Wort Chiller For The Short & Fat

Hey guys,
Like some of the women in my past, my kettle is wider than she is tall (13 3/4" ID High by 17 1/2" ID Wide) and my current, free, 1/4"? X 25' wort chiller is not getting it done.

I'm considering making a new one and was curious if anyone has made one for the short and fat. What size cooper tubing will be the most effective? What length? Design? Pictures?

George

Well I've answered one of my questions...... I will have 60' of 3/8" copper tubing to work with. Lowes has this on sale now for $44.99......

What an adorable way to start a sentence. Kudos to you for the slight of hand and the answering of your own question.

Your issue could be ID as well and ground water temp. It is summer and we are in NC. My water is hitting me at 78F. It's not ground water, per se, but for lack of better words, it is the temp from the tap.

Keep your embarrassing fat chiller as a pre-chiller. Even with a larger chiller you will struggle to get down to pitching temps. Getting to 100 is still easy, 80 is a bit of a stretch but 60-70...it's a killer.

As for design, a double chiller, the coil inside the coil seems very effective.
Signed,
The girl who probably resembles your current chiller.

Hello said:

What an adorable way to start a sentence. Kudos to you for the slight of hand and the answering of your own question.

Your issue could be ID as well and ground water temp. It is summer and we are in NC. My water is hitting me at 78F. It's not ground water, per se, but for lack of better words, it is the temp from the tap.

Keep your embarrassing fat chiller as a pre-chiller. Even with a larger chiller you will struggle to get down to pitching temps. Getting to 100 is still easy, 80 is a bit of a stretch but 60-70...it's a killer.

As for design, a double chiller, the coil inside the coil seems very effective.
Signed,
The girl who probably resembles your current chiller.

Click to expand...

First my post should have read my kettle was shorter than she was tall (I've edited that), and second, I never said she was embarrassing.

I do have a small pre-chiller that I have recently found out can be more effective (I haven't been swirling or agitating it and have been using it in too small of a bucket) but I am convinced that my current wort chiller just doesn't have the surface area to be effective. I have seen the dual chillers and it looks like something I could accomplish.... Lol

Another alternative might be to use your 25' IC in the construction of a CFC. I followed Bobby M's design and have been happy with the results. As Hello says, with warm tap water you'll need a pre-chiller but sounds like you have that covered already.

Culln5 said:

First my post should have read my kettle was shorter than she was tall (I've edited that), and second, I never said she was embarrassing.

I do have a small pre-chiller that I have recently found out can be more effective (I haven't been swirling or agitating it and have been using it in too small of a bucket) but I am convinced that my current wort chiller just doesn't have the surface area to be effective. I have seen the dual chillers and it looks like something I could accomplish.... Lol

Click to expand...

Oh I was just messing about. I figured with your post you were trying to be funny too. Failures all around.

I think the dual chiller is ideal but keep the other one for a pre-chiller perhaps.

So I think I've decided on a method and design...... The ID or of my kettle is 17 1/2" so I will make an inner coil around a 6 3/4" paint can and the outer coil around an 11 3/4" pot. This will give me, obviously, 6 3/4" diameter in the center of the kettle, 5" between the inner and outer coils, and then 5 1/4" between the outer coil and the kettle. Given my "round" choices, this is the most equitable distribution that I can achieve.

I plan to have an individual water inlet for both the inner and outer coil and a single water discharge. My thinking is that with providing each coil with it's own water supply will increase the cooling efficiency...... We'll see how it goes this weekend.... Pics to come!

George

Seriously, go to a plate chiller... Brewing with my Uncle this past weekend and he is sold. He has a home made CFC and compared to my plate chiller it blew it away in how fast I am able to cool

here is my chiller I just sold its 5/8 x 50' made it for the same reason you are asking for. Im switching over to a CFC though for several reasons and if you have a pump I would highly encourage you to go that route also.
http://imgur.com/a/56gOR
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/50-5-8-whirlpool-immersion-chiller-462405/

Here's the parts and the result..... I have to solder the tee fitting, get some copper wire to space the coils, and attach the hoses..... I don't when I'll get to it (hectic around here).

Looks pretty sweet, let us know how it works.

Well I soldered the tee and connected the inlets and outlet today and gave her a test run. I did not separate the coils because some of them would then be above the wort line. No leaks which was good.

Cooled 6 gallons of water from boiling to 70° in 12 1/2 minutes. That is includes shutting off the water and connecting a small (1 gallon) pre-chiller and using a constant circular motion with the wort chiller...... Not bad considering it was taking up to an hour previously.

George

Pics

Culln5 said:

Hey guys,
Like some of the women in my past, my kettle is wider than she is tall (13 3/4" ID High by 17 1/2" ID Wide) and my current, free, 1/4"? X 25' wort chiller is not getting it done.

I'm considering making a new one and was curious if anyone has made one for the short and fat. What size cooper tubing will be the most effective? What length? Design? Pictures?

George

Click to expand...

Here is a double coil immersion chiller I built. It has a lot of surface area for it's size.
Ignore my Dads head in the last photo. He got bored and fell asleep in the sun.

vindee said:

Here is a double coil immersion chiller I built. It has a lot of surface area for it's size.
Ignore my Dads head in the last photo. He got bored and fell asleep in the sun.

Click to expand...

That's a bad ass contraption!

What are the threaded fittings that the silicon tube is connected to called, and where do you get them?

They are a 1/2" hose barb. I used stainless with Teflon tape on the threads.
You can find them at hardware stores (home Depot, Lowes) or a plumbing distributor. You could use brass, steel or plastic ones (on the cold side) for that matter.

UPDATE: I stand corrected. These are 3/8" hose barbs.

Thanks, that chiller looks awesome BTW.