Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Gday,

Can I use one of the FSD VC's with the digiboil, or would I need to bypass the electronic display section in the digiboil? I do find the display handy for monitoring during the heatup phase.

The digiboil is only used for the alembic and runs too fast at 1500w. Have not tried the 500w setting yet, but would expect that to be too low.

I did search but didnt find anything regarding the above combination.

Cheers

I have no idea whether you can or not. But a work around given you like to monitor temp in heat up phase is to use the VC after the dig boil has heated up and that way it wound matter if the display does not work :)

I might have misunderstood the question however as I have been enjoying the fruits of my labour lol

If it’s the 35L version yiu can use it and it’ll work fine

Thank you 35l version, I'll order one :)

I'm having the same issue with a digiboil. I bought one to do spirit run through my pot still. 1500w pumps out the juice and the cuts aren't particular clean. 500w output is so slow that a spirit run could take half the day. I was disappointed by these results as I thought the digiboil would give me better control of still speed. I'm interested in knowing how your purchase goes for your setup, please share your results. Cheers

Gday Garfield, oredered the VC today, should get here in time for the next run, so will post what happens.

Going by what I have read here, 1000w will make a much nicer spirit, at the expense of a bit more time.

Not just the controller :music-deathmetal: , everything will go in the post on Tuesday when everything’s open again

All good, looking forward to some goodies to arrive. I see a large plated still in my future :)

Hey guys,

The problem with putting the Digiboil straight onto a voltage controller is that when the voltage goes too low, the Digiboil’s controller, display elements and built in protection all shut down. I want to keep my Digiboil connected to full 240V, so I will make the following mods to allow me to control the wattage of the larger element either by the Digiboil (“normal mode”), or via an external voltage controller:

1. install a second supply (connected to a voltage controller)
2. install a toggle switch to hook up the larger element to either the Digiboil controller (mains), or to the voltage controller (this is where the magic happens)
3. make some simple modifications to the Digiboil’s wiring

How it all works after the mod is thus:

1. Hook up the Digiboil’s power to a socket outlet. This will allow the controller to remain fully functional, including the display and (importantly) dry boil protection
2. For HOME BREWING, the smaller element will be switched ON/OFF as normal, and the larger element toggled either OFF, or on Digiboil control. In this instance, it works like out of the box, and there is no need to hook up the voltage controller supply.
3. For DISTILLING, you’ll connect both the Digiboil and the voltage controlled supply. You will toggle the larger element’s switch to connect the element to the (external) voltage controller, and which will COMPLETELY disconnect it from the Digiboil. Your choice if you want the 500W element on or not (via it’s own ON/OFF switch), and if you do have it on then you’ll account for that by running the larger element at a lower wattage.

This isn’t a complete description, but will hopefully give you an idea and not confuse you too much.

I have a very rough sketch I made of the mods, but I’ll redo it and post it here if anyone’s interested.

Rocky

You know what fits nicely into the hole once resided by the tap?

A Dernord 1/2" NPT heating element, washers and nuts - I have a 750W version. Add your voltage controller of choice and you're off to the races. On small batches the 1900W is never used, the 500W is on and I just adjust the 750W.. There's a few more toys in the shed nowadays, but this was an economical start to the craft.



Best part = no warranty issues.

Cheers.
TC

Hi Rocky,

I would like to install a voltage controller on my Digiboil.
Do you still have that sketch by any chance?

Cheers,
Richo