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**Schlenkerla** · 09-13-2009, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mvdilts

nice looking chiller tidehouse, one suggestion - throw a hose clamp on the outbound side of your chiller -- I made the mistake of not doing that and got blasted with hot water when the tubing popped off during chilling...

Put it on both in case you connect the wrong hoses.

tidehouse · 09-15-2009, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schlenkerla

Nice Job!!!

Thanks, if it wasn't for this thread I wouldn't have thought to just make one.

Quote:

nice looking chiller tidehouse, one suggestion - throw a hose clamp on the outbound side of your chiller -- I made the mistake of not doing that and got blasted with hot water when the tubing popped off during chilling...

Good call, I'll throw another one on there, probably going to get some high temp tubing as well.

thesanch · 09-16-2009, 01:58 AM

tidehouse, that looks awesome. perfect for my budget too. nice job!

I'm planning on building one of these myself here pretty soon. I need some advice what size (length of copper) I should make that can handle 5 gallon all grain batches. I'm currently doing 3 gallon partial boils. My tap water runs pretty hot -- probably around 80F. I'm planning on first running tap water through, then using an aquarium pump to cycle ice water.

tidehouse · 09-19-2009, 01:20 AM

Just finished a dry run and got 7 gallons from boiling to 75f in about 20 minutes

The only thing I might do is lower the coils, with any less volume they'd be sticking out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesanch

I need some advice what size (length of copper) I should make that can handle 5 gallon all grain batches. I'm currently doing 3 gallon partial boils. My tap water runs pretty hot -- probably around 80F. I'm planning on first running tap water through, then using an aquarium pump to cycle ice water.

Mine is 20 ft, I probably wouldn't go any shorter than that but it seemed to work fine during the test run. I live on Lake Superior so my tap water is pretty cold even during the summer. One thing I noticed is the discharge water was not scalding hot like some people have said, even when the pot was boiling, which leads me to believe that the water doesn't have time to pick up as much heat before exiting the chiller. That makes me think it might be a bit undersized at 20' but still 20 minutes beats 2 hours in the sink any day.

smackythefrog · 09-19-2009, 01:42 AM

I just made a chiller following the OP instructions and it formed up nice but I hate compression fittings. I've never had much luck with them and they tend to leak on me. I'm working on it.

Indy418 · 09-21-2009, 04:16 AM

OK--hoping someone can help out with a bit of a problem. I purchased the parts for the chiller, bent my copper (20', I only brew 3 gal. batches at a time) into a fancy looking coil and all, but couldn't figure out the attachments? I thought it'd be pretty self explanatory but I tried every which way but couldn't come up with a connection from the copper to the connectors.

Because I couldn't figure it out I took some extra vinyl tube and rigged up a chiller with the vinyl tubing over the copper coil. But when I hooked up the chiller to the faucet, I couldn't turn the faucet on past half power or it would blow the vinyl off the copper tube (Yea, I think I went through two rolls of paper towels tonight). After 1 hour, the wort was finally down to 80 degrees. After another 30 minutes it'd only dropped to 75, so I threw the wort into the fermenter and angrily pitched.

Any suggestions???

**Schlenkerla** · 09-21-2009, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Indy418

OK--hoping someone can help out with a bit of a problem. I purchased the parts for the chiller, bent my copper (20', I only brew 3 gal. batches at a time) into a fancy looking coil and all, but couldn't figure out the attachments? I thought it'd be pretty self explanatory but I tried every which way but couldn't come up with a connection from the copper to the connectors.

Because I couldn't figure it out I took some extra vinyl tube and rigged up a chiller with the vinyl tubing over the copper coil. But when I hooked up the chiller to the faucet, I couldn't turn the faucet on past half power or it would blow the vinyl off the copper tube (Yea, I think I went through two rolls of paper towels tonight). After 1 hour, the wort was finally down to 80 degrees. After another 30 minutes it'd only dropped to 75, so I threw the wort into the fermenter and angrily pitched.

Any suggestions???

OK These are your parts Look at this picture closely.

Its a simple set-up:
- 50' of 3/8" Copper Tubing (your case 20')
- 2 Compression to Pipe Union (3/8" - 1/2NPT) Watts A-124

(These fittings are compression and go on the tubing and bite down on it putting a threaded end on the tubing. Tighten the compressions real good.)

- 2 Hose Adapters (1/2" NPT - 3/4 male garden hose) Watts A-668

(These fittings go on the end of the other, above, fittings to put a set of garden hose threads on your chiller)

- 2 Clothes Washer attachment hoses 4' each.

(The basic washer hose attaches to both ends of chiller and one to the faucet)

- 1 faucet to garden hose adapter

(Only one is needed, goes on the faucet if used indoors. Like the picture above.)

- 7 wire ties to hold it together well (less slinky-like)

Indy418 · 09-21-2009, 09:52 PM

Ok...but one of my problems is that I built it and it simply leaks terribly--water spraying everywhere. I tried to tape the leaky spots but it doesn't really work and i don't want water dripping into the wort. The compression fittings are as tight as they go and I can just pull them right off the ends of the copper? Any ideas?

**Schlenkerla** · 09-24-2009, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Indy418

Ok...but one of my problems is that I built it and it simply leaks terribly--water spraying everywhere. I tried to tape the leaky spots but it doesn't really work and i don't want water dripping into the wort. The compression fittings are as tight as they go and I can just pull them right off the ends of the copper? Any ideas?

You are using the ferrule ring right?

I wonder if you got the wrong size fitting or tubing......

They should bugger down good and not leak. I would use two wrenches to tighten them. One on the hex body and the other on the cap nut. Tighten them really damn good. The angle of the wrenches should be so that you can push the wrenches together with a good amount of force.

thesanch · 09-30-2009, 05:21 AM

Finally, here's mine! It's made out of 1/2" x 50' copper from local plumbing store.

Along side my 20 qt SS pot.

Inside my 20 qt SS pot. One side of it slightly protrudes out of the pot. It will definably stick out of the wort in my 2 or 3 gallon partial boils. Just made sure to get a decent sized one for full boils when I get a new bigger pot.

Male hose fitting to 1/2" brass nipple to 1/2" compression fitting.

Female hose fitting to 1/2" brass nipple to 1/2" compression fitting.