# I want to make an essential oil distiller.



## fffarmergirl

I have looked online and found plans for essential oil distillers. One plan I stumbled across repeatedly used a teapot, 2 one-gallon plastic jugs, some copper tubing, and a glass. There weren't any pictures, though, and I wonder if somebody actually built and used it or just thought it was a good idea and posted the plans.

I'm wondering if anybody on here has built one inexpensively and can give me some advice.


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## mekasmom

You can distill oils using a big pot with a high-domed lid and an angel food cake pan. It's easier than building a whole apparatus.


Put the plant material in bottom of the stock pot with a bit of water
Put angel food cake pan on top
Cover with high domed lid

The water collects on the lid and drips back into the cake pan. It is distilled. Just use lots of plant material and little water. You can also run the plant material and water through a blender to "crush" the material up before boiling. It works well that way.

Some people simply use a small container in the bottom of a pan to catch the drips from the lid. You just have to keep the water level below the rim of the dish or glass.
http://ksc.morriscreative.net/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/purifier.gif


If you use the angel food cake pan, you have to keep the lid on right side up for water to drip from the sides into the pan. This allows you to make more oil. If you use a glass, then put the lid on upside down to make it drip in the middle. It makes less, but works.

I just think that simpler is better, at least for me. I wouldn't try to build a distiller with tubes and a lot of apparatus.


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## cathleenc

Mekasmom, I've read that the result is called a hydrosol, not an essential oil, with the process you are describing. A wonderful product, to be sure! but not an eo.


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## mekasmom

I'm not sure there is an easy way to make an effleurage at home. If so, let me know. All the essential oils made at home that I have seen are made with the steam/distilling water method. 
I would love to make effleurage oils, so let me know if you find a way. I guess you could use a couple of millstones? Not sure. It seems too intense for home processing though.


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## Darren

cathleenc said:


> Mekasmom, I've read that the result is called a hydrosol, not an essential oil, with the process you are describing. A wonderful product, to be sure! but not an eo.


A local lady got a USDA grant to research making essential oil out of lavender. She bought a small table top still with the grant. It was not cheap. Unfortunately the results were disappointing in that it really produced a hydosol IIRC. The interest in hydrols wasn't enough to scale up the project.

I'm not sure why making an essential oil isn't straight forward. The commercial units use steam for heating. I would think heating isn't the issue for a home setup. For some reason, it's tough to completely remove the water. Perhaps it's a question of temperature control or some special way of separating the oil from the water.

http://www.lapaixherbfarmproducts.com/WVEssentialOilDistillery.html


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## Darren

Here's some info on a small distiller that may give you ideas.

http://www.crucible.org/essential_oil_distiller_operation.htm


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## postroad

Are the boiling points of the oils higher or lower than water or alcohol?


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## mekasmom

Oil is higher, but it would smoke first. I don't know if alcohol boils? Or if it simply reaches a flash point?


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## fffarmergirl

Thanks!

I'd really rather have essential oil than hydrosol. I've heard the inverted lid method does produce some essential oil, you just have to let the oil rise to the top and then separate it from the water, but forcing steam through tightly-packed plant material captures more of the oil.

I suppose I'll just have to see how busy we are this summer. If we end up with extra time and a bumper crop of herbs, we'll try to build one. If we do, we'll post pictures and let you know how it goes.


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## mekasmom

What about using the angel food cake pan idea, but putting the plant material in a small tea strainer suspended from the "hole" in the cake pan. Steam would come up through the plant material, gather on the lid, and drip back down into the well of the cake pan. You would just have to find a small strainer that could be put on that center hole of the cake pan. You might have to shorten the handle of the strainer too, so that it fits in the big pot without obstructing the lid? They make those small handheld tea strainers that hold about a quarter cup/half cup of tea when you strain it out of a steeped tea pot. They ought to fit on the center hole of an angel food cake pan. Suspend that on the rim of a stock pot with a good lid, so that it drips back down into the well of the cake pan. At least it's an idea.
Unfortunately, heat affects the frequency of the oil, so effleurages are better. but seem to be impossible to do easily at home.


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## beaglady

The same equipment is used to produce essential oils as is used for hydrosols. The volume of essential oil in proportion to plant material is so low that quarts of plant material will yield only a few drops of essential oil. The EO floats on the hydrosol, and is drawn off for use.


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