New Tubular distillation tower with sight glass copper mesh 1.5'' 2'' domestic brewing equipment moonshine distiller (2'')

I’ve had this in my Amazon “save for later” cart for months and when it went on sale I instantly hit the buy button and it arrived in a couple days. I’ve inspected and assembled but not yet used because I wanted to share my impression in time for the holidays. I dithered between 4 and 5 stars but considering the excellent value this provides I went with 5. First the bad stuff:- as other reviews have noted the temperature setup is functional but not particularly robust. Arrived with virtually dead battery (LR44 button battery). To access battery had to remove the single use double sided foam mounting tape so need to replace the tape now (I’m thinking to use Velcro). Temperature probe is podded into the stainless tube which I can’t help but think will eventually be a problem. I don’t have any experience with column stills but on my pot still that has a quasi-reflux chamber I use sight, sound, taste, touch rather than the temperature gauge anyway.- could quibble about weld cosmetics here and there but they are solid welds.- instruction sheet translations are humorously bad however the assembly instruction page is good enough. Will need YouTube to help figure out how to run the dephlegmator.- make sure you wash out with soapy water as there are what looks like machining oil splatters here and there within the stainless tubing. Not bad at all but still needs doing.- will need to figure out adapters for connecting water tubing to my current aquarium pump cooling system but found that 1/4 inch poly tubing worked perfectly to bridge between supplied tubing and larger tubing of my current system.- no sign of keeper clips for the tubing connectors. I don’t think that’s a big deal as can use without them and small zip ties will serve same function as clips.I haven’t yet checked condenser or dephlegmator for leaks.My still has 2.5 inch tri clamp fittings and this is a 2 inch column but adapters readily available on Amazon.The GOOD:This is a solid piece of hardware! I have zero reservations about buying now that I’ve seen it. Love the modularity and should one wish to add something like bubble plates that is easily done. Arrived pretty well packed and other than time spent fiddling with the temp gauge it went together in about 10 minutes. Gauge is accurate at room temperature by the way.

I got this for parts to make a very cool HERMS sytem and wort chiller for brewing beer. I am very pleased with the quality. It even has a thermo well in the 2" elbow. For those interested I just put the 2 condensers in-line and the other 2" tubes and elbows for routing. I put 2" triclamp to hose fitting on each end. I will Run hot or cold water through the "condenser" jacket and the wort through the 2" pipes using 2 chugger pumps. So not its intended purpose but cheaper and way more cool than other HERMS and chiller systems I have found.

The media could not be loaded. works perfect, easy assembly, great performance

The price is ok, but the quality seems to show it. There is a wire welded across the bottom of the pipe that is supposed to hold the copper mesh from falling out, one end of the wire is fine, but the other end is protruding below the pipe. I will make it work, but it will probably take some doing.

being an old hand at this, ive used a lot of different rigs..i distill water for use in my shop ( im a gunsmith, and somethings such as gun bluing require you to use distilled water). this one seems to be a nice set up, very complete BUT, the inlet and outlet water hoses are WAY WAY too small.1. go to you local hardware store and purchase 10ft of 1/2 ID hose ( i prefer the braided stuff myself, it doesnt kink), 12 hose clamps, 2 T's and a male and female water hose connection, 1/2" barb.2. remove the brass hose fittings they supply , already installed in the hose inlet and outlet3. throw them as far as you can away from you. 3/8" inlet and outlet water hoses are WAY TOO SMALL. they will not circulate enough water to effective condense the vapor properly. besides, how are you supposed to hook the sucker up to water with the supplied hoses? a mini pond pump?4. measure and cut your hose and assemble, the same way they have their hoses assembled. the nipples the brass fittings screw into are 1/2". the hose slips right over the nipples, and is very secure with hose clamps....i would rather see the manufacturer weld on longer nipples with no internal threads (hose barbs) than the set up they use...5. hook up your water hose to the inlet, and a separate hose for the outlet. i run the outlet hose out onto my grass with a sprinkler, so no water waste.6. one last thing. it does not come with an emergency pressure relief plug. this type of setup is known to blow apart if it doesnt have an emergency relief if for some reason it gets plugged. the small hole the thermometer lead goes into is NOT large enough for this. i personally will be drilling a 1"-1.5" hole in the blank section of pipe, and putting a food safe rubber bung plug in it, as well as drilling a hole in the plug and installing a second thermometer..other than that with a few minor mods,, this rig is a very good value. it would however be an extreme value if the manufacturer supplied some sort of hose for your outlet. youll end up having to add your own.what i did, (not pictured) is bought a length of pure copper swamp cooler line, and used a couple of smaller hose clamps and a piece of 3/8" line to run a pipe out and away to the top of a receptacle.hope this info helps.....

This tower works great! No leaks, quality welds, package well and arrived on time with no damage! I ended up removing the water lines that it came with and removed the connections from the dephleg and the condenser. I just used 1/2" braided water line and some rain bird sprinkler valves to increase the water flow through the system. Will most likely replace the dephleg and the condenser at some point with copper ones that have bigger water ports. This is a great beginner tower though. Very modular so it gives you the ability to do a ton of different configurations and is easily modified. Highly recommend