Brewzilla Steam Condenser issues

[aero-spaced-out]

I bought a steam condenser because my house mates weren't too happy with my first brews boil off nearly wrecking the kitchen ceiling and walls and thus banished me and my brewing to a room at the top of the house.

Problem I'm having is that in order to use it properly, I'm having to use a small submersible pump due to not having access to mains water.
The pump I have is the 2000L/H pump from the bucket blaster. As well as a smaller 1500L/H pump I bought previously from Amazon. (LOL at the ratings on these after my flow rate test)

I tested them both and they seem to produce a fairly pathetic mist out of the nozzle.
To compare it, I connected it to my shower hose and the difference was night and day. The shower produced a powerful steady mist.

Got curious and checked the flow rate of the pump vs my shower to see the difference on them as Kegland has said it doesn't need a high flow rate to work.

The pump has a higher flow rate than the shower with the shower giving 6L/min and my pump hit 7L at 45s then started to pull in air as the other supply bucket ran out of water.
What am I missing here?

Bit concerned about the effect it'll have if I can't get a proper mist forming at the nozzle.
Any help would be very much appreciated as I'm itching to get another brew day going and this is my only hurdle!

 

[aero-spaced-out]

Welp
I forget that higher flow rate doesn't necessarily mean more pressure...
Anybody used a similar setup to what I'm going for able to suggest a workaround for this?

 

[aero-spaced-out]

Double Welp
I found my issue.
Bit of swarf from the manufacturing of the spray nozzle was blocking the outlet.
Silly oversight on my part and only dawned on me when I properly disassembled the spray nozzle to see the 4 ports and realised that the water spraying out when it was fully assembled was coming out at a slight angle. Checked the nozzle outlet again against a light that time and there was the slightest protrusion in the outlet.
Decent mist of water in an even conical pattern being generated now using the bucket blaster pump.
Should be back in business.

Hope this post helps some other poor soul who made the same mistake I did.

 

[aero-spaced-out]

Want to bring some attention back to this post as I'm encountering nothing but headache with this thing mostly due to my own setup and would like some advice if people are able and willing.
So I've used the steam condenser for my last 2 brews now.

I'll lay out what; I'm currently doing, what my problem is, and a plan I have to fix it.

What I'm currently doing:
I have an old brew bucket that put the Bucket Blaster submersible pump into and fill it with cold water from the tap. The pump has 12mm ID tubing going up and connecting to the pipe that leads to the misting nozzle of the condenser. The water drips out the bottom into the bucket and is recycled through the system again.

Problem:
Both times I have used this I have noticed a couple of things that have led to my overall problem.

1. Obviously the temperature of the water in the bucket that is recirculating gets warm. I'm not using any active cooling and the steam is of course going to heat the water. It's uncontrolled and of course is heating up. I have a solution for this listed below, it's not that big a concern for me but thought this observation was still worth noting.
   Surely the increased temperature of the water coming out of the misting nozzle to condense the steam is going to decrease the efficiency of this tool, no?
   
   
2. The mist coming out of the nozzle leaves a lot to be desired due to a lack of pressure coming from my submersible pump. the bucket blaster pump boasts a 2000L/h flow rate. I understand that increasing the flow rate does not mean increased pressure see fix point below.
   When I connect the misting nozzle to my shower, it is a strong consistent mist, likely from the consistent mains pressure coming in. I have not done the maths on the bucket blaster pump to see what the pressure just before my misting nozzle is. I don't want to because I know that it's likely not as strong as my mains pressure coming in.

These two issues combined have left me on both occasions having to release the blanking triclamp plate and let the tool blow off it's own built up steam pressure. If I don't do this, the pressure building up inside and just leads to a strong jet of hot steam being fired out the outlet where the condensed water is supposed to drip out of. This means that the purpose of this device is effectively useless to me and frankly, it's really peeving me off. It's an integral part of my setup so getting rid of it or changing it isnn't really an option.

Plan to fix it
This I am only giving a brief description on as I'm currently designing it and trying to keep the cost to a minimum but if the cost is worth it, then so be it, if there are any further questions about the below, please ask and I'll try to lay out a response appropriately

Temperature Problem Fix:​

Going to go to Tesco/Asda/Lidl... wherever is currently selling them, to get a large cooler box. I will also buy reusable icepacks.​

Freeze the reusable icepacks and stack them inside the cooling box in an alternating layer pattern so as to maximise the surface area the water will contact from top to bottom.​

Fill the cooling box with the now frozen ice packs, leave about 1-1.5" of water above the top layer of icepacks.​

This 'cold water tank' should allow me to maintain cooler water for a longer period of time.​

​

Pressure Problem Fix​

This is where I get a bit hung up.​

The Kegland website states that the Steam Condenser should be capable of condensing 1.6L/min when it has 100psi (6.9ish bar) of mains pressure.​

Standard UK pressure (according to the internet) for a home should be somewhere in the region of 2 to 4 bar (29 to 58 psi). I doubt that my bucket blaster pump is putting that out, as I said above, I haven't done the maths but flow rate isn't indicative of pressure. I'm using a pump that was spec'ed for something completely different.​

So I'm debating whether or not to buying a new pump rated by pressure, it's the only real fix to the pressure problem I can see here.​

Preferably an inline pump due to the build idea I have for the 'cold water tank' mentioned above. Currently trying to size one appropriately based on my reqs.​

​

I'm wondering if anybody else has had to do anything like this and could offer some advice?​

 

[MashBag]

Good post. Thanks for sharing!