Death of a counterflow

Germey · 10-19-2009, 05:45 AM

Well, I guess I can just chalk this up to a learning experience.
I wanted to go with 1/2" tubing, not knowing much about bending the stuff.
I had a friend help me wrap it around a 5gal bucket, but we still managed to get a few kinks in it. I didn't think much of it at the time. It worked great for about 10 batches. On the last one, though, I sanitized it as normal with the hot wort, then turned on the hose water. Almost immediately, it started leaking from around the hose QDs, then the hose blew off the end piece. Well, Sh!t, I said loudly and set to work reattaching the hose, thinking only that there would be a delay in my cooling. I reattached, but it kept leaking, like there was an enormous extra pressure in the water path. Then I noticed the water was brown, but only after I had blown a gallon or more of wort wort down the driveway with the cooling water.
The post-mortem pics are below. Apparently, one of the kinks was getting moved just a bit every time I picked the chiller up or moved it. That movement finally caused a split.
May my misfortune be a cautionary tale to all.

Scut_Monkey · 10-19-2009, 07:44 AM

Ahh that blows. Did you save a partial batch? From your description it sounds like the brew kettle was not getting water in it but perhaps I read wrong. At least all you have to replace is the copper tubing and nothing else.

If you build it again you could possibly try shaping the copper coil after you have the hose around it. Perhaps this would help distribute the force better so it bends rather than kinks.

Gremlyn · 10-19-2009, 07:50 AM

FWIW, you can save the chiller! When I made my IC, I kinked a piece. I just cut that kink out and patched over it with a small, straight coupler then carefully rebent it into shape. Sure save a lot of money and hassle making a new one. You might want to do that to the few other kinks I see there.

**Bobby_M** · 10-19-2009, 12:35 PM

I probably wouldn't try 1/2" because the straightening operation to push it into the hose hardens the copper so recoiling will be sketchy.

Germey · 10-19-2009, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scut_Monkey

Ahh that blows. Did you save a partial batch? From your description it sounds like the brew kettle was not getting water in it but perhaps I read wrong. At least all you have to replace is the copper tubing and nothing else.

I still got 10 gallons out of the batch. Before the chiller failure, I was debating what to do with the extra wort I had ended up with in this batch. It was actually siphoning down out of the kettle once I turned off the water.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby_M

I probably wouldn't try 1/2" because the straightening operation to push it into the hose hardens the copper so recoiling will be sketchy.

I actually think I am going to go with an immersion chiller now. There were certain things that I really liked about the CF, but I think simpler will be better for me now. And I won't work with 1/2" again unless I have a proper bender.

Cheers all.

**Bobby_M** · 10-19-2009, 02:25 PM

I'd def go 1/2" for the IC then. I was able to coil 5/8" around a corny by myself and it was perfect.

Scut_Monkey · 10-19-2009, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby_M

I'd def go 1/2" for the IC then. I was able to coil 5/8" around a corny by myself and it was perfect.

I agree. It seems you are making large batches and 1/2 inch would be much better. I used 50feet of half inch and it works great but in the summer when water temps are higher it still takes some time to get down to ~72F. It was not very hard to work with and had I had a corny at the time it would have been much easier.