Rugrad02

Recipes 

I made a wort chiller a few years ago and it works well but takes quite a while to cool down my 5 gallon batches and I hate the idea of wasting all of that water.

I had the idea of making another one to attach to the same "line" as the other. The water would go from my outdoor hose spigot to wort chiller #1 which is sitting in an ice bath, then flow to wort chiller #2 which would be in my hot wort. Do you all think this would be worth the cost and effort? Would this system cool down the wort much quicker?

Walker

Recipes 

this is a common practice. It's called a "pre-chiller".

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pernox

Recipes 

Yes, it will help to chill faster - particularly if your ground water is pretty warm. In NC, you will likely see a big reduction in cooling time. Get a nice pre-chiller set up in a five gallon bucket, and you can fill it with ice water during the boil and have it ready to go when you hook up the main chiller.

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OneHoppyGuy

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What a novel idea...

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BrentM

Recipes 

Is this better than pumping ice cold water through your wort chiller? I use a small fountian pump in a cooler filled with ice and water after running tap water through for the first 5 minutes. I chill 5 gallons in about 20-25 minutes. My tap water is 80° too.

DeafSmith

Recipes 

Pumping ice water through your chiller is more effective than using a pre-chiller, in my experience. I run tap water through my chiller to knock the temperature down to about 100º F, then switch to pumping ice water. I have a submersible 1/6 hp pump I got from Harbor Freight for about $50. I put this into a 20 gallon plastic tub with about 10-12 gallons of ice water and recirculate the water through my chiller to get down to pitching temperature. While I waste a few gallons cooling with tap water, it doesn't take very long to get to about 100º and the few gallons I use to recirculate is quite a bit less than what I would use trying to get from 100º to pitching temp. with tap water, or even with pre-chilled tap water.