Things you should know before investing in an essential oil distilling equipment

You need the distilling equipment, if you would like to be assured of the purity of essential oils used in aromatherapy, or if you want to impart aromatherapy, or may be you want to know how you could get essential oils out of a bucket filled with flowers.

Equipments used for distilling of essential oils may be complicated and may pinch you monetarily, depending on the amount of oil you need. But it should be kept in mind that to make one ounce of pure essential oil a good amount of organic material is required, also distillation is not the only process to make the oil. Other methods are, for jasmine (solvent extraction), for lemon or lime (expression). Glancing through volumes of aromatherapy or surfing on net will tell you whether your favorite oil can be derived from distilling.

Water or Steam

 Water and steam distillation are the two types of essential oil distilling equipment. Process by steam is fast but quite intense. Water distillation which is slow, but very effective to get therapeutic grade essential oil from cinnamons which are delicate to handle.

Water distillation makes vapor by heating in a container or beaker, material from which you want the oil from and water. Thus the precious oil collects into another clean container, on cooling the vapors.

Whereas in steam distillation the steam, derived from heating material placed in a vacuum-sealed container, causes a massive pressure separating the oil from the flowers, twigs, resin, leaves or even sawdust. The distilling equipment is more intricate and unsafe for the novice than for water distillation.

The latest kind is dry steam distillation, but it still demands supervision and quantity derived is less.

Now! If you have made up your mind on buying the distilling equipment, by visiting a lot of websites of companies which sells you home stills. They can run from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars, which depends on their make and amount of oil you require. Best material used for making these equipments is copper, but many are made of glass too.

Main parts of essential oil distilling equipment are Boiler, beaker or container water filled, heated to make steam. From the boiler there is a tube attached to another container filled with material, you want oil from. This in turn is connected by tubing to the collecting container which is normally made of glass. Straining of oil takes place to eliminate water and other impurities, which in turn is bottled in small dark tight jars. This needs a supervisory eye all along. A word of caution though essential oil distilling equipment is good for making essential oils, but when it comes to making food or liquor it tastes horrible.