3/16" Tubing for Pre-Chiller?

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wittmania

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I posted a few weeks ago about accidentally getting 3/16" copper tubing off of eBay instead of 3/8" like I wanted to. I have since built an immersion chiller with 20' of 3/8 copper and it's working fine.

But I still have this coil of 50 feet of 3/16" copper taunting me. I'm thinking about putting some fittings on it and using it as a pre-chiller in a bucket of ice water. Flow rate is obviously going to be the main issue with such a small diameter tubing, but since it's pressurized (40-50 PSI I would guess) from the water supply, I think I could probably move enough water through it to make it work. Given that my IC is only 20' in length, I have to run it slower anyway to get the maximum cooling effect.

So, what do you guys think? Would this work? I probably wouldn't use all 50' of the coil since it's so thin that it would probably only need 10 or 20 feet in the ice water bucket for the internal and external temps to equalize. Anxious to hear what you DIYers think.
 
Keep in mind that the 3/16" is the OD of the copper. You are now dealing with a nominal ID of about 1/16". That is smaller than a beer tap line in a kegerator by a whole lot.

I don't think it is even close to messing with it as a chiller.
 
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