Hey guys, I just picked up 60' of copper from the Home Depot sale and was going to use it to construct an IC with Whirlpool arm. I have a 13.5" inner diameter pot with ~ 1/2" welded nub sticking in giving me about a 13" diameter of effective space. I'm planning on constructing an IC with the coil outer diameter being 12 3/4", essentially the largest I can construct while still sitting at the bottom of the kettle.
I did the math for how high I want the in/out ports, how long the whirl pool arm should be, how far past the rim the ports should go, etc. and calculated how high my coils will go with the remaining copper. It appears the coils will be up to a couple inches higher than the boil volume of my wort depending on the particular batch, but still submerged roughly 10/11 of the way.
I'm wondering if there are any problems that might arise from this such that it would be recommended I cut out a wrap or two from the coil to shrink the total height. I've tried googling around but haven't found anything discussing why ICs shouldn't be taller than the wort other than efficiency, and generally in those threads the ICs have been significantly higher.
Do I need to worry about the parts above not being properly sanitized? If I put it in pre-boil the top most part won't be submerged in boiling wort but when I turn on the whirlpool I assume the wort will raise in height a bit. If I turn it on before starting the cooling would that effectively sanitize?
My build not going too far above the wort relies on the IC being build such that it nearly touches the sides of the kettle. I haven't been able to find any info on ideal widths other than not too narrow and must fit in the kettle. Is there any issue with the IC practically touching the kettle?
I'm looking forward to this as my next DIY project and would appreciate any input before I start cutting into my copper. Thanks.
I did the math for how high I want the in/out ports, how long the whirl pool arm should be, how far past the rim the ports should go, etc. and calculated how high my coils will go with the remaining copper. It appears the coils will be up to a couple inches higher than the boil volume of my wort depending on the particular batch, but still submerged roughly 10/11 of the way.
I'm wondering if there are any problems that might arise from this such that it would be recommended I cut out a wrap or two from the coil to shrink the total height. I've tried googling around but haven't found anything discussing why ICs shouldn't be taller than the wort other than efficiency, and generally in those threads the ICs have been significantly higher.
Do I need to worry about the parts above not being properly sanitized? If I put it in pre-boil the top most part won't be submerged in boiling wort but when I turn on the whirlpool I assume the wort will raise in height a bit. If I turn it on before starting the cooling would that effectively sanitize?
My build not going too far above the wort relies on the IC being build such that it nearly touches the sides of the kettle. I haven't been able to find any info on ideal widths other than not too narrow and must fit in the kettle. Is there any issue with the IC practically touching the kettle?
I'm looking forward to this as my next DIY project and would appreciate any input before I start cutting into my copper. Thanks.