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What is the VEVOR water distiller used for?
Hi,I have a VEVOR water distiller. The model that I have has a thermostat control and a timer. It is 750watts. I have seen that some users who have water distillers recomend using an SCR to control the temperature of the still, but I was wondering, since this unit has a thermostat, can’t I just use that thermostat to control the temperature? It goes from 30C to 108C. Why do I need an external SCR to control the distillation if I can control the temperature on the unit itself?Thanks!Here is the link to the unit I have:https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Water-Dist … QTCJP?th=1
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8 Replies
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The most difficult concept a new distiller needs to understand is that we don’t “control temperature” … we “control power.” A thermostat is simply the wrong tool for the job.________________I drank fifty pounds of feed-store corn’till my clothes were ratty and torn
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Let’s break a basic pot still down into it constituent parts:1. Boiler2. Heating element or fire (power input)3. A riser4. A product condenser.After fermentation, you fill your boiler to do a stripping run. You fire up the still and the boiler heats up. Vapor begins to flow up the riser, vapor enters the product condenser, the vapor condenses and exits as low wines. Product is exiting very slow so in order to speed things up you crank up the power or turn up the flame. Now you’re producing much more vapor, more vapor is being condensed and your low wines exit much faster. You control your still by controlling ‘power input’. Since this is a stripping run, you can crank up the power as high as your product condenser can handle (assuming your wash or mash cannot scorch).Think of a pot still as though it is a pot of water on a stove. To get more steam, you crank up the power/flame. Now you’re getting more steam. The condenser simply condenses the steam and exits as water. NOTICE that temperature never entered into any part of this function.4″ VM Build
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You must be right….. because I still don’t understand why controlling temperature is not what we want…. Any recomendations for reading about this? This seems like a major hurdle to overcome for me.Thanks!
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This may help you to understand why you can’t control the temp at which your boiler contents boils.It’s constantly changing as the different compounds within the boiler boil off.https://www.kelleybarts.com/PhotoXfer/R … gMyth.htmlTo put it simply you have absolutely no control over the boiling point of the contents of the boiler.The contents of the boiler decide for you at what temp they will boil.You can only control the rate of boil, a slow simmer, light boil, raging boil……and whatever lays between.
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This graph could help . The bottom axis is the ABV . If you project up to the Blue line and across to the Left , it will show you at what temp a particular ABV in the boiler will vapourise at . IE , if you put a thermometer in the boiler ,with a 10% wash , the liquid would be boiling at 93°C.You can also project up to the Blue line , across to the red line and back down . This shows you that with 10% wash , the distillate will be coming off at roughly 53% abv Now as the alcohol is slowly boiling out of the wash , the ABV gets lower and lower , you can now see that at say 2% abv , the wash is now boiling at about 99°C and the output abv has dropped down to around 10% .All this happens naturally . You can’t change what happens by adjusting the boil temp . It is what it is .If you set the boil temp at less than the curve should be , you get nothing come out the spout .Because it hasn’t reached its vapourizing temp .
I blame a lot of the temp thinking on high school teachers that told us that alcohol boils at 78.3°C and so we can seperate it from water which boils at 100°C . Not quite true .My recommended goto .wiki/index.ph … ion_Theory
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This is great information for those of us just starting out. Thanks!
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What temperature does water boil at? Does that temperature change depending on how hot the burner is under the pot?Same thing happens inside your boiler. The wash boils at a temperature which is entirely dependent on the ABV and pressure. It will always boil at the same temperature under those conditions, no matter what. Since a thermostat is controlled by temperature, it will always see the same temperature and either remain on or off 100% of the time.To control the speed of production, you need to control how much power you’re putting in. You CANNOT control the temperature inside the still. Physics is going to do that. Don’t fight physics.Learn from the past, live in the present, change the future.
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Usually for beginners it’s best to leave temperatures out of the discussion. Later you’ll learn that there are certain correlations that are repeatable. Like if you monitor the boiler temp, you’ll notice vapor begins to flow up the riser around a certain temp. Knowing that, I may set a digital temp alarm alerting me that the boiler is up to temp and to get ready for a stripping run to begin. I may install a temp probe half way up my riser, set a temp alarm to 100F to alert me that vapor reached that point. NEITHER aids in controlling the still.I printed & laminated that chart Yummyrum posted (the other version in Fahrenheit though). It’s handy if you monitor the boiler temp and/or the vapor temp. Temp can give you information, but cannot be used to control a still.4″ VM Build
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