liquidlightning - 9-8-2012 at 21:27
How fast can one reasonably distill a 100-120C boiling compound in a 500ml retort? Much cheaper for me to buy one of these than a full distillation
setup. So, those of you who have used retorts, can ya help me out?
kavu - 10-8-2012 at 00:56
Retorts do not have external cooling and rely only on air cooling the long stem. This can be helped by immersing collection flask into an ice bath.
With large amounts of high boiling compounds these means of cooling are not enough and vapor will escape. This is especially true towards the end of
the distillation process as the setup has heated up. Full distillation setup is more versatile and useful, you can find some real deals on ebay.
[Edited on 10-8-2012 by kavu]
elementcollector1 - 15-8-2012 at 17:33
Or Dr. Bob has some good steals...
BromicAcid - 15-8-2012 at 18:22
Depends on the heat of vaporization 
Retorts are pretty slow, no option to use vacuum, no external cooling of the distillate. Also consider how you're going to heat, and that it's hard
to contain the vapors so much as you can with a proper distillation setup. It's also going to be much easier to bump if you're pushing things.
Realistically, and from out of nowhere, I would guess about 60-90 minutes.