Re: [EE] Measuring increasing mass over a 1/2 day period

John -

Thanks, the still does that condensing - there is a stainless tube
with fins on it and a fan pulls air through the fins to condense the
water vapor.

If you mean measuring the volume of the condensed water, that's what I
do now - it's just that it is really hard to measure 4000 ml to a
precision of 1 ml.  But it's easy to measure 4000 gram mass to a
precision of one gram.

Chuck

On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 1:21 PM John Gardner <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> How about condensing the water vapor & measuring _that?
>
> On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 11:56 AM Chuck Olson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > The mass in question would start at 263 grams (container mass) and
> > increase over 11+ hours to 4000+ grams (container mass plus about 1
> > gallon of water).
> >
> > I am trying to measure the distilled water output from a boil of maple
> > sap.  I use a Still Spirits Air Still.  With the still it's like
> > making candy blindfolded.  I can't measure the temperature or the
> > specific gravity of the maple syrup or even see what is happening.
> >
> > But I can measure the input maple sap for mass and sugar
> > concentration.  From that I can calculate the amount of maple syrup I
> > should be able to get at a concentration of 67 percent sugar by mass.
> >
> > I do have a kitchen scale which can handle 6000 grams but the problem
> > is that it times out and every subsequent powerup the measurement is
> > zeroed (tare function).  I suppose there are AC powered digital scales
> > which might stay on for 11+ hours but would the measurements still be
> > accurate after that time ?
> >
> > The only thing I can think of is to wait until near the end of the
> > boil and then start measuring the mass but that's a hassle trying to
> > put the scale under the container while the still is continuously
> > dripping.
> >
> > Any ideas ?
> >
> > Chuck
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