How to choose a distiller?
Your aim is to extract EOs!
You have to get the distiller with biggest column possible, what your wallet allows to. The bigger column, the more raw material you can put into the column. That leads to bigger yield of Eos.
Our most sold distiller has 2l (0,53 gallons) column, which allows to extract upto 8 ml of essential oil from raw materials with higher EO content like lavender and rosemary.
Your aim is to extract hydrosols!
For hydrosol your distiller has to have bigger boiler, which you fill with water and quite big column.
Take a look on sets for hydrosol on our website, there you have models of different sizes.
When distilling hydrosols you can fill your boiler upto 80% of its volume in case you have filled your column fully. At least 70% of the water you poured into boiler you can get as a hydrosol. Be aware, quality of the hydrosol will decrease in the course of the distillation, so collect it into different vessels to be able to check the its quality. So you can find out when to stop distillation.
If you want to get both: EOs and hydrosols
Choose any distiller from our sets for EO extraction. The set allows to get EOs and hydrosols. Get biggest distiller suitable for your wallet since with bigger distiller you will yield more EOs and quality of your hydrosol will be better.
What do I need to start distillation process?
Once you have got one of our sets for EO or hydrosol extraction you need to do 3 more things to start your first experience of distillation:
1. Heating. There should be any kind of a stove to heat the distiller. If you have induction stove you need to have stainless steel disc for induction stove which will serve as a conductor of the heat to the distiller.
2. Cooling. To cool down the water vapor during distillation and for distillation itself to happen you need to provide cooling water into cooler. There are two option for this: your conventional water system or the water pump + bucket with water.
3. Your raw material. Some raw materials are suitable only for hydrosol extraction at home (rose pettals, cucumber, parsley) because of very small content of the EOs, some are very good for EO extraction even in small quantities (rosemary, lavender).
How to arrange the cooling?
Option no 1. Conventional water system is good option for this. Most of the tabs have removable aerator, small part installed in the very end of the tab. We provide all of our distillers with adapter for the tab. One has to unscrew the aerator and screw the provided adapter in. The hose (it is in the set, too) to be connected to the adapter and to the distiller. The other hose you connect to upper outlet tube of the cooler. The other end of the later tube you put in the sink to for hot water disposal. That’s it!
Option no 2. When you don’t have access to the conventional water system or you want to preserve the water, the aquarium water pump would be good option. You need at least 35 W or 40 W (1500/200L/H) pump, 20 l (5 g) bucket and hoses to connect with the distiller. This is good solution for extraction of EO or small amount of hydrosol. If distillation continues for 30 min or more you have to get big barrel for water, change few times the water in the bucket or put ice into it. The cooling water should be below 25°C (77°F) preferable below 20°C (68°F).
If you are going to use pump for the cooling let us know, when buying distiller from us, we will provide you with needed adapter for the pump, or you can get a water pump with adapter directly from us.
Heating your distiller
There are few options for the heating.
Easiest one is electric or gas kitchen stove.
Bigger CopperPro distillers have option with electric heater, which is very convenient. Those distillers with inbuild heater are suitable for heating on the stove, too.
Gas burner is one more option. To secure stability of the distiller during extraction process you need a stand for a distiller, which you can get also from our company.
If you have induction stove you need to have stainless steel disc for induction stove which will serve as a conductor of the heat to the distiller.
Heating the distiller on the fireplace is very possible option, too. In this case you have to secure the stability of the distiller during extraction process and be sure the hoses for the colling are also secured. Sincerely, speaking we would offer you not no try it out. This is very classical way to heat up your set, but to difficult to do with smaller distillers.
How I should Fill Up The Column?
Some types of raw materials are more voluminous, others are denser. If you have enough raw material, it is better to fill the column as intensively as possible. In this way, you will increase the yield of essential oil in one distillation. So there is a golden standard of filling the column for each type of the raw material.
The main idea for filling up the column is to fill as much as possible while reserving airways for vapor to cross the column. Overfilling could cause pressure build-up in the system that could damage the still.
You can fill the column with maximum intensity with raw materials that have a structure with elements of different densities (for example, lavender stem with flowers, rosemary stem with leaves).
To save space in the column and to be able to extract more oil it would be beneficial to remove stems and to fill up the column only with leaves or flowers.
You have to be especially careful with raw materials, which can turn into a solid mass. This especially applies to dry raw materials. Dry rosemary, without stems, for example, increases in volume during distillation. Therefore, it is necessary to fill the column with this raw material leaving 20% of the space free. Once distillation will be over it will be possible to open the sieve of the column with the raw material taking more space.
Application of the thermometer can warn you about the blockage of the column. In this case the thermometer installed in the boiler will show temperature above 105°С (221°F). If it happens so, switch off your cooker immediately.
What is the difference between all our stills?
We have different sets for different application of the distiller (EO extraction, hydrosols, alcohol).
In each section we have different sizes of the still. The bigger still is, the more product you will get (is it EO, hydrosol or alcohol). For extraction of EO, the most important in the size of the column, so the bigger column is, the more EO you can extract from the same type of raw material in one batch.
What is the difference between Basic, Premium and Advanced sets?
When ordering CopperPro distiller you could be sure you will get everything you need to start extraction of EOs and hydrosol at home. The only thing you need is a raw material, which you can grow in your garden or buy from local supplier.
Our basic sets include besides the distiller, oil separator items you definitely need for distillation process. Set consist out of one spare glass tube for oil separator, plastic pipette for picking up the oil, silicon hoses for cooling, tap adapter.
Premium set incudes items from basic set plus 3 bottles for oil (5 ml, 10 ml, 30 ml), one more spare glass (2 spare tubes totaly), glass funnel.
Advances set consist of copper extension column for your distiller and premium set.
There is also an option to get hanging distiller instead of regular standing one. We do highly recommend to go for handing one, as it makes the process of setting up the distiller for extraction even more simple!
We do sell spare parts like glass tubes for separator, silicon gaskets, glass funnels and bottles, too.
Fresh raw material or dry
If you have both options available, it is much better to go for a fresh one. When aromatic raw material drays up it loses some % of its EO content. The decrease varies from very small % (5% for laurel) to almost total loss of EO content after drying up the raw material (98% of decrease for Dittrichia viscosa).
Sometimes or often it is just not possible to distill your raw material when it is fresh. Dry it in the shadow or under the roof to retain as much EO as possible. It is preferable to dry your material at a medium temperature.
Is it possible to extract essential oil out of woods like agarwood, frankincense, myrtle?
Sure. For wood raw material and resins water distillation is applied. This kind of raw material should be fragmented into chips or powder and mixed with water. For agarwood soaking time upto 14 days will bring a positive influence on EO yield. In any case it is better to do small research on your specific raw material. www.researchgate.net is one of the websites to get more info on the yield and extraction methods of EOs.
How much time takes the delivery?
We do ship our copper distillers worldwide despite the war in Ukraine.
For smaller distillers upto 8l with 4l column we have to option for delivery: regular post service (RPS) and express delivery (ED):
Australia
RPS - 21-28 days
ED - 7-14days
Canada
RPS - 18-24 days
ED - 7-14days
Europe
RPS - 14-21 days
ED - 7-14days
UK
RPS - 14-21days
ED - 7-14days
USA
RPS - 21-28 days
ED - 7-14days
New Zealand
RPS - 21-28days
ED - 7-14days
Asia
RPS - 25-30days
ED - 7-14days
Do I have to pay taxes
The need to pay customs duties depends on the legislation of each particular country. In turn, we try to write the lowest possible cost, without any additional costs, so that there are no customs duties or they are as low as possible
- 1. When to stop distillation?
- If you are extracting hydrosol: this absolutely depends from the quantity of water you have in your boiler. 80% from the volume of water poured into boiler can be received as hydrosol. This means if you have 5 liters of water in the boiler when starting you should stop when you have got 4 liters of hydrosol. You should count that the quality of the hydrosol is the best in the very first drops and starts decreasing after some 10 minutes of the extraction process. Also the quantity of raw material in the still will influence the quality of the hydrosol, means more of raw material, more high quality hydrosol one can get.
- If you are extracting essential oil: measure the level of essential oil in the separator each 15min. If the quantity of essential oil has not increased after last measurement you can stop extraction process. Only few raw materials (like vetiver) need bigger (30 min and more) time loops for measurement. Some raw materials have such a small content of essential oil that makes them unsuitable for home extraction. So there will be no oil from rose petals, no matter how long you will distill it. In this case you need to extract huge qualities like 10 kg or more.
Try to put as much raw material into the column as possible to have higher output of the oil. Consider the waring regarding some kinds of raw material as rosemary given above.
- What is hydrosol?
Hydrosol is the emulsion of water with some quantity of essential oil. If the content of the essential oil in the hydrosol rises above some level, the former rises above the lever of the hydrosol due to the lower density. Hydrosol can be used for cosmetics or medicine.
- Hydrosol and essential oil in the same time. Is it possible?
Sure. You can collect the hydrosol from the hydrosol outlet directly. But if you put the oil separator in between you will be able to get essential oil, too. At one point the quantity of essential oil will stop increasing but you can still continue with hydrosol extraction.
- Can you fill the column with raw material not fully?
Sure. But to get more oil and higher quality of the hydrosol you need to have as much of raw material in the system as possible.
- Can I heat the still on my induction cooker?
Sure. Apply stainless steel plate/converter disk for non-ferrous metals for this.
- Can I distill without cooling water?
Nope. This is not possible. Water vapor has to be cooled down to get hydrosol and essential oil. Apply water pump with the bucket filled with water for cooling the still. Other option will be the water from the tap. Please see more information in the question about the cooling.
- What is the application of the thermometer?
Advanced users can experiment with extraction process on different temperatures. Try to maintaine the same temperature within whole extraction process to compare the quality of the oil with the one extracted at different temperature. The is any clear overall information. Try to find your own recipe.
Attention! The temperature in the boiler should not raise above 100°С (212°F). This would indicate on possible blockage in the column. Switch off your cooker immediately if themerature raises above 105°С (221°F). Cooling water has to circulate, till the temperature goes below 100°С (212°F).
- How to distill powders or tiny particles raw materials?
For this items we recommend water extraction which means one puts raw material directly into the boiler with the water.
Can I use a distiller for both essential oil extraction and alcohol distillation?
Basically one can use the same distiller for both essential oil extraction and alcohol. Though it is not recommended because there will be some residuals of essential oil in the column which will be diluted with alcohol vapor when distilling alcohol. So the option is to clean the column thoroughly after using it for essential oil / hydrosol extraction. other option, better one is to have spare column for alcohol distillation. we can offer you that: means one boiler and 2 columns.