Improvising a Still from a Steam Juicer

Yesterday a friend and I got to looking at a steam juicer and realized that they can be used as an improvised small still.  The size we have would distill somewhere around a ½ gallon at a time.  Larger ones would do more.  This could be used to distill water for batteries, to desalinize sea water  or to make small batches of alcohol for medical use.

A steam juicer comes in three major parts, the top section which contains the fruit, the second section that collects the juice and the bottom section that contains the water.  To use it for a still all you have to do is leave the top section off.  Put the product to be distilled in the bottom section, put the second section with its drain tube in place and put the lid on.  Heat the liquid in the bottom section and it will turn to steam rise into the collection area, recondense and run out the drain tube.  The trick is not to get the heat to high on the bottom section, just enough to create steam.  But not so hot, it prevents the steam from recondensing in the collection area.

It is not the most efficient still, but it will work in a pinch.  If you have trouble getting the steam to condense put wet cool cloths on the lid.

Howard

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