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Welcome to
Dolby Essential Stills

dolby essential stills logo

A New Standard in Distillation

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Meet the
Dolby Family

Stills

made in britain
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Dolby Essential Stills has been manufacturing essential oil equipment since 1995.  We now manufacture fully in-house at our factory in the Garden of England, Kent, where our own welding team are on hand to work with you.

Resin Still
Complete resin still

Everything We Offer

Steam Distillation

Hydro Distillation

Oleoresin Distillation

Essential Oil Distillation is a tried and tested process for creating great profits for your business.

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Farmers around the world are distilling prized essential oils as a way to extract significant value from their raw crops. Shipping a few litres as opposed to a few tonnes can also give a massive cost advantage.

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When it comes to well-made distillation equipment for your essential oil venture, Bruce Dolby and the team are here to build the highest quality Still for your operation: all in-house, all with British stainless steel and protected Borosilicate glass equipment.

 

Lavender, Sage, Rosemary, Angelica? No problem. We have steam distillation.

 

Clove, Dill, Basil, Lemongrass? We've got it. Hydro distillation.

 

Myrrh, Elemi, Frankincense? Sticky mess. We’ve cracked it. We have stirring capacity.

 

Spices? Absolutely. We can also build you an oleoresin production vessel.

"Having purchased this still in 2004 we have used it faultlessly every year, primarily to produce a range of essential oils from plants we grow on our small farm here in the Scilly Isles."

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-Mike Hicks, 28 Miles, Westward Farm

essentialstills.com
Units B & C Smarden Business Estate
Smarden Ashford Kent TN27 8QL
+44 (0)1233 770780
A division of GN (Goat Nutrition Ltd)

 

More Information

 

 

What is it?

 

This Still comprises a boiling vessel with 6 elements at the base and a basket inside. A tall steam collection cone is fitted on top of the boiling vessel that carries a bend at its top that then joins onto an open horizontal 4” tube. This tube ends in a 90° bend that points downwards and this then joins on to the condenser with a 4” screw fitting.

 

​The condenser is a beautiful piece of kit with 36 narrow (8mm) thin-wall tubes fitted equidistantly within a 4” diameter stainless outer tube: there are 3 sets of baffles fixed at set intervals to make the water ‘chicane’ and maximise agitation and therefore improve its cooling capability. There is a cone at the base of the condenser to direct the distillate into the glass Florentine fitted directly underneath.​

 

How it Works:

 

The water boils, the dry steam goes through the plants in the basket collecting a bit of essential oil on the way and continues up the cone: at the top it turns 90°, goes through the top pipe and then heads down through the 36 pipes in the condenser. Since these pipes are surrounded by cold water, the steam then condenses into liquid and drops into the glass Florentine that is placed underneath. Here any oil present will separate and float to the surface, while the condensed water then trickles back to the boiling vessel via the S trap mounted a few inches up from its base.

 

​How to Operate:

 

Lift off cone/condenser unit and slide to one side and remove basket. Fill vessel with 40 - 50 litres of water, enough to cover the elements with say, an inch of water on top. Line basket with muslin and fill it with the material you want to distil e.g. lavender - and place it back inside the boiling vessel. Some form of lifting apparatus will be required e.g. simple sliding block and tackle. ​Slide cone/condenser unit back and lower onto boiling vessel, lock the clamps so that it all becomes one unit and turn on the heat. The Still has a wrap-around fabric insulation jacket made in two sections and one goes over the cone whilst the other goes around the boiling vessel. As the Still heats up, you can turn off some of the elements until a nice rolling boil is achieved. Make sure water is gently flowing through the condenser to keep it cold and the distillation continues until the oil layer in the Florentine stops growing. Then turn off heat and water and remove oil.

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