Great idea! I think that posting a photo or diagram will settle a lot of questions.

All right. I got mine today and installed it. This is what she looks like:



Pretty self-explanatory. This is the way it should be done, with the valve facing out, but cut me some slack on the first picture ,it was a rush photoshop, okay?,.

One word on assembly:
I highly HIGHLY recommend you assemble by reversing steps two and three in the instructions ,attach the valve to the condenser FIRST and then attach that entire assembly to the column. Why? Because that way you only have to worry about putting tension in two places at a time instead of three. If you put the condenser on last, you're going to have to worry about the angle of the column relative to the valve and ALSO of the condenser relative to the valve, and you'll have to hold the condenser upright while putting tension on it and the valve and tightening, and it's just a big mess.

Do yourself a favor attach the condenser to the valve first, tighten slowly, aligning as necessary as you go. Use a wrench both on the nut and on the square sides of the valve ,where it's reinforced,. Then, this piece will be all tight and aligned and you can hook it up to the column. This way, you can put the maximum amount of tension on both joints and not have to worry about torquing the other one out of alignment.

Okay. Perhaps this will help you understand it a bit better:

ALL reflux stills are fractioning columns, to a point. The very act of refluxing the vapor causes layers to form in the column at equilibrium; however, the faster you collect the distillate the more you disturb these layers, and the less perfect of a separation you will acheive.

In the essential still pro, control over the speed of distillate collected was limited by the column cooling lines only, which leaves a lot of room for error. Unless you have the temperature and flow JUST RIGHT ,and MAINTAIN them that way,, you will be collecting distillate at a slower or quicker rate than you desire. If you're collecting anything at all, chances are you're doing it too quickly.

For many people, this is fine. Average is about 90% abv, but it can be higher. The problem remains, however, that you rely on the cooling lines and lots and LOTS of water. For those of us who desire the utmost purity ,in my case it is because I find charcoal filtering a pain in the ass,, this modification makes it easier. This way, all of the water is used for condensation, which is what it's best at anyways.

The original condenser spout is NOT BLOCKED. This would create a buildup of pressure inside of the still. This would be bad. The condenser tube is open to the atmosphere and now, rather than serving as a collection point, it is the opening that keeps the still from building pressure. Air will come out as the boiler's contents are heated and pressure builds, but all dissolved vapor will return to the column, provided you have adequate cooling water flow ,which doesn't need to be much,.

The valve allows precise and, most importantly, constant control over the speed of distillate collected. By initially operating the still with the valve closed for a period of time, you allow the various layers of chemicals in the column time to even out from the tumultuous churning caused by their initial reflux and rise in the column. Then, by carefully opening the valve, you begin to collect the topmost layer of distillate. If you do this carefully, you can avoid disturbing the equilibrium, allowing you the best possible separation of components and the theoretical maxiumum purity of distillate: the ethanol-water azeotrope.

The valve makes all of this easier.

Scott. I'd love to email you, but I generally don't give out my email address online. Feel free to ask whatever you want here. As far as I know, no one will censor you for having doubts about a new product .

Scott, let me preface this by saying that, while I have properly installed the reflux modification offered for sale on this site, I am currently having some problems with it that we are attempting to work out resolutions to. Until these issues have been resolved, I will cautiously recommend against purchasing this modification from Brewhaus, but I will address your questions as if we were talking about any 'valved reflux' still.

1, Not exactly. Given ideal conditions, you should be able to extract spirit of a similar quality from the Essential Extractor II Pro unit. Unfortunately, these ideal conditions are a bit more difficult to obtain and maintain with the stock setup, because, like I mentioned earlier, it is based purely on water flow and temperature. To be sure, you can be extremely inefficient with a valved reflux still if you don't know what you're doing, so, while the modification will not make a more pure product in GENERAL, it should make a purer spirit EASIER to obtain. The difference may only amount to 5% or so, but this can mean worlds in terms of flavor and odor profile. Once again, I have no empirical data on this PARTICULAR unit as it does not work for me at this time, but this applies to valved reflux stills in general.

2, Cooling lines are still used with this modification, but only for the condenser. In theory, the inverted condenser causes all of the liquid to be returned to the column the way they came in, creating the reflux that was originally caused by the primary cooling lines. At the current time, I am experiencing choking issues in the condenser that necessitate cooling with the primary cooling lines, but hopefully this is an atypical scenario.

3, You DEFINITELY still wish to maintain a constant temperature. This is the most important aspect towards creating a purer distillate. The temperature is maintained by the laws of physics. So long as you are extracting a relatively pure single substance, the temperature at the top of the column will stay at the boiling temperature of that substance. By drawing off the distillate at the proper rate, you disturb the equilibrium as little as possible, thus keeping the vapors from growing turbulent and mucking up the purity.

4,6, This refers to the 'proper' rate, I mentioned above. Generally, a 10:1 reflux ratio is considered ideal. By this I mean that, for every 10 units of vapor condensed, you draw off one unit, with the rest returned to the column. In order to determine the amount of vapor your boiler can produce, there are some simple calculations to perform involving the heat source you're using. 'Making Gin and Vodka' by John Stone details this pretty well, but also says that you should be prety much all right with 4ml/minute.

5, The general consensus is to operate the still on full reflux for about an hour. Granted, the brewhaus still is fairly tall and should, in theory, be at equilibrium by the time the vapors rise to the top of the column, but it's always best to wait a while and let things even out anyway.

7, It's 1/4 OD, I think, and it's about an inch and a half to 2 inches long.

8, Filtering is a pain in the ass, because you have to dilute down to 40% and then you have to sit there and pour it through the charcoal again and again, and you have to wash the charcoal or else you get dust, which negates the filtering and blah blah blah. Filtering is fine and dandy if you screw up, or if your still doesn't quite hit maximum purity, but why bother with it if you don't have to? Plus, I like having an ultra-pure distillate for maceration because it's a much more effective solvent at higher concentrations. Also, certain liquers are made from a more concentrated base.

9, The jury's still out on this one, Scott. If we can resolve these choking issues I'm having, hell yes. It's a great way to convert an already solidly-built stainless reflux still into a full-on valved reflux still with little compromise in the way of structure or craftsmanship.

If, on the other hand, these issues can NOT be resolved, there is no way I would buy it again. It permanently alters the still by cutting the tube leading to the condenser, and if it is ineffective, then it is an $85 exercise in futility.

A lot of ifs here, and a lot of information left to be discovered. We'll see what happens. At this time, again, I cautiously recommend against it.

For all intents and purposes, the two stills are identical, and if you are using the same boiler that I'm using ,1100w, thermostat bypassed, and the condenser is identical to the brewhaus one ,which it appears to be,, then I'm fairly confident your condenser would choke, too.

My thermostat is bypassed because the boiler I got with the still is cycling, and I bought the still like a week before they started giving out free diffuser plates... go figure.

Yes, you are correct about the cooling lines.

aj...just one more question....when you say choking....does that mean its kind of spitting out the product and not really giving you a steady drip....thanks, scott

rick are you reading these post...have you heard of this problem and what the solution may be...thanks scott

aj....
have you had any luck with the coughing problem??
thanks, scott

My stillhead now looks like this:


As you can see, there's no way in hell it could be pooling on account of gravity. Something else is going on here.