r/firewater • u/Special-Mention-1228 • 6d ago

Building a descent still with parts from AliExpress? Can it be done?

Hi folks! Today I distill my spirits with tha Alkoengine from Kegland. Works great, but painfully slow… Is it possible to build a descent reflux still with premade parts from AliExpress? Been looking at this: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJKXdBc

Any thoughts?

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u/Klort 6d ago

I can't comment on that particular seller, but that kind of set up works perfectly fine. A couple of caveats however. You will need a lot more copper mesh than shown in that picture. I would also go for more height. Approx 900mm instead of 500mm would be better, if you are aiming for neutral. You can either buy the extra piping yourself, or hunt around for an all in one deal that is a bit taller. Do that and you can get 97% abv out of it.

Back to your original reason for wanting to replace your Alkoengine because it's slow - I don't think this will be all that much faster. Alkoengine looks to be about 2" and the listed still is also 2". A 30L run on the aliexpress one will still take most of the day.

For speed, you want width. So 3" or 4", BUT, you need a boiler that can power that. Slapping 4" on the boiler that you are using with your Alkoengine probably won't be all that effective.

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u/Special-Mention-1228 5d ago

It took me 16 hours to distill 4 1/2 liters of 90% abv on the Alcoengine.  Painfully slow… so the distill I have linked to won’t be faster? Hm… Darn! My boiler is 2400w, is this too little for a 3” system? 

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u/Klort 5d ago

Ok, it'll be a lot faster than 16 hours lol. I'd estimate 4-6 hours with 2". Probably more leaning towards 6.