Hot condenser Tek prototype on a budget

Hash and Stuff Distillation
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So I wanted to try closing the window on temps during distillation and wanted to try this hot condenser Tek I was reading about without blindly buying hardware. So when the SPD had time to breathe I began to tinker.

After 6 pump failures, 2 hose blowouts, and 1 burned mouth of hot vegetable oil, I finally have a working prototype.

Deep fryer with electronics bypassed wired straight to a adjustable voltage transformer (100 bucks on Amazon, I had I’ve laying around).

Irrigation pump (50 bucks) hooked up to a dimmer switch. In hindsight I have a 12v coolant pump coming from Amazon to try

ACDelco 251-721 GM Original Equipment Auxiliary Water Pump Amazon.com a nice pump

And also a higher heat pump

YalePro Home Brew Pump Inline/Beer Pump for Hot and Cold Liquid, Max Temperature 250 deg F, Inline Inlet and Outlet 3/4" MPT, FDA Food Compliant Materials Amazon.com

My first pump looks like this one but pump failed once for thermal overload, so I bypassed the temp sensor, then failed because of swollen plastic spacers for the windings, so I trimmed them back, then failed again because the pump impeller swelled so I had to trim that. Then after getting that going and testing, a reinforced hose blew out. Turns out I should’ve been shopping at AutoZone instead of Lowe’s. A few fuel line hoses later I was in business. Wrapped up the impeller head in tin foil and was good to go.

I have a temp probe in my condenser and temps were soooolllid. I was highly impressed. I didn’t want to rush this at all and was considered R&D so it took 12 hours. Aside from smelling like a fast food worker driving around st. Patty’s day at 4am, it worked great.

Waiting on my favorite thing in the world, Labs. I’m very interested in the results.

Here’s some pics. Left is mains from second pass, right is mains from first pass (not hot condenser)

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Great write up :rofl:
And Damn great results
I wonder all in all If a second hand heat bath wouldent have been cheaper and safer
All seems Well now but be safe :+1:
What temp was. The Condenser at during mains ?

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I wonder if that high heat pump could be used in a roto bath with avocado oil??

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If your roto goes that high why not? I was thinking of using mine but it’s a 50L.

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I kept it within 10 degrees. I was going to go 5, but figured I’ll try that next round. The CBD seemed to really love coming out around 180C vapor temp/208 mantle.

The burning was from one of my pre-run bench tests to get the motor running. No way in hell would I attempt it with 160+c. I’ve eaten enough hot pockets to learn. I am going to install a bulb type pump to prime the inline next time though.

If anyone tries this, I suggest to have your main condenser chiller set and ready so worst case you have to swap lines in case of a failure.

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Had a look at the Tricks of the trade tread with the heat gun ?
IT s a good back up to
Be safe again great result wel done

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Tried that too, but temps in the condenser were all over the place. Very unstable. But, that could have just been my experience.

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Awesome , thanks for sharing. It looks like you might be using a cow distribution adapter, were you able to get the heads to continue pass the cow without condensing? I haven’t tried it, but figured a good amount would get caught.

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Corn oil, 1800 watt NuWave induction cooktop, cast iron pot. Digital temp has a infrared remote control too lol. I can turn it off and on from across the room. Platinum Model https://nuwavenow.com

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Search for “oil scavenge pump” these are for pulling hot engine oil away from ‘rear mounted turbochargers’. Most turbos are mounted nearest the exhaust valves but rear mount kits use a lot of the cars factory exhaust without heavy modification. These pumps can easily handle 400F and the aftermarket has already vetted them. They run on 14.6 volts.

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Welcome to Olive Garden!! - YouTube

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COA’s came back on the distillate.
Sample 1 was the heads (little to none) and about 250ml of distillate. 60%CBD, 1.55% THC
Sample 2 was the mains. 64% CBD, 2.18% THC
Sample 3 was second catch of mains, before tails 66.13% CBD, 3.66% THC

Origin Distillate was 79% CBD, 3%ish THC. Not sure how my Short path resulted in lower concentrations.
For shits and grins I sent a sample of half mct, half distillate from origin distillate and that came back at 38.23% CBD, 1.37 THC.

Strange results.

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Odd. Any vacuum leaks?

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50 microns steady as hell the whole pass. Only vacuum change was when I swapped flasks for tails catch. Cold trap was dewar style loaded with dry ice with only 1 drop hanging from the bottom of the dry ice column There was about a half gram of distillate that condensed in a vacuum line from the cow. Volume loss was 5%, which was what was left in the BF.

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Just realized I never followed up with my lab results. Turns out “the lab made a mistake” when I questioned the results. I got New coas showing high 80%s, and the situation nudged me to get in house analytics (Sri GC best bang for the buck but steep learning curve if you don’t go to LA) which also confirmed no lower than 86% potentcy

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