking an essential oil it would differ by ~12*C.

So I'd collect somewhere in the 74-76*C range if I were you.