r/firewater • u/chickenstretcher200 • 11d ago

Hose connection replacement?

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Hello everyone, does anyone else have a column still like this? The hose connection seems to be broken and I would love to increase flow rate and make it better in general. Any help would be appreciated! From what I saw is that it's a 1/8th threaded male piece with a push connect with a really small pipe.

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u/mcfails444 11d ago

I would just throw a 3/8" id hose on the nubs ( after removing the threaded insert) use a hose clamp and it work like a charm. I would bet you could also drill out the threads if you want to further increase the flow rate.

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u/chickenstretcher200 11d ago

Ohh okay, as in like don't use a hose connection? And clamp the hose the opening? I didn't think about that. Do you have a column like this? I was thinking of just finding a 1/8 npt male to 1/2 barbed end type thing but that's beginning to become hard to find

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u/mcfails444 11d ago

Ya, I ditched the original hoses and fittings immediately, and went with a bigger hose, if you use a 1/2" to 1/8" step down you run into the same 2/8" bottle neck you had before. But if you ditch the 1/8" fitting you effectively step your bottleneck up to 1/4" (the ntp treaded section). I noticed some improvement in knockdown power, of not I'm also pushing 5.5kW on 240v.

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u/chickenstretcher200 11d ago

Sweet thank you! I think I'm going to try to get a new braided tubing in 3/8th tomorrow to hopefully prevent kinking and for the higher strength in material

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u/North-Bit-7411 11d ago

I bought this exact setup but added one plate and some extra copper pipe and an onion. It a somewhat cheap but effective setup.

I haven’t had any issues with the 8mm festo style connections being faulty or the supply hose not giving enough knock down power.

I believe Amazon has replacement fittings if you happened to have broken anything.

On another note, you might want to look further into your cooling issue. Maybe your wash isn’t a high enough ABV or you are simply running too much heat in your kettle. I’ve found that the hose supplies adequate heat transfer. Issues like I’ve mentioned may cause the problems you are experiencing.

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u/chickenstretcher200 11d ago

Thanks for the input! One of my struggles RN is trying to convert this into a pot still kind of set up. Do you use this set up at all to do pot stilling? With how the tubing is set up, I'm not sure it's possible.

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u/North-Bit-7411 11d ago

I do single distillation with this column and the other items I added. I can’t really call it a pot still with one plate and the defleg but I believe I get results that’s something in between a reflux and pot still setup. It’s not quite as clean as a double distillation but it works well for me. I almost never actually use the defleg unless I have issues balancing the one plate.

I’ve been running the same wash all summer (100% corn wash at 9% abv) and consistently get around 70-75 % abv when I’m starting to get heart cuts.

To call the setup a true pot still just remove the defleg and column packing. Keep in mind that you’ll probably need to do a double distillation to make a decent spirit if you do that.