immersion chiller build question

so i went out and bought all the copper tubing and picked up a set of M/F 5/8'' garden hose barbs. Then when i get home i notice that the 3/4'' inner diameter of the hose barbs doesnt fit snugly around the 1/2'' OD copper tubing. So my question is: Where can i find a hose barb that will fit around the 1/2OD copper tubing? ive looked all over the Internet and all i see are 5/8 -3/4 garden hose barbs.
thanks!

Hose barbs are not designed to be used with copper tubing, so I'm not sure you will find anything that will work. Additionally, the barb fittings are intended to fit inside of tubing and secured with a hose clamp, not over the outside of the tubing.

A better approach might be to use the proper adapters to transition from the soft copper to the hose thread. Use a compression fitting to transition from the tubing to pipe thread and a pipe thread x hose thread adapter on that. You might be able to locate a compression x hose thread adapter, but I'm not sure they are available. Home Depot (and Lowes too, probably) stocks the required fittings.

Here is how the ends of my immersion chiller look:

These fittings are for the waste water and the input for the whirlpool.


This fitting is for the cold water input.



As mentioned, hose barbs are using for either tubing, or hose. Using a copper fitting with a 1/2" female threaded end (st pic) you should be able to find a brass barb fitting with male threads to connect to the garden hose.

For my IC, I used 3/8" soft copper tubing. For the outlets, I recycled 2 black hoses from a washing machine. The inner diameter of the hose is a perfect match for the outer diameter of the copper tubing. The hoses are attached with a worm clamp and off we go. It works perfectly with no leaks. You'll save a few bucks as well in terms of fittings as well, going this route.

Marc

I'm a little confused. I think you might have been following my youtube video instructions which suggest that if you get garden hose fittings that are meant for 5/8" ID hose, you can slightly drill out the ID of the barb and solder it over 1/2" chiller copper. However, you then say that the 3/4" ID of the barb fits loose. If it's a 5/8" barb, the ID of the barb will be a touch smaller than 1/2".

Here's what it looks like:

You can get a 1/2" compression fitting to 1/2" FPT adapter, and then a 1/2" to 3/4" hose adapter at Lowes, Home Depot or ACE. The compression fitting are great if you do not have the torch required to sweat on the fitings, you only need a wrench.

Thanks Bobby! I was just getting ready to do this and that pic made it much clearer.

To be sure, not everyone has a 1/2" drill bit in their tool arsenal. In that case, the 3/8" sweat to 1/2" MPT, then 1/2" FPT to GH (garden hose thread) would be next best thing. Of course, we're getting more expensive on the fittings. If you don't solder, then yeah, 1/2" compression x 1/2 MPT, then garden hose fittings is easy but expensive.