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**Tiber_Brew** · 10-03-2012, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pksublime

Okay, my wife just "surprised" me by buying everything I need to make this thing. Only problem, she says the total came to $130! I haven't seen all the parts yet, or the receipt, but what should I be looking at for a gross overcharge?

Yikes. I would look at what she paid for the copper, and how much she picked up. Perhaps she was only able to get a longer roll than you needed? Also, I priced my build out after selling part of the materials to my friend who build one out of the same hose and tubing purchase. You could possibly build more than one with the materials she bought and sell the extra chiller to another homebrewer (possibly here on HBT?), recuperating some of your cost.

**mccumath** · 10-03-2012, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiber_Brew

Yikes. I would look at what she paid for the copper, and how much she picked up. Perhaps she was only able to get a longer roll than you needed? Also, I priced my build out after selling part of the materials to my friend who build one out of the same hose and tubing purchase. You could possibly build more than one with the materials she bought and sell the extra chiller to another homebrewer (possibly here on HBT?), recuperating some of your cost.

Minus the copper and a couple fittings, mine was around 55-60 bucks to build (i.e. rubber hose, fittings, 1/2" copper pipe, rubber stopper, lead free solder, etc). Hacked up my immersion chiller to build it.

pksublime · 10-03-2012, 11:45 AM

turns out the guy helping her at the store screwed up ID and OD so we had way more copper by weight, plus the fact that all the fittings were going to go inside the pipes

anyway all corrected and it's about $90 raw cost including the 'thermowell', and I'll have some left-over 1/2" pipe and some garden hose

Cajun_Tiger33 · 10-03-2012, 08:09 PM

I was given some copper tubing and it says on the box it's 3/8" OD but it's refrigeration tubing so it's actually 1/4" plumbing tubing. Would that be too small to use as the inside tube of a CFC?

**Tiber_Brew** · 10-03-2012, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cajun_Tiger33

I was given some copper tubing and it says on the box it's 3/8" OD but it's refrigeration tubing so it's actually 1/4" plumbing tubing. Would that be too small to use as the inside tube of a CFC?

I used 3/8" refrigeration tubing also, so you should be good to go.

**mccumath** · 10-04-2012, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cajun_Tiger33

I was given some copper tubing and it says on the box it's 3/8" OD but it's refrigeration tubing so it's actually 1/4" plumbing tubing. Would that be too small to use as the inside tube of a CFC?

Same. Slower if using gravity, but works great.

cherokee180c · 10-04-2012, 10:20 AM

Thanks guys. I just built my counterflow wort chiller last night and it looks great. Can't wait to use it. Felt a bit embarrassed asking for KY jelly, but it was super easy getting the copper into the hose using it. Any advice on how much head difference to drive flow through the 25' of 3/8" copper tubing?

**stlbeer** · 10-04-2012, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cherokee180c

Thanks guys. I just built my counterflow wort chiller last night and it looks great. Can't wait to use it. Felt a bit embarrassed asking for KY jelly, but it was super easy getting the copper into the hose using it. Any advice on how much head difference to drive flow through the 25' of 3/8" copper tubing?

It will chill your wort just fine. Just don't expect to be able to whirlpool back to your kettle using a March 809-HS. The flow won't be that great coming out of the chiller.

cherokee180c · 10-05-2012, 02:27 AM

I was referring to gravity flow.

pksublime · 10-08-2012, 11:40 AM

Well i tried it out this weekend - and it worked but was really really slow. I think i'm going to have to build a stand to get it to be at just the right level, and get some different tubing. The good news was that it was extremely efficient, wort output temp was below 60!