ice bucket and immersion chiller

So I'm going to try this today and wanted feedback on the idea.

I have a submersible pump that I am going to put in a five gallon bucket of ice, top off with water, and then pump it through my immersion chiller. Instead of running a hose and having to put all that water somewhere during a snowstorm (Wisconsin).

Think this will work ok or think the ice will melt too fast? I think it will melt fast but I'm hoping it will still be effective. I can always add snow, but then I'll have overflow and will have to put that water somewhere.

This is for a five gallon batch.

I have a friend who was thinking of doing the same thing so I'm sure I'm not going to be the first person who's tried something like this.

If you have a decent amount of snow I would probably just use that from the start . In the summer I often have to use a 5 gallon bucket of ice water. I use the tap water to get it below 100* and then I shut off the hose, disconnect and connect the pond pump. The problem with starting out with the ice water is that you will run out fairly quickly or the water will get to hot too quickly recirculating it. I have one of those cheap pumps from harbor freight and it works great.

So I'll likely need to refresh the bucket at least once before I reach pitching temps is what you're thinking?

There is plenty of snow - and it's still coming down, but I just figured it's going to melt faster than ice cubes.

Maybe 3 times...I use 1/3hp recirculating (i know its larger) to maintain hot tubs at 90+ degrees while i wait for parts 5-7 days...

I have been doing this for 8 five gallon batches so far. Mainly because I don't have running water in my shop. I freeze 6 half gallon milk bottles and place in a large bucket. I have a bag of ice as a back up. I circulate with a small 120 volt irrigation pump. The first fve gallons of collected hot water I use for clean up. This process has worked well. My last batch I took my bucket, half filled with water and let it freeze over night. I can chill in less than 30 minutes.

SeeMont said:

My last batch I took my bucket, half filled with water and let it freeze over night. I can chill in less than 30 minutes.

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Now that doesn't sound like a bad idea. Doing it that way how many buckets do you go through?

I did that yesterday and it worked just fine - I used my HLT instead of a bucket.

Snow works, but you have to keep adding and adding and adding. Plus, rabbit turds make their way into your setup when you're scooping snow. Freezing a bucket works too, but give it a couple days to completely freeze, and keep the bucket out of the sun if you can. A whole bunch of water-filled plastic ziploc containers works well, too.

I have a second immersion chiller for my five gallon pot. I'm going to setup a secondary chilling phase to cool the water more before I return it to the ice bucket. maybe that will reduce the amount of water I need. Regardless, it'll look cooler! lol

brettwasbtd said:

If you have a decent amount of snow I would probably just use that from the start . In the summer I often have to use a 5 gallon bucket of ice water. I use the tap water to get it below 100* and then I shut off the hose, disconnect and connect the pond pump. The problem with starting out with the ice water is that you will run out fairly quickly or the water will get to hot too quickly recirculating it. I have one of those cheap pumps from harbor freight and it works great.

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Brett...I searched through some pumps at Harbor Freight and was curious, which pump did you go with?

During the summer, I use a second chiller coil in a bucket of ice water to pre-chill the chiller water. If it's been rainy, I actually recirculate the water from my rain barrel that has a pond pump in it.

In the warmer weather I put 44lbs of ice in a 72 quart Extreme cooler. Top[ it off with water.

When I first start the chiller up, the water that comes out of the chiller goes into the HLT to be used for cleanup. After the water level gets low in the cooler, I recirculate until half the ice has melted, then send the output back to the HLT.

I cool off 10 gallons of hot wort to 60 degrees in about 20 - 25 minutes on a hot day.

pb

About Pumps, I bought a small water fall pump at Lowes, about 20 bucks. it worked but needed more volume. I had another pump on a masonry saw that I then used, same design and it works better. The more flow the better. I like the rain barrel idea.

hopjunkie26 said:

Brett...I searched through some pumps at Harbor Freight and was curious, which pump did you go with?

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I have this guy: http://www.harborfreight.com/264-gph-submersible-fountain-pump-68395.html

It comes with a bunch of different size threaded hose barbs. I cut off a few feet of hose and attached it to the barb that fit snug. Easily pumps from the bucket on the floor to the top of my chiller. It is pretty fast