Built an immersion chiller today

I decided to build rather than buy because I thought it would make a cool science project for my sons. The 3/8" OD copper tubing was only available in 20' and 50' coils, so I wound up overbuilding it a bit (I figured that I can always make it smaller if it is too unwieldy.)

Once it was done we took it for a test spin and it got ~3.5 gallons of water from 212ºF to 70ºF in 12 minutes! Not too shabby.

Nice! Let's see some pics.

id love to see some pics of it

Sweeet! Awesome to hear that you actually MADE your wort chiller. I got mine after my first batch and it rawks!
-Me

That's awesome! Pics please!

Since I don't have a good place to hook one up (wrong type of faucet) I am thinking about saving up to buy the stuff to make a recirculating wort chiller that uses a pump to move ice water through the coil. And then I can feel better about not wasting as much water. Otherwise I would have made one a while ago. It's amazing what my LHBS charges for an immersion chiller.

I'll see if I can get some pics of it tomorrow.


Here is the parts list, including the prices from Lowes:

50' 3/8" OD copper tubing ($38.17)
20' 3/8" ID vinyl tubing ($5.00)
4 hose clamps ($1.94)
3/8" garden hose connector ($7.43)
Garden hose adapter for kitchen sink ($5.17)

Kungpaodog said:

That's awesome! Pics please!

Since I don't have a good place to hook one up (wrong type of faucet) I am thinking about saving up to buy the stuff to make a recirculating wort chiller that uses a pump to move ice water through the coil. And then I can feel better about not wasting as much water. Otherwise I would have made one a while ago. It's amazing what my LHBS charges for an immersion chiller.

Click to expand...

do you have a sprayer? if you do you can fab something up to use the sprayer hose. go down to home depot and borrow one of thier sprayers and walk over to those fittings and find a fitting that will screw onto the end. replace the sprayer and use the fitting to find a barb end and use it.

if this doesnt work for you then you can always put in a t and valve under the sink. when not in use and closed use a cap to cap the output so if the valve turns it will be sealed.

Nimrod1193 said:

Here is the parts list, including the prices from Lowes:

50' 3/8" OD copper tubing ($38.17)
20' 3/8" ID vinyl tubing ($5.00)
4 hose clamps ($1.94)
3/8" garden hose connector ($7.43)
Garden hose adapter for kitchen sink ($5.17)

Click to expand...

I'm preparing to embark upon a similar project myself, so I have a couple questions from your experience:

1) Do you think the 3/8" is worth it? I can get 1/4" for like half as much, so it's tempting.
2) Do you think 20' of copper would work instead of 50'? I do partial boils inside mostly, so my pot is only 4 gallons.
3) Is there a reason you went with hose clamps instead of compression fittings?

I'm low on funds, which is why the 1/4" vs 3/8" and 20' vs 50' matter.

Any advice from your experience would be appreciated!

The Blow Leprechaun said:

I'm preparing to embark upon a similar project myself, so I have a couple questions from your experience:

1) Do you think the 3/8" is worth it? I can get 1/4" for like half as much, so it's tempting.
2) Do you think 20' of copper would work instead of 50'? I do partial boils inside mostly, so my pot is only 4 gallons.
3) Is there a reason you went with hose clamps instead of compression fittings?

I'm low on funds, which is why the 1/4" vs 3/8" and 20' vs 50' matter.

Any advice from your experience would be appreciated!

Click to expand...

I don't know how much experience I have (I'm just getting started with all this), but here goes:

In my research on the net, I've seen them made with both sizes of tubing. The downsides of 1/4" tubing appear to be slower flow rate and increased potential for clogging. I have no personal experience with using 1/4" tubing, so I can't tell you how big a deal that is.

I've read threads on this site where people have used 20' wort chillers, so it obviously works. I would think it just doesn't work as fast. I have always had a tendency to overbuild stuff.

I used hose clamps because I was attaching vinyl tubing to copper tubing. Use two clamps on the input line, with the second rotated 90º relative to the first. This provides even pressure all around and prevents leaks.

The flow rate of 1/4" OD is way too low since the ID is more like 3/16". I consider 3/8" OD to be minimum, 1/2" ideal. 25' for 5 gallon batches, 50' for ten gallons. CopperTubingSales.com :: ICS Indsutries :: is cheap.

Bobby_M said:

The flow rate of 1/4" OD is way too low since the ID is more like 3/16". I consider 3/8" OD to be minimum, 1/2" ideal. 25' for 5 gallon batches, 50' for ten gallons. CopperTubingSales.com :: ICS Indsutries :: is cheap.

Click to expand...

Fantastic... I think that site has 50' of tubing for what 20' costs at Home Depot, but I may be misremembering the prices at Home Depot.

I guess I'll go with 3/8" then.

I made mine for my last batch too. As an engineer I imagine it was my first of several brew-based projects to come. used 3/8" 20ft copper tubing, with 5/16" plastic tubing on either end, a recirculating pump from petsmart, along with a few pipe clamps. Decided on the pump version since I'm in an apartment and have fancy faucets that don't have attachments. Just fill the bathtub with ice and cold water and leave it alone!

Very easy to make. I'd say about $60 in supplies to make it, which is a little more than if I bought it. But then again, in the mean time I might end up using the pump in its downtime in order to keep lager temperatures bringing the overall costs down.

I might add on an extra 10-20ft in the future to make a detachable inner coil. I typically brew 2 batches on the stove at a time, one in a 16qt pot and one in a 20qt. So the volume of a 40-50ft in the smaller pot would have forced me to have 2 gallon or less boil sizes with high risk of overflow. I recommend you think about the volume first so you don't overbuild!

I love hobbies that let you build things.

Definitely want to be careful where you buy your tubing from. Around here, the big boxes were twice the price of an industrial supplier (in my case, Farmer's Copper in Galveston). I ended up with a 50' roll of 3/8" soft copper tubing new in the carton for $36 and change.

A picture, as promised.

Nimrod-

Nice job with the chiller, it looks really good. I just got back from Lowe's with all my supplies to build my own chiller and had a question. How did you bend the tubing, by hand or did you buy a bender? I'm a little worried about putting kinks in the tubing doing it by hand.

Buy a bender ~ $10 for the set. If you don't need it afterwards send your wife to return it with the shamed face of "I bought the wrong thing".

KUbrew said:

Nimrod-

Nice job with the chiller, it looks really good. I just got back from Lowe's with all my supplies to build my own chiller and had a question. How did you bend the tubing, by hand or did you buy a bender? I'm a little worried about putting kinks in the tubing doing it by hand.

Click to expand...

I bought a bending spring, but not at Lowes. They only had the full set for ~$9. I bought one for 3/8" tubing at a local hardware store for $2.50.

I only needed it for the 90º bends. I started coiling it around a coffee can, but after the first couple of loops it was easy to just use the prior loops as a guide for the next.

My buddy and I just put together a homemade chiller using 1/4" tubing. I hadn't considered the flow rate issue. We haven't tested it out yet, but should give it a go next weekend. Too late to return the parts at this point.

What is the reason for bending the tubing? To keep the connections out of the wort in case of leaks? To keep the plastic from melting during boil? How much clearance out of the pot is optimal (how long should the 'vertical' tubing part be to work best)?

edit, I answered my own question, after I realized there was a page 2.

time for bed.

amitche1 said:

My buddy and I just put together a homemade chiller using 1/4" tubing. I hadn't considered the flow rate issue. We haven't tested it out yet, but should give it a go next weekend. Too late to return the parts at this point.

What is the reason for bending the tubing? To keep the connections out of the wort in case of leaks? To keep the plastic from melting during boil? How much clearance out of the pot is optimal (how long should the 'vertical' tubing part be to work best)?

Click to expand...

Well, I could go into a long dissertation about optimal connection lengths and the thermal tolerance of vinyl tubing, but the the truth is that I did it that way because all of the pictures of wort chillers that I found looked like that.

My LHBS uses a homemade immersion wort chiller made from what looks like about 15' of 1/4" tubing that was wrapped around a soup can for a form. Pretty small and anemic looking compared to my 25' x 10" x 3/8" beauty . . . but danged if it doesn't cool a partial boil extract brew wort in ten - fifteen minutes.

Counter-flow chiller FTW!

Bobby_M said:

The flow rate of 1/4" OD is way too low since the ID is more like 3/16". I consider 3/8" OD to be minimum, 1/2" ideal. 25' for 5 gallon batches, 50' for ten gallons. CopperTubingSales.com :: ICS Indsutries :: is cheap.

Click to expand...

Wow. That link is going to save a lot of people a lot money. I didn't know Lowes/HD were so overpriced on their copper tubing. Originally I thought the wort chiller at the homebrew store was a good price, but now I am definitely going to make my own. I can make a 1/2" OD 50' chiller for the price of a 3/8" 25ft chiller.

But if I wanted to avoid shipping costs, how would I be able to find a price like that locally?

I personally don't know how they keep those prices so low. It must be a volume thing. MAYBE if you find a local plumbing supply, they'll come close. I found a local place that gets me any stainless fitting I want for better prices than Stainless Steel Fittings.

boredatwork said:

Wow. That link is going to save a lot of people a lot money. I didn't know Lowes/HD were so overpriced on their copper tubing. Originally I thought the wort chiller at the homebrew store was a good price, but now I am definitely going to make my own. I can make a 1/2" OD 50' chiller for the price of a 3/8" 25ft chiller.

But if I wanted to avoid shipping costs, how would I be able to find a price like that locally?

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When you add in the shipping costs, there's less than a dollar difference between them and Lowes.

Built one myself... the first go-around I just used 20' of 3/8, which worked fine for partial boils. Averaged about 15 minutes to 75° F.

Once I upsized to full boils and added a filter to the bottom of my kettle, I added another 20' and shaped the bottom to straddle the filter. The pics are pre-cleanup just after he was born. My wife calls him ET.

Nimrod1193 said:

When you add in the shipping costs, there's less than a dollar difference between them and Lowes.

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It really depends what you are looking to buy. The bigger the length and thickness the more the prices are similar. But I just compared again and its more than $1 difference - but not as much as I thought it was. When I looked yesterday it was not an apples to apples comparison. But for a 50' 3/8" it was still more than 10$ cheaper after shipping, at least for me.

i'm an hvac guy so i had the extra stuff to work with. made mine from 20 ft. of 3/8 copper and about 6 ft. of vinyl tubing. looks just like nimrod's only a little smaller. it's easier if you stretch the roll out flat on the ground and get something like a 1 gal. bucket and roll it around that. the bucket forms it perfectly. i'll post some pics when i can.

I am just finishing my immersion chiller - 50 feet of 3/8 copper - but I have had a real hard time finding hose connectors - I'm not at all happy with the connectors that I ended up with - We'll see if it will work tomorrow - If anyone could tell m where to find sweat on hose connectors, I would sure appreciate the help... John

honest opinions please! haha!

I honeslty think you did a good job of making a "bare bones" immersion chiller.

Parts:
Copper tubing
Plastic tubing
one zip tie

BigJohn817 said:

I am just finishing my immersion chiller - 50 feet of 3/8 copper - but I have had a real hard time finding hose connectors - I'm not at all happy with the connectors that I ended up with - We'll see if it will work tomorrow - If anyone could tell m where to find sweat on hose connectors, I would sure appreciate the help... John

Click to expand...

I think in Bobby_Ms instructional video, he uses hose to barb connectors made out of brass. You can actually fit 3/8 copper tubing INSIDE a 1/2 barb. It fits perfectly and you can solder it on.
I did this exact thing with my wort chiller and am happy i dont have to use hose clamps and and tubing to get a hose connector attached.

Thanks for this post. I plan on making a wort chiller soon. I have a pump that we use for circulating the dogs water in the horse trough out back. I figure I will build this unit to connect to that pump and couple the chiller with an ice bath. Hopefully I can increase the speed of the cool down that way.