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Re-visiting Carbac Filter sheets


Palmetto Coast

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I wanted to take a fresh look at an older thread (http://adiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=1072&hl=%2Bcarbon+%2Bfilter).

Not sure if I posted it correctly. We are looking to make/purchase a unit for carbon filtering. I was curious if any of you had results from your research. I know Classick and JohninWV were looking into the Carbac filter sheets for simplicity. Has anyone else given them a try?

Thanks,

Todd

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We used to filter bottom up through a large bed of activated charcoal granules. We switched to pads like these about a year ago which fit into a stainless plate filter. The results have been more consistent filtering times and a quieter operation (a perk based on the design of our previous pneumatic powered system). We "consume" a quantity of pads per our "batch" of vodka, each new batch gets a fresh set of pads. This is an added benefit since all carbon has a lifespan, and fresh carbon filters better and faster than worn-carbon. Finally, we figured out the cost of the pads vs replacing the charcoal in our big filter bed regularly was about the same amount of money per batch.

So in conclusion, these pads work well, and cost about the same as other forms of carbon (at least for us they do).

Best of luck,

-Scott

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The vodka that filters through the carbon pads will definitely pickup fine particulate carbon as it passes through the pads. This fine powder will eventually settle out, and depending on how close to bottling we filter, will settle in the bottle if not filtered out first. So, after we're done filtering through the carbon pads, we then filter through a 5 micron particulate filter too. I know some out there filter for way way smaller particulates, however we haven't found the need to filter below 5 micron.

The stainless filter unit we replaced our bed of charcoal with came with an explosion-proof pump attached to it. It's powered by 115V, super quiet, and moves significantly more volume than our previous 1/2" pneumatic diaphragm pump setup.

The one major caveat to this filtration setup however is the constant dripping. Because the plates are very porous to allow the liquid to flow through them, they also draw in some air bubbles, while releasing a constant drip-drip-drip of filtered vodka. These drips are collected in a tray below the pads, which has a tiny ball valve to allow the tray to drain into a collection vessel. The rate of the drip is dependent on how the plates were installed in the filter (too tight and too loose both cause more dripping), as well as directly related to the temperature of the vodka being filtered. Colder vodka is more viscus, and will result in significantly less dripping that vodka that has had a chance to warm up a bit. On some days we can collect as much as 6 gallons of dripped out vodka per hour.

-Scott

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