My dumbest question to date.

Im building an IC tonight and im wondering.

Does it matter which way the flow goes thru the chiller? For instance does it work better if the water flows down the spiral or should it go against gravity and flow up the spiral?
Please excuse the idiocy of this question but just wondering.

Some folks say due to heat stratifcation, it's best to run the cold water in from the top so the flow is downard. IMO, I don't think it really makes that much difference at our scale.

My distant memory of thermodynamics would lead me to believe it is more efficient if the cold water flows from the top down. The wort will be hottest near the top of the kettle, and the chill water will be coldest at the entrance of the coil. Cooling efficiency is based on temperature difference, so you want the largest difference as possible.

Sorry that wasnt very scientific. I also think that if you are stirring or recirculating the wort to maintain a consistent temp from top to bottom, it wont make much of a difference either way.

If you keep the wort moving around the coils, it probably doesn't matter.

I think most people will stir their wort while they are chilling, so in that case it should be a relatively uniform temperature throughout.

I would let it flow with gravity though. Makes more sense chilling that way if you don't want to stir, and it seems like it would flow better.

Wakadaka said:

I think most people will stir their wort while they are chilling, so in that case it should be a relatively uniform temperature throughout.

I would let it flow with gravity though. Makes more sense chilling that way if you don't want to stir, and it seems like it would flow better.

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From my less distant memory of fluid dynamics, the flow should be the same from either top or bottom.

I really think we are splitting hairs here. At our batch sizes you will not see much of a difference if the wort is stirred.

I would guess that the cold chilling water should meet the hot wort as early as possible...but that would not be "counterfow". Counterflow would be the cooling water flowing the oppisite direction of the wort.

kpr121 said:

I really think we are splitting hairs here. At our batch sizes you will not see much of a difference if the wort is stirred.

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this. theres no noticable difference.