Overview of the distiller Spirtmash “SM 1 Transformer”

When you get to the Spirtmash website, owned by Soyuz LLC, which has been producing equipment for home brewing and rectification under this brand for more than 5 years, you involuntarily pay attention to a calm business tone – a description of the capabilities of the devices without unnecessary embellishments and advertising hysteria. All instructions are posted on the website, which allows you to get acquainted with the characteristics of the equipment and the technology recommended by the manufacturer even before purchase. This creates a favorable impression of the company, but we will not take our word for it, but will review one of the new models – the CM 1 Transformer.

This device is a logical development of the popular predecessor – “CM 1”. There seem to be few differences, but it is they who take the Transformer to another level, where it already needs to be compared not with a grandmother’s milk can with a coil, but with universal brew columns that have long and seriously settled in this niche. This is a completely different weight category.

Stills

The assortment of cubes is wide, the sizes are weighted and allow you to work at heating capacities corresponding to the bulk volume without the risk of getting uncontrolled foaming of the mash.

The workmanship is very high. The tanks are equipped with a bard drain valve and a strange thermometer with a three-color scale. If the arrow is in the white zone – the solid fuel boiler is cold, in the green – everything is fine, in the red – overheating. Greater accuracy from the device that is installed on the boilers is not required.

Distillation cubes “SM 1 Transofrmer” are equipped with a thermometer TBP-63, which has an accuracy class of 2,5. This means that the measurement error is 2,5% at 120 °C (± 3 degrees). If you need to complete the selection of the body at 92 ° C in the cube, so as not to pick up “tails”, then how to do it, because the thermometer reads 92 degrees, but in fact the temperature in the cube is in the range from 89 to 95 ° C?

The problem is not only in the accuracy class, but also in the place where the thermometer is attached. It is required to control the temperature of the mash, and the thermometer shows the temperature of the sleeve, which is affected by steam on the one hand, and on the other, the temperature of the lid, which is cooled by “wild drafts”. Why is the sleeve not thermally insulated from the cover with a gasket, why is it not at all in its correct place – below the waterline? Annoying…

Also surprising is the lack of an emergency pressure relief valve. Considering that the flavoring glass is available as an option without an internal mesh basket for filling, there is a risk that the contents of the glass may block the outlet from the cube. This danger is also noted by the manufacturer, but why it does not prevent possible consequences is not clear.

In general, the tanks are good, after completion (installation of a normal temperature sensor and an emergency pressure relief valve) they are suitable for work.

Tsarga

The “CM 1 Transformer” drawer is tightly fixed on the tank lid, which is very inconvenient. For example, putting a diopter will be a big problem. And in general, there is no place for the king on the lid. It is much more convenient if it stands nearby, and the cover can be removed at any time without touching the column.

The height of the tsarga is only 30 cm. 3 wads of Panchenkov’s nozzle are placed inside. For a slight fortification on re-distillation, this is fine, but for a decent decontamination, very little.

In order to reach a good beer column with the possibility of obtaining pure distillate, the height of the side and the number of nozzles are not enough. Even if you replace the nozzle with SPN, it will be able to hold the fuselage when bulking in a cube of no more than 7 liters of 40% raw alcohol. If you reduce the temperature of the end of the selection of the “body” to 93 ° C, you can safely work with a 12 liter cube, and more capacious cubes become unclaimed.

It would be better to include a 50 cm drawer with a thermometer sleeve in the composition of the apparatus, since it is in additional components, as a result, the volume of the nozzle will increase to 900 cubic meters. cm, and she will be able to cope with 18 liters of bulk. Then only for a 36 liter cube it will be necessary to limit the selection of the “body” to 92-93 degrees of temperature in the cube.

Dephlegmator

It is not clear why a mini-reflux condenser is included in the package of the “transformer”. Yes, and its design is puzzling, apparently, excellent tanks and this miracle of technology were designed by different engineers.

For normal operation, the proposed mini-reflux condenser is not suitable. With this size, it is too poorly regulated and supercools the phlegm, removing half of the already short tsarga from the distillation process.

The manufacturer does not even try to connect the dephlegmator in parallel with the refrigerator, but out of habit turns it on in series, and even with the water supply from below. This is clearly an unfortunate and outdated solution. For normal operation, it was necessary not to copy the dephlegmator from the predecessor “SM-1”, but to increase its cooled part by 3 times to the entire height of the pipe in which it is placed. The rest of the dimensions should also be adjusted to ensure correct operation.

If the manufacturer says that this is a transformer, then you can simply turn the powerful shell-and-tube cooler up and get the layout standard for transformers. It remains only to install the liquid sampling unit, but it is not included in the package!!!

This is very strange, the design is known and repeated by dozens of manufacturers. It is the liquid extraction unit that makes the apparatus a transformer, allowing you to get a beer column with liquid selection from a conventional distiller with a slight movement of your hand, and by increasing the side to 150 cm – even a distillation column.

For example, a design with a “trunk” down, the liquid selection cock is twisted – a distiller is obtained, the refrigerator is raised up – a column with liquid selection.

Without a liquid sampling unit, the Spirtmash “CM 1 Transformer” is simply a collapsible distiller with reinforcement, and has no advantages over its predecessor “CM 1”, because the apparatus does not transform into anything, but only costs much more.

And the detail is cheap – more expensive than a 20 cm shell-and-tube dephlegmator for 150 rubles in the first online store that came across. If you throw away the unnecessary mini-reflux condenser and modify the corner pipe, then the transformer will become not only more functional, but also much cheaper.

Refrigerator

In the refrigerator “CM 1 Transformer” there is no tube for communication with the atmosphere. If the drain tube is at the bottom of the extraction tank and the power supply is turned off, then everything that has fallen into the selection will quickly be in the cube. The drink will simply be sucked back into the machine, this danger is not described in the instructions.

conclusions

1. The device has not grown to the transformer. The title is misleading.
2. It must be admitted that this is a good, but unreasonably expensive distiller. Its predecessor – “SM-1” is no worse.
3. Unfortunately, the manufacturers stopped halfway – they did not complete the device to the minimum configuration of the transformer. If you need a transformer, you will have to think about its independent modernization.

It’s a pity, the first impression was very good…

What to do for those who bought

1. Fortunately, the diameter of the column is standard – 1,5 inches. You can take everything from this apparatus, except for an unnecessary reflux condenser and one corner pipe, for example, the one in which the thermometer sleeve is not useful.
2. Add a 50 cm long drawer with a thermometer or buy in another store for 70 cm, it will be even better.
3. A liquid sampling unit is required.
4. Equip the cube with a blast valve and move the thermometer to the liquid zone (below the waterline).

In general, there are not so many alterations to get a decent transformer.

Reviewed by IgorGor.