What hose to buy

Has anyone ever taken a temperature reading of the water(not the wort) that is leaving the counterflow chiller? The reason I ask is because I am shopping for a rubber hose to make a CFC and was wondering what temperature rating to use. I have seen hoses rated for 160 degrees, and others rated for 200 degrees . Is the 160 degree rating high enough to handle the outgoing water temp? I know the exit water would be hot, but i'm looking for an exact high temp reading. Thanks

I just use a standard run-of-the-mill garden hose...

IIRC, my last batch was the highest output temp from the water and it was around 100*F... I use a recirculating pump and a cooler full of ice water though...

Curious, what is the concern about the output temp of the water?

Duckfoot said:

Curious, what is the concern about the output temp of the water?

Click to expand...

to see what type of hose to use, 160 deg or 200 deg. I was concerned the water coming out would be extremely hot, and that the 160 deg hose could not handle it.....I guess I could speed up or slow down the flow rate of the water coming out of the tap to compensate. Too hot coming out of the chiller, speed up flow.

Gotcha... Like I said, I just use a standard garden hose... I guess the recirc pump / ice water helps out quite a bit...

I use one of these with a cooler full of ice...

I just realized I have one of those pumps in my backyard fountain. I searched that link you gave me to harbor freight, and they have 50 ft of 180 degree hose for $20...problem solved.
Also, how much ice, water, time, etc. does it take to cool your wort down, I'm thinking that might be the way to go instead of running the faucet constantly.

I use gravity feed from my keggle... Maybe 15 minutes from flame-out to 75-ish* in the Better Bottle... Use 20lbs of ice (procured from work for free or the grocery store for $2)

Old pic, but first run for the CFC

Never really timed it, but if I do, I will let you know...

Nice setup!!!

Thank you, I appreciate your help. Gonna build it soon.

Good luck... Let us know how it works out...

Just bought the materials to make my CFC. Actually bought enough to make 2. 50 ft of high temp rubber garden hose, 50 ft 3/8 OD type L copper tubing, 4-1/2" copper tees, 4-1/2" to 3/8" copper reducers, and a bunch of zip ties, all for just under $70. I'm pretty handy with soldering, so that shouldn't be any hassle. Fingers crossed.

Duckfoot question for you. So rather thern hooking up your counterflow to the sink, you pump ice water through it using the pump in the above link? I am just trying to understand your plumbing as I am building a brew stand and want to employ a counterflow so looking at all my options. can you give us a rundown of how your chiller works?

Here is an older pic, but you can get the idea...


The bigger clear hose (tie wrapped to the green garden hose) is the "cold water in" attached to the pump, which is sitting in a cooler of ice water (not in the pic, sorry), the garden hose it is attached to is the "warm water out" that gets recirculated to the cooler...

The red hose (which has been replaced since that time) is the "hot wort in" from my keggle and the small clear line at the bottom is the "cool wort out" to the fermenter...

Cold water starts at the bottom while the hot wort starts at the top... I had 32*F water running though the chiller and the wort was maybe 5 minutes after flameout... I was getting low 70's*F into the Better Bottle...

Here was the cold break in the fermenter


I would have labeled it better w/ Photoshop, but I just realized I am missing Family Guy...

Lemme know if that helps..

Thanks thats what I needed!

The only reason I was concerned with the hose temp rating when I built mine is because my sanitation procedure is to run boiling wort through the coil with no coolant present. That's 212F. No garden hose is rated for that, but I wanted something that is close so I went with rubber. I know a lot of people use any old hose and have not had any problems.

I just run some Star-San through mine, then run my outlet hose to the inlet to "trap" the sanitizer in there.. No need for high temp sanitizing then...

I live in a townhome and havent figured out how to get a CFC without using like 20 ft of tubing. I never even thought about using a cheap submersible pump like that. That is way awesome! I will be making a CFC next week, thanks to Bobby, and using this method. Thanks a ton!

BobbyM is spot on, it depends on how you use this, and how you sanitize it. I went ahead and had my brother use the sturdier hose so I could do either. Normally I keep mine full of starsan when not in use, though.

btw, if you want to get rid of that cold break as well, you can return chilled wort to the keggle while whirlpooling (I'm working out logistics of this with my 2 pump setup now).

annasdadhockey said:

Just bought the materials to make my CFC. Actually bought enough to make 2. 50 ft of high temp rubber garden hose, 50 ft 3/8 OD type L copper tubing, 4-1/2" copper tees, 4-1/2" to 3/8" copper reducers, and a bunch of zip ties, all for just under $70. I'm pretty handy with soldering, so that shouldn't be any hassle. Fingers crossed.

Click to expand...

Well, here it is, just built it today...can't wait to use it:rockin:

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/5111/cfc.jpg

Very nice!!!

I love the handle... I think I may be adding one here soon....

Did you go with rubber? Looks like it. I got a great deal on new in box two 50 ft coils of 3/8" copper for 40$ from CL. I made one based on Bobby M's tutorial, the others next week. With the Goodyear rubber hose and fittings, they will be under 40$ a piece and look cooler than cool in all black and copper.

I mounted mine onto a wooden stand so it would be the right height for filling carboys. I absolutely love this thing. I still need to rig up the recirculating ice-water-from-cooler method for super-chilling lagers, but I can easily drop to the high 50's in short time with this, or do a once-through from 200F to 61F very quickly for ales.

kcinpdx said:

Did you go with rubber? Looks like it. I got a great deal on new in box two 50 ft coils of 3/8" copper for 40$ from CL. I made one based on Bobby M's tutorial, the others next week. With the Goodyear rubber hose and fittings, they will be under 40$ a piece and look cooler than cool in all black and copper.

Click to expand...

Yup, 180 degree rubber. I agree with the all black and copper looking cool. Too bad the handle is green.
Ended up paying just under $70, and I have enough left to build another one the exact same (minus the handle)

I use a regular old garden hose and run boiling wort through the copper tubing, so far it has not failed me.

If you use a submersible pump to re-circulate the chiller water, what range of gallons per hour should I be looking at 100 or 200 or what?