DIY Immersion Worth Chiller - Double Coil or Single?

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lorne17

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Hello there,

I am trying to put together plans to make an Immersion Wort Chiller. A friend found 1/2" x 50' copper tubing for $38 at Lowes this weekend. I can't decide if I want to make it a 50' long double coile wort chiller like this one: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/double-coil-immersion-chiller-209708/

Or a single coil that's 25' long and get my cost even lower and split the line with my friend who is also making one.

What are your thoughts and suggestion? I also saw that spliting the inner and outer coils for water source is a good idea to get colder water in both. Does the dual coil really make a huge difference in cooldown time?

Thanks,
Lorne
 
What size batches do you make usually? The more surface area, the faster the cooling. I made a 60' rib cage style and it chills fairly quickly for 6 gallons batches.
 
What size batches do you make usually? The more surface area, the faster the cooling. I made a 60' rib cage style and it chills fairly quickly for 6 gallons batches.

I do 5 gallon batches. So really I'm only boiling about 2.5 to 4 gallons at a time. My pot is about 12" inner diameter and 17" tall. It's a narrow tall pot.
 
How much wort are you cooling and what is your optimal pitch temperature?

Well I have only made one batch of 5 gallons and my optimal pitch temp was 70F. I put it in an ice bath and it took about 17 lbs of ice and cooled in about 20 minutes. I'd like to at least be down to 10-15 minutes if I'm going to invest in making a wort chiller.
 
I have a 25 ft coil. It will work for 5-gallon batches. It will take about 15-20 minutes to cool from boiling to 75. I think you might have a problem using it with larger batches.
 
My 20 footer cools down my wort (5 gal.) in about 15 min. I use a recirc pump and a couple of buckets of ice water.
 
Thanks for the posts, I am trying to avoid needing to use ice and just go straight from the hose. So maybe I need to do something like this: http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=136

That way I have water running down on inner coil and up on outer coil. I Just need to find the right pieces of the puzzle to get the parts to split like that.

Will this dual coil design really make a big difference vs the single coil? I don't have any plans to increase my batch size but who knows how much I'll get into this over the next few years!
 
I was in a similar situation a few months ago. However, my options were reduced when my buddy decided he didn't want a chiller, so I made myself a 50' chiller for < $60. I do not regret it. Cheers.
 
I was in a similar situation a few months ago. However, my options were reduced when my buddy decided he didn't want a chiller, so I made myself a 50' chiller for < $60. I do not regret it. Cheers.

Sounds good PMatson...how tall is your IC? Is it dual or single? How quick can you cool it down?

Thanks,
Lorne
 
Will this dual coil design really make a big difference vs the single coil? I don't have any plans to increase my batch size but who knows how much I'll get into this over the next few years!

Anything that increases your surface area will help.

I think moving the wort around the chiller is just as important as the chiller you use. Stirring or whirlpooling will give you a lot of bang for your buck.
 
It depends. The best bang for your buck is from moving the wort around. See my el-cheapo wort whirlpool device here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/cheap-whirlpool-immersion-chiller-system-sucess-384060/

Surface area helps but preventing temperature stratification of the wort is the most important factor in cooling. So a double coil vs single coil doesn't really matter if you are not moving the wort around.

If you are thinking about possibly upgrading your pot in the future to allow you to do 10 gallon batches, than I would make a single 50' coil IC. If not, then you could just go with a single 25' IC and lower your cost. However, $38 for 50' of 1/2" copper is a steal (I paid $75 for mine) so maybe you should just make a 50' IC and have your freind make one of his own.
 
The actual coil is about a foot tall, maybe a little less. I coiled it around my bottling bucket to get the shape, which fits inside my brew kettle. The intake and outflow ends go up and over the side, and extend a good bit over the side so I don't have to worry about dripping water going into the kettle. I used a compression fitting with a garden hose attachment for the intake, so I can run the garden house into the kitchen. The outflow line is some becerage tubing that can handle near boiling temps and is attached with a hose clamp. Without the chiller, I would have had to lug 6 gal of hot wort down a flight of stairs; no bueno.
 
Also, because my chiller coil sits low in the kettle, i give it an occasionally swirl with a sanitized spoon so that the liquid cools evenly. Otherwise, the wort was stratifying so the the surface wort was much warmer that near the bottom. Good luck!
 
50' 1/2" for $38??? was it a clearence sale? That's great price:rockin:

Yea I guess it was $39.62 to be exact, plus tax. It was a great deal, the 1/4" x 50' was more expensive! Same brand too.

Pmatson, thanks for giving me the specs of your IC. I went to get some compression fittings and such for mine and will probably start to tackle it tomorrow. Looks like it's gonna cost me about $60 or so for a 50' dual coil. I got a t-compression fitting so I can split the water between the inner and outer coil. Hoping it cools it down quick!

There's still a big part of me that wants to use only 25' and reduce my cost that much more, but I think using all 50' and dual coil will help with the cool down and future batches larger than 5 gallons.

Thanks for the feedback!
Lorne
 
My suggestion is single coil. The reason being is that I prefer to continue to stir the wort while the IC is cooling, which reduces cooling time and keeps the hops in suspension. With a secondary smaller coil it might cool faster, but would probably make it harder to stir. YMMV.
 
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