insulated condenser

[777 seas]

OK so I've been asked several times, '' why do you have the condenser insulated'' Well for one it seems to keep condensation down and for two shouldn't this prevent some loss of efficiency do to ambient air coming over the shell? It is probably not really an issue to most and it isn't to me either. But I thought just as people insulate stuff to keep it warm, wouldn't you do the same for cold? Just wondering.

[acfixer69]

Energy (heat) travels from hot to cold. So unless the ambient air around the condenser is hotter then the condenser it is working against your cooling.

AC

[777 seas]

Well the air around the condenser is usually 70f+ or - a few degrees and the condenser is from 58f to 64f so its a good thing to have insulated it? Heat travels from hot to cold so hence the condensate do to warm air condensing on the out side of the condenser shell. Dont know shit about thermodynamics.

[acfixer69]

A lot of us recirculate from a barrel and pump. My condenser at the start is at ambient 65F-70F and at the end of a 12 gal run is around 110F-115F. When I wasn't recirculating and using tap water I would slow it down and run hot to save volume of water wasted.

AC

[777 seas]

I have a 300 gal poly tank that I will be utilizing this summer for just that purpose. Still I'm thinking insulating the condenser might reduce the work my condenser will have to do by reducing exposure to increased air temps.
Although wasteful as it might seem to use tap water I can cut it back to a trickle 1/2 GPM and still be ok because I don't have to worry about variables in coolant temp coming in. Although I am probably splitting hairs as this is really a non-issue. I'm sure some might prefer product to come out some what warm. Just trying to explain why I insulated.

[Hammers]

I don't have the notebook with the numbers handy, but I ran last winter using tap water in the kitchen. I kept a cooking thermometer in the outlet flow, and frequently checked the temp by hand or point-and-click IR thermometer on the outside of the condenser. Most of the run only the upper 6" or so of the condenser would get hot (I'm using a 48" liebig, 3/4 over 1/2), but late in a strip when there's lots of water coming through the condenser would heat about halfway down. That was with winter water temps, about 45 to 50 f set for a very slow trickle. I thought about cutting my condenser down, then remembered what things are like when using 5 gallon buckets of recirc water pumped with a fishtank powerhead. Stuff gets HOT! I need the whole 4' when it's like that.

[Bushman]

I now will be using my new still and have a related question. I have basically 3 lines; water in, water out from shotgun, water out from dephlagmater. I am on a well with my old still I used a pond pump in a garbage can to recycle water through my condensers. My larger still the pond pump won't handle it so I am going to draw directly from the well. I can easily open the lid and recirculate water back to the well. With the shotgu the return water is not that warm when running the dephlagmater so probably not an issue. With the dephlagmater and the shotgun condenser when dephlagmater is off the water gets pretty warm. Does anyone think this could be a problem returning hot water to the well?

[777 seas]

I would think not. The volume of water in you well is probably more significant than what your circulating although I'm sure there is a minor change it probably would only settle back down to in ground temp once there a while. Any way if it where me I wouldn't sweat it.