Essential Oil Distiller Operating Instructions

Our Essential Oil Distiller is a true vertical steam distillation unit made from scientific-grade borosilicate glass, specifically designed for easy steam extraction of essential oils from plant materials by the non-chemist at home, resulting in the highest purity essential oils. Unlike other steam distillation units on the market, ours' offers true "dry steam" distillation in an all glass (Pyrex) system. Coupled together with ground glass joints, there are no hoses or rubber stoppers in contact with your product because it's all glass! The "open-to-atmosphere" design means that steam pressure can never build up in the system, making the system much safer to operate and insuring that the distillation process will take place at exactly 100 degrees C (at sea level) and not a degree higher! The simple design addresses a number of problems associated with competitor's stills, Because of it's "vertical" design, the biomass flask stays dry, none of the "boiling water" is wastefully condensed and trapped in the biomass flask, and because it uses separate flasks for boiling and biomass, there's further insurance that overheating or possibly burning your plant material will never happen. Our uniquely designed filter traps up to 20mL of either "heavier than water" oils or "lighter than water" oils while automatically draining away the excess condensed water (the "Hydrosol", that can be kept for many purposes) thus allowing you to start the distillation and let it proceed on it's own without constant need of attention. When the distillation is complete, the receiver then doubles as a tapered separatory funnel, allowing you to easily separate your prized oil from the remaining water.

The production of a very small amount of essential oil requires the distillation of a lot of water. Other essential oil distilling setups require that you constantly watch the vessel that catches the condenser drips because the excess water must be constantly drained off as it is condensed. When the distillation is complete, the contents of the "catch vessel" must then be transferred to a separatory funnel in order to separate the water and oil layers. This is cause for much time and labor unnecessarily spent. We have designed a unique receiver that captures both "lighter-than-water", and "heavier-than-water" oils and continuously and automatically drains off any water ("Hydrosol") that's being condensed!! You can simply send the excess water to the drain and toss it, or it can be kept as "Hydrosol" and used. Water drips in to the receiver, and as it fills, excess water begins to be removed from the middle of the vessel via the side-pipe. The vent on the side pipe is to prevent siphoning action. As your oil accumulates, it either floats on top or sinks to the bottom of the receiver, while water from the center of the vessel is constantly drained off. The receiver can hold approximately 20mL of either weight oil. When the distillation is complete, the Teflon valve is carefully opened and the water and oil is then drained and separated into respective vials. Because it is all automatic, you can start the distillation and walk away for hours at a time, with confidence that everything is going to plan.

LOADING THE BIOMASS FLASK

It's Ok to use any consistency of plant matter in the biomass flask with exception of powder. Powder may clump and cause the bottom opening to plug, or it may just "fall in" and get into the boiling flask. If you're distilling rosemary, for example, you'll be able to just cram the flask full and distill!, because it's big and bushy. But if you're using cut plant matter or finer consistency material, you might want to insert the little stainless steel screen tube that we provide into the bottom of the flask, so the plant material doesn't clog the hole or fall down it. Just fold it a little at it's top and stick it up in thru the bottom of the flask. In any case, STUFF THE FLASK FULL with plant material!! The bioflask stuffed with rosemary is shown at left. Examples of some oils recovered with this unit are shown below:

Assembling the Backplate/Support Rod Holder/Hardware

The backplate is provided as a heat-shield to prevent line-of-sight infra-red heat from the hotplate from heating up the customer's receiver flask as the distillation process continues. Screw the back plate on to the rear of the hotplate using the two #8 screws provided.



Place support rod into the clamp built into the rear of the hotplate by squeezing the top and bottom of the clamp together and inserting the rod thru the holes. Now assemble the two clamps to the support rod and placing them both high up on the rod. Leave the screws snug but not tight. Place the square wire mesh pad centered on the stove heater-coils, ceramic side up.

Putting the Glassware Together

Ground glass joints will freeze together if not properly lubricated! Three small packets of Silicone joint grease compound have been provided. Before assembling any of the ground glass joints, it is recommended that you first put a tiny dab of grease on the male end and wipe it into a line using a toothpick or your finger. Then assemble the joint, twist it gently into it's socket, rotating it at least one rotation to spread the grease around. If you have the right amount, the joint connection will rotate smoothly and become slightly "clear" to the eye. Too much grease- it will spin with very little friction and you'll have grease mushing out everywhere; too little and the joint will not become "clear" as you press on it and rotate it, and it will feel sticky. It actually takes very little grease to do the job. The amount in the vial may seem small, but it should last at least a month or two with daily use of the still.

Start by filling the boiling flask about 2/3 full with water (a little more is OK but no more than 2/3 maximum). Since you're distilling the water, tap water is OK, but you may want to use distilled or purified water so you don't get things like chlorine vapors coming into your biomass . There is a small vial of boiling chips provided. Drop 4 or 5 of them into the water (IMPORTANT to do this- these chips promote even, controlled boiling). Grease the biomass flask joints and assemble the biomass flask to the boiling flask (pre-loaded with plant material of course). Place the biomass flask on top of the boiling flask, center the flasks on the burner, and secure the flasks using the upper clamp, attached to the top neck of the biomass flask. NOW lightly grease both ends of the steam transfer tube and drop it into the top of the biomass flask. Clip the condenser to the transfer tube using the provided red plastic "Keck" clamp. Last, FILL the receiver (preload it) with distilled water- close the stopcock and pour in enough water to make it come out the drain tube.

IF YOU DO NOT PRELOAD THE RECEIVER WITH DISTILLED WATER

As the distillation process begins and receiver fills up with condensed water, the water's level will eventually rise above the bottom level of the outlet pipe. You will likely have a small quantity of essential oil floating on the surface in the receiver by then, and you'll notice that a small "plug" of it gets caught in the receiver's outlet pipe. This oil will be lost into the hydrosol collection flask and will not be easy to recover. If you preload the receiver with water before starting the distillation, this will not happen. SO preload the receiver with water, and now using the green keck clamp, assemble it to the condenser. You will now use the second clamp provided to hold it in place to the stand/support rod. If you've done it correctly it will look like the photos. The backplate should stand between the heater coils and the receiver, so that heat radiating from the heater does not have a "line if sight" path to the receiver. (this keeps your distilled oil cool). Place your own catch flask under the receivers' drip tip to catch the first hydrosol that comes off during distillation. It's best to position it so the drips hit the rim of the container, so they don't splash as they drip into the water. OR if you are not interested in keeping the hydrosol, you can place the whole still on the edge of your sink so the hydrosol simply drips into the drain and goes away.

WATER FOR THE CONDENSER

The best thing you can do is to use a bucket of ice water and a small "fountain" pump to pump chilled water through the condenser. Water goes IN THE BOTTOM and OUT THE TOP of the condenser. Tap water will work just fine, but the experts say chilled water is better, and it conserves this precious resource. In any case, it only needs to be a trickle, but IT MUST ALWAYS BE MOVING. Once the distillation gets underway, you will be able to tell if your flow is enough by feeling the temperature of the water coming out...if it is cold to luke warm, your flow is enough. If it's warm or hot, turn up the flow. Be sure to plug the hoses on to the glass hosebibs snugly... a hose popping off in the middle of a distillation is a good way to make a real mess! The hose may seem difficult to get on to the condenser fittings- if so, simply warm the end of the hose over a lighter or candle flame (don't burn it!) and it will then stretch easily and slip on. (You may have to cut it off with a razor blade later.) Basically, that is it. Turn on the condenser water, Make sure the stopcock on the receiver is CLOSED, Turn the hotplate on FULL HIGH and let it rip!

THE DISTILLATION PROCESS

As the water heats up and starts to boil, you'll see steam starting to finally come out the top as the biomass flask heats up. This takes about half an hour. (The distiller head is shown at left below.) Eventually you'll finally see that first drip make it's way down the condenser and into the receiver (shown at center and right below). Then you'll see a layer of oil starting to form -- there it is!! You will likely find that with many plants, the bulk of the oil comes off in the first 10-20 minutes, and the remainder takes 2-4 hours.

FINISHING

As the process continues, the oil layer will grow, and when it's all done, you simply turn everything off and let it cool down, remove the receiver, carefully drain off all the water you can by slowly opening the stopcock, and when the water's gone and the oil layer has just barely hit the bottom, quickly close the stopcock. Then clamp the receiver to the support rod and let it hang there for 10 minutes or so, to allow any oil stuck on the sides to make it's way down and join the big puddle. Then finally, open the stopcock and drain the oil into a vial.

CLEANING

I usually just swirl a lot of soapy water around in the parts, and use a bristle brush to clean everything. It's all pyrex, so it can also be put in a dishwasher. It's a good idea to first wipe as much of the joint grease out as you can with a paper towel or kleenex. Otherwise just treat it as any other glass item and wash it as you will. BE CAREFUL to not clunk the glass against the sink... those plastic liners are nice for safety as most glassware is broken during cleaning!! If the flasks bump into a hard object like a tile counter or porclean sink, they may develop little tiny "star" cracks. These are dangerous- they can be repaired, but if left un-noticed, they can easily cause a flask to crack or break apart at the most inconvenient time, like when it's full of boiling water. BE CAREFUL WITH THE GLASSWARE!! I've found that using a chopstick or a pair of medical Forceps is helpful in getting plant matter and stems out of the biomass flask. Shaking it in a plastic trashcan also works well to remove finer plant material. Guck in the boiling flask that builds up from the mineral deposits of your tap water can quickly be removed with a swirl of muriatic acid (pool acid) or dilute hydrochloric acid. A good soak with Lime-away will probably works just as well. BE CAREFUL with these chemicals, they are dangerous. I usually do not remove the water hoses from the condenser- I've found that for the most part, simply pouring a little soapy water inside the center tube, plugging the ends with my fingers, and giving it a good shake is usually all that's necessary to clean the condenser. It's a lot easier to just leave the hoses on for storage.

OPTIONAL COMPONENTS

Bioflasks

A 5 liter bioflask is available for $90 if purchased with the distiller instead of the 2 liter bioflask. The unit is $125 if purchased in addition to the 2 liter bioflask. This larger flask allows you to make a lot more oil per distillation run. Nothing else is needed to turn your 2 liter kit into a 5 liter system! A 10 liter The TEN liter system can be special ordered for $699 plus shipping
The boiling flask is 2 liters as usual but it has a larger connecting joint (34/45) and the bioflask's top is also a larger joint (60/50).Incuded with the 10 liter system are three flask clamps, a longer support rod, and an insulating blanket with drawstrings that covers the bioflask to keep the heat in where it belongs. Note that the 10 liter system's boiling flask, bioflask, and stillhead are NOT
compatible with the 2 and 5 liter systems because of the larger joint sizes.

 

Adapter Kit for 2 and 5 liter systems:

This kit, $75, enables you to set 2 and 5 liter distillers up for many different kinds of operations ranging from hydrodistillation to solvent recovery and tincture concentration. The ground glass thermometer adapter well is only available on the distiller head, if you order the Adapter Kit at the time you place your original order for the distiller. It is not present on the standard model. Note: this adapter kit is not compatible with the 10 liter system due to the difference in joint sizes. An adapter kit can be special ordered for the 10 liter kit for $120.