Don't know if this will help, but I ran my first wash through a turbo stomper reflux. I have two temp readings, one on the column and one on the condenser. My temps on the column shot up to 184 after about an hour of heating and the condenser temp would never reach our target ethonol temp. I still drew of the first 150 ml and could really tell the smell of the foreshots. Kept drawing in 1 litre lots and could easily tell the middles and beginning of the tails. Everything was totally different from running water. My first distillation was some cheap vodka and it came out decidely better after refluxing. I think that it is a good idea to try distilling some cheap stuff just to get a feel for operating the still.