Cheap Wort Chiller

I stopped by Tractor Supply today and I found a turkey fryer for $60 which I though was an alright deal. But what I found that sparked my interest was vinyl tubing. Various diameters and rated for 175 degrees Fahrenheit. Does anyone see any reason why I couldn't make a cheap wort chiller out of this tubing for use after my ice bath brings my wort down to a safe temperature? The label said it was safe for water so anyone see any problems with this?

It will be terribly inefficient. Vinyl is not very conductive, so heat transfer will be minimal. You'd be better off just using an ice bath than wasting your time with coiled up vinyl.

I was afraid of that I don't know anything about the heat transfer of vinyl but I was just a thought. Thanks Yuri.

are you tslking im or cf chiller?

immersion copper in ridiculously expensive here (as it is everywhere im sure) so i was looking for an alternative to a copper chiller and also something better than an ice bath

BuffaloSabresBrewer said:

immersion copper in ridiculously expensive here (as it is everywhere im sure) so i was looking for an alternative to a copper chiller and also something better than an ice bath.

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That's where it gets tricky. For my first 8 brews or so I used a modified rubbermaid trash can rig that allowed me to submerge almost all of brew kettle in constantly moving, cold water. This did a decent job at cooling (25 minutes to pitching) as opposed to an ice bath.

The problem with that? It cost me about $35 to make all told and "degrees dropped per buck" was horrific.

I've heard this said a hundred times on the forums here but my copper chiller was perhaps one of the best investments I've made as a brewer. Don't spend any money on a half working solution; if money is tight, save a little at a time.

If you don't believe just how AMAZING the IC wort chillers are, find a brew buddy who can demonstrate it for you.

Many people like to use 3/8" copper tubing, but mine is 1/4" and it works just fine. Less copper, lower cost. I can't think of anything other than metal that has the required thermal conductivity.