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I use the 8 gallon standard Brewhaus distiller with the standard Pot Still Column with Condenser that came with it. I've probably done about 5-7 runs over the past couple of years (plain old molasses rum and the venerable UJSM recipe, plus I tried a run with corn syrup one time...all have turned out OK.
The challenge I keep running into is keeping enough cool water to run through the condenser. The location where I do my distilling doesn't have running water so I can't just run a hose from the spigot. I've used different types of containers for a cooling water reservoir but by the time I'm about halfway through the run it's just too darn hot to be doing much good at the condenser. The best luck I had was using a kiddie pool, which exposed a lot of surface area and allowed heat to dissipate pretty well. I tire of lugging buckets of water to the pool though.
What would y'all think of using a car radiator to run the cooling water through? I have a picture in my head of a small radiator with the appropriate garden hose type fittings soldered in at the inlet and outlet, and then a box fan or something similar pressed right up against it to blow air through. Do you think that would provide enough heat transfer to keep things efficient at the still condenser?
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why not just get a cooler and keep some frozen bottles to put in there when the water gets too warm. works fine for me.
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 1 user thanked dieselduo for this useful post.
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Originally Posted by: dieselduo  why not just get a cooler and keep some frozen bottles to put in there when the water gets too warm. works fine for me. Why not? Because that would be too doggone simple and would deny me an opportunity to Rube Goldberg something together instead of actually being productive  Great idea! Thanks.
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The frozen bottles that diesel suggests do a fine job. But it sounds like you enjoy tinkering a bit more. Along with some sort of heat exchanger (frozen bottles, or sit a wort chiller in a cooler full of ice, etc., etc.) a larger reservoir might help a bit as well. You can pick up 50 gallon plastic drums from the local car wash -- I got a few for free just by asking. The detergent is supposed to be bio-degradable, so just a good rinse and they're ready to hold your cooling water.
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1 user thanked John Barleycorn for this useful post.
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You will find that the radiator idea isn't really anything you want to pursue with any vigor. I'm not saying it wont work but do you want to work - ON - your still or - WITH - your still. You'll be so busy making that idea work that stillin will fall to a distance second, but good luck with it.
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1 user thanked heeler for this useful post.
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I have seen someone use a box fan with a air conditioner coil right on it. worked very well, something like this http://www.artisan-disti...p?id=10932&mode=view
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1 user thanked Shine NOLA for this useful post.
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I use an ice chest 2/3rd full of cold water and some frozen milk jugs inside it and a small pump from harbor freight some 3/8 tubing and pump cold water in the bottom of my worm and use a 3/4 tube and let it gravity feed back into the ice chest and 3 to 5 frozen jugs usually will get me through the run and it stays ice cold
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