Keith actually purchased his still from another vendor. That particular vendor seems to know very little about still design. The still that he sold to Keith was actually dangerous. It was a Baine Marie running oil and the jacket was closed to atmosphere. There was a Chines pressure relief valve of the type that looks like a stainless cylinder and is ported all of the way around. If Keith had ran the still as it was delivered, the pressure relief valve would have popped at 7.5 psi and hot oil would have sprayed out of the relief valve ports 360 degrees and anyone standing near that still would have been very badly burned. I sold Keith some vents for his jacket to solve that issue. Also the vendor could not tell Keith how to wire the agitator so I had my electrical department head help Keith with that. Also the agitator paddles on this still were way to small to get the job done so I sold Keith some larger better designed agitator paddles. Keith is a really nice guy and should not have been done this way by this vendor.
We already have a fix for the valve that is being discussed here. We have added a down tube similar to a hot water heater tank just in case the oil jacket gets overfilled. The old valve worked fine as long as the oil jacket was only filled halfway, which is the recommended level. When it pops, only "hot air" comes out.
I am not sure about the column design as I have not seen it first hand but I think that Keith will be able to do what he wants with it once he does a few runs and figures it out. The biggest problem Keith has with this vendor is that the vendor will not give him support. I think that the vendor is not giving support because the vendor simply does not have a clue. The vendor let the Chinese factory design the still and the people at the factory don't have a clue either. This vendor is going to get someone hurt or killed if they are not careful. This vendor is not Corson. This Vendor is in the Great Northwest and he has sold home distilling equipment for the last few years. He just started selling larger equipment a little over 1 year ago. His prices are really low. Only a few people have purchased his equipment so far. I talked with this vendor a couple of times on the phone. I originally called him because he was using my pics on his website. He did not know that they were my pics and he promptly removed them. He seemed like a nice guy.
We have expert customer support that is done by a team of engineers that run a distillery using one of our stills. They are also doing installations for us. We have also written up a detailed reflux operation manual for those that are not familiar with reflux operation. We can also help TTB questions.
This is to the aforementioned vendor. If you are on here and you see this, I really hope that you understand that you are putting people in danger. If you do not know what you are doing you should not be selling this equipment. You are going to get someone hurt or killed and you are going to have to live with that. If another person contacts me for help with one of your stills and the still is dangerous, I will help them and I will tell everyone who you are. You have been warned.
Thanks for the advice, but a warning is not necessary. If you want top notch customer support and the best prices contact us.
Proof too high or tails smeared in, can't find the middle ground!
in Technique
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