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Distill your own water for proofing?


Huffy2k

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Is this a ridiculous thought? I'm in the final stages of the build out of my distillery and talking to my plumber about RO systems when this thought hit me. I've already got my still and I've got plenty of water, could I distill my own water for proofing?

I guess I've got to figure out the energy tradeoff of running my still versus the cost of installing/running/maintaining an RO system but I wanted to run this up the flag pole and get some thoughts.

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Provided that you do not apply too much heat and flood the plates and condenser, the pressure in the pot would not be any different when distilling water than when distilling a wash. The temperatures would be a bit higher and this would lower the heat transfer to the pot, but improve it in the condenser, so unless you abuse the system I would not expect the pressure to rise at all.

The question of whether the distilled water would be good enough for proofing can only be answered with relevant experience (which I do not have), but the energy cost and the time lost for product distillation have to be considered.

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If you are going to lab-quality purity, you can easily add a Deionization cartridge to a RO filter - or if you don't have a unit at all, just pick up a small RO/DI unit for dilution water. You are talking a couple hundred bucks, at most, and the installation is almost effortless - certainly not something that requires bringing in a contractor. I don't think my 6-stage unit cost a whole $300, including the tubing to plumb it up.

We have a small 150 gallon per day unit. It's not fast at 6 gallons an hour, but if you pre-plan and fill a few larger containers, it's not a problem. We know when we are diluting, we just prep for it.

If your source water is reasonably clean, the RO cartridge will last quite a long time. If you don't really need or want lab grade water, you can eliminate the DI and save additional operating cost.

Spending an afternoon distilling water sounds like an enormous waste of time and energy compared to turning a valve and filling a few 5g jerry cans in the background.

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I don't think I would be comfortable running my still with the pressures produced by boiling water.

This would be no different than boiling out your still after a Gin Run. Besides, Any decent still has a pressure blow off that is no higher that 15psi, And if it doesn't, you need to change that. Hell, My column has a blowoff set at 7.5 and it's a 42' Vendome.

The only way you'd build up pressure is if there was an obstruction in the vapor line.

Still though, Sounds like a monumental waste of time and energy.

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We were approached to produce a distilled water line for someone looking to sell some upscale bottled water (meh). The numbers were atrocious. They couldn't come anywhere near offsetting the opportunity loss. I would imagine it would be the same case to produce your own DI water for your own use. You have better things to do with your time.

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Well, as far as opportunity costs go, they wouldn't be too great during our first year as we will be ramping up slowly, running the still a couple times per week at most. There would be ample opportunity to fire up the still to run some water through for proofing. The energy cost tradeoff vs simply putting in an RO system would be more of the issue. JamesBednar seems to have the best option. Thanks everyone!

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  • 7 months later...

Think about it like this: 

- How much will it cost to make a gallon vs. buy a gallon vs RO costs per gallon (fixed vs variables [Filters]) ?

- How much time will it take to make it vs. go buy water vs. RO production? (setup/production/cleaning)

- Does it take away time from other productive activities? (Stolen from EBStauffer)

- Can you sustain the activity - will this be short term or will you need/want to change plans in a few months? 

- Will this defer the some other large cost until when you might have more money? 

- Could this cause damage to the still? (Stolen from Eric) 

I don't know the answer but those would be the questions I would ask myself. 

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