2 pots (2 Gal)

Shipping - Everything arrived on time and in good condition. The shipper went above and beyond expectations for shipping. I have included a quick snap of some of the various packing materials. If they all ship like this, then the only reason they arrive damaged is due to the delivery company.Equipment - Not the best material in the world, but certainly well crafted for the cost of this rig. Valves were shipped a little loose, but tightened up quickly and easy. I checked the thermometer against two of my home digital thermometers and it tracked within a good range. Nothing was missing.Use - DISCLAIMER - I have previous experience with a still and know what I'm doing, so this set up was no problem. That being said, if you are a newcomer, don't think you can buy this and *POOF* you're making moonshine. The instructions are basic, but are more than enough to get the rig setup. As you can see in the pictures, I modified mine, as anyone can do, so my condensing pot turned the other way. I cleaned the equipment and did a test run with water. I didn't use the vent and instead put another thermometer in as a backup using an included bung (rubber stopper). The water run worked well with no leaks. I ran my condensing rig using an 80GPH submersible pump through a cheap styrofoam cooler that I refreshed with frozen bottles of water. My actual run consisted of a 5 gallon mash of sugar treated by a 24 turbo yeast that was settled for 12 hours and then prepared with turbo clear to knock the remainder of the yeast down. So, in short, it was a quick brewed mash. Using a standard gas stove I found that I boiled about 5 gallons of liquid in just under an hour. I found a good starting temperature for my mash to boil and the alcohol came flowing. All in all I got a solid 9 qts ranging from just over 60% to just under 30%. I could have kept going, but it wasn't worth the haul for me at that point. The valves, once tightened, did make for some easy altering of the cooling flow with the pump to control my condensing rate. They valves also showed no leak-by, which surprised me. My only complaint is that the condensing pot sure could use a lid so it could be slightly pressurized by a pump, but with the routing of the condensing coil, I can understand the engineering problems.This is a nice little setup for home use. Any beginner, with a little patience and a lot of YouTube, can start punching out alcohol with a few days of this arriving. The rig was also easy to cleanup. Dishwasher ready for most of the pieces and easy to sanitize. I also took thermal shots with a thermal imager (pictures to be posted later) to check for any steam leaks. NONE. This guy had some solid welds, seals, and equipment. You'll get your money's worth from this rig. I drew a lot of data while I was doing my first runs through this setup and they were solid consistently through each test. My only regret is not going ahead and getting the largest rig in this series.

I bought this distiller recently and started testing it by distilling water. It works, but I am not totally satisfied.I have several suggestions.This distiller is designed to use cooling water from the city water faucet. Connecting a water tube to the faucet of the kitchen sink is by no means an easy job. But it is a very difficult and daunting job at least. Besides, an electric heater must be placed near the sink. Then, a large space in the kitchen is occupied by the distiller and heater. Also, the kitchen faucet is occupied for a long time.Another problem of the distiller is that the tip of the distilled liquid exit pipe is too short, so an extension tube is required. The exit pipe should be longer so the distilled liquid can be collected directly into a bottle or vessel. Or an extension pipe, which is food-safe, should be included.These problems can be almost totally eliminated if the cooling is done by air but not by water. Indeed, air-cooled distillers are available in Amazon listed near this one. I have used one of them, which works very well. The only drawback of this air-cooled distiller is that no thermometer can be inserted into the boiler. This is the primary reason why I bought this distiller. I need to distill in vacuum or sometimes other substance than water.I started using this distiller, without cooling water, by putting a small fan on the top of the cooling coil. In this way, however, the heating rate needs to be significantly reduced because the cooling pipe is not designed for air-cooling.I strongly suggest this manufacture to develop an air-cooled version of the distiller. Use a finned cooling pipe and increase the total length of the cooling pipe. The improved design should be useful for both air cooled and water cooled.Because the distilling efficiency of the distiller is low if operated in the air-cooled mode, I developed another plan, which also allows using the distiller away from the kitchen faucet. This is by placing a large and shallow water reservoir near the distiller (1.5’ x 4’ x 6” plastic container) next to the distiller. Water is pumped by a small aquarium pump to the heat exchanger of the distiller; the drain is returned to the reservoir. The water container works also as a heat exchanger to remove heat brought by the returning water from the distiller heat exchanger. Cool air can be blown by a small electric fan over the surface of the reservoir if more cooling is desired.

Ok

Works really well as a still for my oils. I run it with gas burner and it doesn’t buckle or warp with the heat.

Good product

I love how easy and simple to use. The size is perfect and my first batch of orange oil is perfect. Thank you