Hello all,
I had a chiller go down earlier and thought you guys would appreciate my makeshift hot condenser.
Filled the condenser jacket with thermal fluid, closed off the inlet, and inserted a thermocouple into the outlet. Then wrapped heat tape around the condenser and ramped up the power, reading the thermocouple meter until it reached around 100c.
It’s been doing the trick all morning. Anyone else have any DIY condenser tricks they’ve had to use or expiramented with?
turns out they do…
here is @fresh.botanicals implementation
I make terrible distillate....why? - #64 by fresh.botanicals
Hot condenser tech really starts around 135C but the solution is great 
Once it stabilized around 100 it was brought up to 140, fluctuating between 140-142.
Edit: added photo
Nice very nice !
Place this in the tricks of the trade tread please it s got all in favor👍
Where do you buy the heat tape ?
I just buy them off amazon/Ebay. They’re usually sold as a tool for plumbers
Hmmm, it would save a bit on power costs from running th recirculating heater
How do u control the power on the heat tape?
A variac should be able to
Distillation controllers with both temperature and power control 
Thanks @SkyHighLer wherever you may be
The heat tape I used today was built with an affixed controller, but often they are sold stand alone and you would want some type of variac-esq controller. Generally added 5% power at a time and allowed 10 minutes or so for an increase in temperature and readings on the thermocouple.
The downside is that since you’re not circulating the thermal fluid out and the tape can only add heat, so I’d the fluid reaches a temp you don’t like it’s up to the air in the room to dissipate which can take some time.
Overall, the method worked well in a pinch using basic tools that were lying around in the lab. I generally keep a few extra thermocouples and heat tape ready in case they’re needed, which has happened several times in my career.
Final product:
I have a pretty ad hoc setup,
This was a small run I just finished now as the sun is coming up- started at 2:30am, longer runs take place on a 5L- same general setup each time
What is the temp difference between the two condensers? Very interesting setup
Depends on how much compression I’m trying to create on the distillation path 
Also- there are three condensers.
Hit around 300g/hr starting from when the heads started pulling, which took a little less than an hour to see.
Where do I find readings on hot condenser tech on here ?
Breakingdabs in the search bar
Ok sweet deal I’ve gotta learn about the hot condenser tech. I see you have a condenser after your distillation head condenser is that your hot condenser rowan?, I also see that you have a drip tube attached to that condenser is that for the bad stuff to drip down as the good distillation passes across?
Both the head and the second condenser are run hot but also adjust throughout the run
The tube on the second condenser is so I can quickly drain the hot oil out of the condenser.
Aww ok and the impurities cross over into the condenser that is being chilled before the cold traps?
