Using a sous vide concerns me. If you were to have a gasket failure in your warm water bath, gas would be released within the vicinity of the sous vide and could ignite it. Jacketed bases are a much safer, and efficient bet.
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Sous vides are usually and most like water proof, electronics"potted", you cook around water w it
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May have to think about the jacketed spool, as well, then. I think I may try using N2 in my system, I really need to get a tank anyways to pressure check.
I use the polysci heater for everything i can. Im probably going to get another one with a closed loop for my short path so i can stop doing this
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I dont know what kind of solvent tank your running…with mine… I will on occasion, usually if I’m distilling solvent…allow 100% of the solvent to move to the collection pot, noting a slight vacuum on my solvent tank. I’ll remove the solvent tank from the system, open it up, clean it out, check my gasket etc. Then pull a full vac on the tank and recover. If I dont open the tank for cleaning/inspection, I will always vent it to the atmosphere and allow whatever may be lurking behind out prior to pulling a vacuum.
In my experience, and with my limited knowledge, pulling vacuum is vital in efficient passive operation. My solvent never meets the an atmosphere. I vac down every line, every tank, and every ball valve(when closed is a chamber) I possibly can. The vacuum greatly aids in the initial transfer of liquid solvent or vapor.
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Recovery was definitely more efficient with recovery vessel being under vacuum. Running my second column now. Still room for improvement, the last 1/5th of solvent took forever. Lost about 1lb on that run.
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Do you have a gauge on your recovery tank? As soon as you start recovering its not under max vacuum anymore due to added vapor pressure. It will be up to the cold condensing the molecules to make it stay low enough. As soon as the pressure in recovery tank gets near the preasure in the collection (distillation) pot recovery stops. With my recovery tank at -50° the pressure of even a full tank of tane (>80#) is -20in Hg sometimes deeper.
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I second that Sous Vide for the win. I’m recovering between 4-5 lbs in 20 to 30 mins. Less of a mess, less lifting, less hassle, also you have the perks of slow cooking vacuumed sealed meats so you can reward yourself with a juicy succulent soft piece of meat at the end of the day
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Check out the gormia sois vide. Get the service plan on it. They are also more powerful than the polyscience.
https://www.amazon.com/Improved-Gourmia-Immersion-Generation-Circulator/dp/B0751L4VCR
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This is what we run for our heated baths that circulate through our jacketed bases, pouring pots and columns (a jacketed column you heat that has an additional valve on top ran to the collection base is how you can recover all residual solvent stuck in the material when we pull it out it’s nice and warm and completely dry)
(Pid controller)/ thermostat
Inkbird ITC-306T Pre-wired… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01486LZ50?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Submersible pump
This one is killer because it pulls from the bottom not the side
FREESEA 845 GPH Submersible Pump… Amazon.com
Water heater
Kingwork UL-Listed Bucket Heater,… Amazon.com
This one is the best you can buy honestly it’s a 1000w
Lots of power work great we run 3 (each will need it’s own thermostat as they can’t handle much more wattage)
With this set up you will have more power and truly never see major temperature fluctuations, the faster you recover the more heating power is need. Hence why we run three.
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Wheres the link?
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Edited
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This is really good information, thank you! Do you think it would be effective with only the jacketed platter or would you think I would need a jacketed spool as well?
Found a jacketed 10x10 spool for $360… not bad but I think I could do better.
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have you ever had part of your collection pot out side of the warm water bath? It’s noticeably colder. I think for the quickest recovery rates I recommend jacketing the whole base.
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Right on. I think I’ll try and utilize your bucket tek, seems an inexpensive way to do it vs a heated circulator. Do you daisy chain the buckets or have one bucket for each jacketed section?
Definitely daisy chained, I dont use 5 gallon buckets either I have a 2 large 25¿ gallon tubs, ones the for the collection base, ones for the column I run the column much hotter then I run my base so that’s why it’s individual heated
Here you can see how all the jacketed parts are connected but this was a long time ago and I now do not recommend connecting a column or even worse two to the same reservoir. The massive temperaturer difference causes your res to drop in temp and with out a lot of heat power your recovery will be slower
I’m going to add an updated photo on here so you guys can get an idea of the changes I made and why. Working with water can be easy or it can get wet…
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You can buy a $25 10 gallon round cooler from lowes, fill it with 80° water, put a $20 fish tank heater and a small air pump to circulate water on bottom and place a noodle straining bowl upside down or what have ya then place collection pot inside. Recovering 7lbs of tane in 1 hour this way, recovery tank is placed in another round cooler then covered in dry ice up to the top. If ya dont wanna go jacket platter route. I use a mk-V from best value vacs.
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I run passively exclusively, I use a Welch explosion proof pump to pull vacuum on my solvent tanks that I’m recovering in too (keep in mind what temp your solvent condenses to a liquid state) as long as your operating at those temps your only vacuuming out excess nitrogen from the push 
DM if yah have any more questions
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Ahh my passive brethren.
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Have you ever recovered so fast the tank makes a violent sound?
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