Distilling Temperatures

HWY36 said:

I usually keep my bath water around 85F when distilling butane; I believe that is the temp GW recommended so as not to pick up any crap when distilling. When distilling propane, should the temp be the same.
Also, what is the hottest temp the water surrounding the collection pot should be if my goal is not to let the wax get dark? Thx all.

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Gray Wolf said:

We run ours at 70F, with 85F the upper limit. Since you are trying to exclude Pentane and above, the same temperature will work with Propane.

What we are doing is offsetting the refrigeration produced by boiling under vacuum, as opposed to heating the mixture. Failure to do so allows the pool to drop below its boiling point.

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HWY36 said:

GW, not to get to deep in the weeds buuut, why exclude pentane and above? Also, when reaching the end of the distillation process, should I not let the distillation chamber vac down below a certain point? Or is that irrelevant since the water bath is at such a low temp? In other words, If I have recovered all of the distilled gas with the garbage left behind, will pulling down below 0 then collect some of that garbage?

If you are making wax for bragging rights, is there a maximum temp that you reach for the water around the collection pot?

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