Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I am hoping that someone can help me out here with my alcoengine reflux still.

I am running it with a 35l digiboil with tffv at about 9% and 21L in the boiler. I get the boiler up to temperature with full 2400w and than drop it back to 1900w. No matter how long I leave the still in full reflux the temperature in the condenser arm will not rise above about 69°. I am putting ample water through the condenser. I have also checked for leaks.

I have played around with the power settings, removed half the packing, tested the thermometer in boiling water and against other probes and all is ok with thermometer.

In regards to the abv, with the full packing I was pulling out around 94% but slow at around 250mlhr. With half the packing out its at 90% and getting a nice flow rate of around 3 drops a second. This is using the .6mm fitting that comes with it but still it will not rise the temperature.

If anyone can help me sort this out that would be great. I have contacted the place of purchase but they are no help.

Cheers.

If you are saying your column, prior to opening the valve, stays at that temp then that's ok.

Open the valve and run the still by the take off rate and %ABV.
Have water fully on.
Fully open valve
Check %ABV
Increase power to increase reflux and therefore increase %ABV.
Slow down output rate to also increase %ABV.
But aim for about 1-2L/hr (16-33mL/min).

Forget about the column temperature.

Thanks for the reply scythe. I'll forget all about that temp and run like you said. Cheers.