I’ve been having issues with distillation speed. See thread(s):
While I’m in the process of upgrading pump and going full bore, I was advised by someone in the tech department at a reputable cannabis equipment company (the same one we got our 2L set up from) to reduce condenser temperature. I typically run at 95C (wanting to go hot condenser tek soon), but he said I should be at around 50-60C. This surprised me. Everyone I’ve talked to runs it much hotter, and the GLG SOP runs it much hotter as well. It kind of makes sense to me in theory, but in practice, I see it causing massive clogs. I have to use a heat gun periodically, even at 95C to clear out the condenser. What do you think?
I’d love to if I had more material to play with. Can’t really afford to do much experimenting at the moment. Working with other people’s trim so I’d prefer to do tried and true methods until I have some of my own plant material I won’t feel too bad about fucking up. But yeah, running the condenser cold at the start probably can’t hurt things too bad and I can always just kick it up.
Will update the thread this week after I’ve tried it.
I run my condenser at 60c while taking off the main body with no issues on a 10L full bore. On my smaller stills occasionally I have to hit the very end of the pipe coming off the end of the head to the cow, but not very often. My mantle temp rarely goes above 205
Yea I’d definitely try it, although I don’t see what it’s helping other then possibly clogging the condenser and making it slower. I still can believe it takes that long. I ran 2/5th of a BF in about 2 hours yesterday once I started pulling heads. Wonder it a flaw in your spd design?
This seems like something you could shore up. I’ve never noticed a difference in run speed that correlates with condenser temp… the exception being ripping through heads on a hot condenser setup. I have however had difficulty building up the energy to distill a small amount of product through an oversized boiling flask and head. If I were going to run 100 grams of first pass, I’d be in a 250mL boiling flask… 500 tops and using a smaller head like the Chemglass models.
Well I tried it. Seems to have helped. Have been running the condenser at 45C. Main body started 4.5 hr ago and I’ve got 250-300 mL. I know this is still stupid slow, but still faster than I’ve gotten running condenser at 95C.
Definitely more clogs, but not as bad as I thought it would be.
I was just reading that thread where you went back and forth with a bunch of people over the validity of hot condenser. Didn’t finish reading it yet. Interesting tho. I’ve been wanting to try out hot condenser. No matter what I do I can’t make 1st pass distillate that doesn’t have an odd smell. I hear it helps with that. And with improved color which I wouldn’t mind at all.
I’ve been wanting to try out hot condenser. No matter what I do I can’t make 1st pass distillate that doesn’t have an odd smell. I hear it helps with that. And with improved color which I wouldn’t mind at all.
The hot condenser absolutely cuts back on odor of the first pass. I just ran a hot condenser first pass that looked amazing with minimal smell. I still went for the second pass that I am accustomed to doing, but saved some of each pass to send to the lab for analysis. I’m curious to see where the potency is.
Hot condenser tek has sped up my runs and made for a cleaner and more potent finished product. I’m not looking to get into a debate with @Yeahbet over this as there is already a thread on the subject, but suffice it to say he appears to be nearly alone in his criticism of the method.
