Manufacturers of the handicraft distilling devices often face a problem of the choice of the most suitable material for a coil cooler. The choice needs to be carried out, proceeding from the bandwidth of the device and specifics of its use.
The question of what to make a coil for the moonshine still of, should be considered very in detail. Material has to be available to processing, practical in use and surely inert - not reacting with alcohol and its connections. Heat conductivity of material which directly influences a chilling rate of a hot alcoholic vapor is of also great importance. At choice it is possible to put several types of materials, each of which has the advantages and shortcomings.
Copper tube
The most popular material for production of a coil of the moonshine still is copper. It has high heat conductivity and is very soft metal which easily bends. For turning of a copper tube in its coil it isn't necessary to heat previously if only bending radius isn't less than five nominal diameters of tube. On the other hand, such coils aren't chemically neutral though copper and doesn't react with alcohol. At contact with oxygen on a surface of a copper tube the thin scurf of copper oxide which inevitably gets to a distillation product, though in very small doses is formed.
Stainless steel
Corrosion-resistant steel allows to receive cleaner final product, but it is more complex in processing. If the coil from softer metal can be bent that is called barehanded, then processing of a corrosion-proof tube will require the gas burner, the pipe bender or a special radial template. Besides, coils from stainless steel are the heaviest.
Coil from glass
Glass as material for a coil of the moonshine still is used most less often, though provides absolute purity of alcohol after distillation. It is necessary to bend glass only in a special glass-blowing workshop, otherwise in a curved tube surely there will be places of local tension that will lead to spontaneous destruction of a coil even without mechanical or temperature influence. Besides, glass has a considerable shortcoming at connection of a coil with other elements of the device: on it it is impossible to cut a carving or to establish the dense pulling together collar.
Kapron or polyethylene pipe
The tube used for installation of heating systems like "heat-insulated floor" can become a good alternative at selection of material for the cooler of the moonshine still. The main advantage of such material - its low cost and simplicity of processing though it also needs to be seen off with extra care. Kapron and polyethylene tubes are considered as chemically neutral, don't come into contact with the majority of the known solvents. The main lack of these tubes - high elasticity because of which the coil badly holds a form therefore it is fixed to a framework, most often - wire.