Boil kettle condenser - no overhead ventilation needed

[BrunDog]

Contamination is the boiled off volatiles. May not matter if you dump it after every brew.

Consider the bucket route... 5 gal bucket means it needs to be emptied twice per hour boil time. It’s fairly easy to manage unless carrying it far or up steps.

 

[cegan09]

Contamination is the boiled off volatiles. May not matter if you dump it after every brew.

Consider the bucket route... 5 gal bucket means it needs to be emptied twice per hour boil time. It’s fairly easy to manage unless carrying it far or up steps.

For sure I wasn't advocating trying to use the same volume of water for multiple brews. I'd be swapping it out every brew day. It was just a thought that with a chiller setup I could likely get away with using a small amount of water for the whole boil cycle. Would be convenient for my overly constrained conditions to only need to move say 5 gallons total instead of dealing with a bunch of buckets. But yes, buckets as a first step, overly complex solutions later.

 

[tripleD]

So.... proof of concept worked flawlessly. For those interested in using the waste line of your RO filter, I was able to get 50 psi by adjusting the flow through the membrane slightly. Flowing freely, the pressure was only 20 psi. The small adjustment on the waste line more than doubled the pressure on the waste line and only resulted in a 5 psi drop across the membrane (60 psi to 55). Since i am going to be sending that water down the drain anyway, now I can redirect it to condense steam!!!

 

[TexasWine]

Did this impact your RO performance? Flow rate, TDS?

So.... proof of concept worked flawlessly. For those interested in using the waste line of your RO filter, I was able to get 50 psi by adjusting the flow through the membrane slightly. Flowing freely, the pressure was only 20 psi. The small adjustment on the waste line more than doubled the pressure on the waste line and only resulted in a 5 psi drop across the membrane (60 psi to 55). Since i am going to be sending that water down the drain anyway, now I can redirect it to condense steam!!! View attachment 587649

 

[Bobby_M]

Did this impact your RO performance? Flow rate, TDS?

Devil's advocate. You may plug up the sprayer more often with calcium and/or lime by doing this.

 

[mongoose33]

Devil's advocate. You may plug up the sprayer more often with calcium and/or lime by doing this.

I have pretty hard water. I soften it, but that doesn't do a lot to reduce total dissolved solids. We get a lot of lime deposit on our kitchen sink sprayer.

I wonder how much worst the reject water is than normal water.

BTW, Bobby: will you be selling spare spray nozzles for your condenser kit? I can see needing to have a spare in case I decide to try this and I clog up that nozzle.

 

[WalterWhite2012]

Devil's advocate. You may plug up the sprayer more often with calcium and/or lime by doing this.

Bobby is your condenser already out of stock or did you just load it to the site?

 

[tripleD]

Did this impact your RO performance? Flow rate, TDS?

Flow rate was reduced slightly due to the decrease in pressure to the dirty side of the membrane. No change in TDS. I always get 1 or 2 ppm out of the membrane, but I have pretty soft water. YMMV.

 

[tripleD]

Devil's advocate. You may plug up the sprayer more often with calcium and/or lime by doing this.

I have very soft water (20 ppm TDS) as input into my RO filter. Even while making water with a 4:1 membrane, my TDS in the waste line should be 25. This is softer than most filtered spring water so I am not super worried about clogging it up. If I notice any change in performance, I will hit it with some CLR.

 

[tripleD]

I have pretty hard water. I soften it, but that doesn't do a lot to reduce total dissolved solids. We get a lot of lime deposit on our kitchen sink sprayer.

I wonder how much worst the reject water is than normal water.

It depends on your RO membrane's permeate flow percentage. It has been a few months since I changed my filter, but I believe it is printed on the side.

 

[Bobby_M]

Bobby is your condenser already out of stock or did you just load it to the site?

Just getting all the content loaded. It will be ready to purchase in an hour.

 

[WalterWhite2012]

Great, thank you.

Edit: Just placed my Order (with a lot of other stuff). Showed as 20 available when I started. Down to 14 now. I think you got a hit on your hands. I’m excited to try it out. Got a nice long staycation coming up.

 

[Bobby_M]

Go go go!
https://www.brewhardware.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=SteamSlayer

 

[TexasWine]

Order placed!

Just getting all the content loaded. It will be ready to purchase in an hour.

 

[mongoose33]

Got it. Might even be here in time to use it this weekend, though we're not in the time of year yet when I really need it.

 

[ancientmariner52]

Just getting all the content loaded. It will be ready to purchase in an hour.

Ordered! Thanks, Bobby.

 

[mirage887]

Got mine too! So excited to try this out.

 

[Nubble]

Just purchased mine as well. Looking forward to brewing in my garage with the door closed this winter!

 

[mongoose33]

So.... proof of concept worked flawlessly. For those interested in using the waste line of your RO filter, I was able to get 50 psi by adjusting the flow through the membrane slightly. Flowing freely, the pressure was only 20 psi. The small adjustment on the waste line more than doubled the pressure on the waste line and only resulted in a 5 psi drop across the membrane (60 psi to 55). Since i am going to be sending that water down the drain anyway, now I can redirect it to condense steam!!! View attachment 587649

I've been intrigued by this idea, but I think we may have run into a snag--depending on the rate at which waste water will flow. I have a 50 gpd membrane, but on a good day it might do 1.5 gallons per hour--depends on how warm the water is. If I have a 4-1 rejection rate, in an hour I'm only producing maybe 6 gallons of reject water. I ordered the 9 gph sprayer, but I'm hoping I can turn that down a bit with the valve. If not, I may not be able to produce enough reject water.

Just a thought such that anyone planning this make sure their system has the waste necessary to do this.

 

[mongoose33]

For those concerned that their TC port is too low to handle large boils or mashes:

You can "elevate" the port through the use of two 90-degree elbows. Interestingly, it allows a lot of flexibility in the location of the steam catcher.

 

[cegan09]

well I redid my parts lists, and after making sure I had all the right adapters and little pieces for all the plumping on the water supply it makes more sense to just order Bobby's. My DIY is about the same price, but it won't be as nice and will still take time on my end to fab a few bits. Looks like I'll be ordering tonight after work, hopefully they aren't sold out by then.

I'll be doing a lid mount version on the 11gal kettle I'm putting together.

 

[BrunDog]

I agree that adequate pressure and flow should be evaluated. I suggest however that you do not use a valve on the inlet of the sprayer to reduce flow. First, it will be very hard to throttle appropriately as the flow is slow and a large orifice valve will be impossible to dial in (unlike a needle valve) and second, because these sprayers need as much pressure as possible to create good atomization. If reducing flow rate is a goal, pick a smaller sprayer.

 

[schematix]

I have an unused 1/2" NPT port on the top of my kettle... if i were to use a 1/2" NPT to 1.5" TC adapter, would this still work or is the hole too small?

 

[Blazinlow86]

For those concerned that their TC port is too low to handle large boils or mashes:

You can "elevate" the port through the use of two 90-degree elbows. Interestingly, it allows a lot of flexibility in the location of the steam catcher.

View attachment 587818

Hmmm interesting. I was originally interested in this project but the amount of space it needed was abit of a deal breaker as my kettles usually only has about 2 inches from the top on a full batch. With the elbows is it possible to fill past the port in the top of the kettle? Another question is I generally boil off about 2 gallon per hour any ideas how much waste water that would create? I do not have a drain close enough currently so would have to collect the waste water in buckets. Cheers

 

[schematix]

Impulse bought.

Hoping this helps with boil smell issue in basement, even with ventilation.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Impulse bought.

Hoping this helps with boil smell issue in basement, even with ventilation.

I like that smell..... Lol

 

[schematix]

The smell doesn’t bother me but the wife nags endlessly about it.

Endlessly.

 

[Elky]

Hmmm interesting. I was originally interested in this project but the amount of space it needed was abit of a deal breaker as my kettles usually only has about 2 inches from the top on a full batch. With the elbows is it possible to fill past the port in the top of the kettle? Another question is I generally boil off about 2 gallon per hour any ideas how much waste water that would create? I do not have a drain close enough currently so would have to collect the waste water in buckets. Cheers

If the liquid level is higher than the top of the port it will not work because there would be no pathway for the steam. The amount of water generated will be equal to boil off plus the 6 or 9 gallons per hour generated by the sprayer

 

[cbier60]

I generally boil off about 2 gallon per hour any ideas how much waste water that would create? I do not have a drain close enough currently so would have to collect the waste water in buckets

I guarantee you that your boil-off rate will decrease dramatically; I think mine is 1/2 to 1/3 what it was when I was boiling with an open pot. [I went back and checked, and my boil-off/evaporation reduced from 1.7G/hr to 0.75.] I think I have had 8-10 gallons of waste water in an hour on my last 2 brews of ~10 gallons of wort at flameout. I have a 1.5" TC on the side of my 20G Spike kettle with a 6gph nozzle, although I think my water pressure may be 50-60 psi.

Hoping this helps with boil smell issue in basement, even with ventilation.

It absolutely does. My wife has raised hell in the past,and hardly knows I'm brewing down there now.

 

[Blazinlow86]

If the liquid level is higher than the top of the port it will not work because there would be no pathway for the steam. The amount of water generated will be equal to boil off plus the 6 or 9 gallons per hour generated by the sprayer

Yea thats what I was thinking. I guess I could put it in the lid but it might be slightly cumbersome when adding hops etc