Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

just put the still on to do a run. t500 copper condensor.
with the water on it has a slow leak of water coming out where the moonshine would come out. has anyone had this propblem?
is it normal?
will it stop as the boiler gets hotter?
ive never had it happen before.
:handgestures-thumbdown: :angry-banghead: ~x(

No it won't stop on its own and no it shouldn't happen. Time to shut down and find the leak.
All I can offer. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I'm no potato expert but that don't sound right, I agree with coffee addict time to turn it all off and fix the leak.

thanks mate. im not sure where the leak is coming from. i took the water inlet and spirits outlet tube off the side and its still leaking so im guessing it has something to do with that tube

i normally dont turn the water on till the temp is up around the 40c mark so dont know if its being doing the whole time or not

Something is seriously wrong.
Your cooling water should not be in that vapour/condensate path.
No familiar with the T500 . Have you had it apart? recently?

I worked with a chinese guy whose job it was to pressure test small heat exchangers with water.

When ever one failed he would yell with a thick chinese accent "internal leak". Always cracked me up.

Ohh and sounds like your product condensor has an internal leak

nathanvdr84 wrote:i normally dont turn the water on till the temp is up around the 40c mark so dont know if its being doing the whole time or not

Nath, you've got more going wrong than just the leak, if your temp is 40 you're already producing ethanol vapour.

Your actually distilling and proofing down your likker straight from the still :laughing-rolling:

Today's run still came out at 94%.... I've never noticed the (internal) leak before which I'm assuming it is. As the cold water flows up from under the outlet for the spirits. So I really don't know what is going on with it. I got approx 2 litres of good hearts and about 1 litre of tails. Discarded the first 200 ml.

You said it was a slow leak. Maybe as the still warms up and the metal expands the gap where it is leaking from becomes closed up and no longer leaks. Sounds like it's time for a new still. Can a t500 be modified so you can put a new condenser on it?

ed9362 wrote:I worked with a chinese guy whose job it was to pressure test small heat exchangers with water.

When ever one failed he would yell with a thick chinese accent "internal leak". Always cracked me up.

Ohh and sounds like your product condensor has an internal leak

Internal reek.. :text-lol:

Does it have warranty may be able to get a replacement..

Could ya pressure test without packing ,in a bath of water with air going into ya cooling line with the outlet blocked ,then let the bubbles if any tell you were the leak is.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

db1979 wrote:You said it was a slow leak. Maybe as the still warms up and the metal expands the gap where it is leaking from becomes closed up and no longer leaks. Sounds like it's time for a new still. Can a t500 be modified so you can put a new condenser on it?

unfortunately only just bought the still about months ago.....

hillzabilly wrote:Could ya pressure test without packing ,in a bath of water with air going into ya cooling line with the outlet blocked ,then let the bubbles if any tell you were the leak is.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

the tube on the side of the condensor comes off its just a mater of undoing 4 screws. so i will do that.

wynnum1 wrote:Does it have warranty may be able to get a replacement..

will definately be looking at getting another one under warranty. it was leaking out of the top around the plastic cap previosly turned out the o ring was broken.....