20 minute diy wort chiller

So I got sick of the ice thing and went to lowes to build a wort chiller. 20 ft soft copper 3/8 ID two 5/8 hose clamps a piece of 10 foot 5/8 vinyl tubing and a female garden hose fitting. $42.19 and it works great. Looks good too. The only thing I may do is put some silicone below the hose clamps just to be double sure it doesn't leak, though at this point I have no reason to believe it will

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Works for me, looks good.

no need for silicon - just make sure the clamps are tight each time you use it

Looks great but I didn't take any chances. I ordered this one from NY Brew Supply for $50...should be on my doorstep when I get home.
I love DIY but since my time is not as free as I'd like, this was the way to go for me.

Question: when you say "20 minute diy " did you mean that's how long it took to make it or how long it takes to chill your wort? I'm hoping mine will do 5 gallons in under 15 minutes but think it's going to take a bit longer.

My question is, how did you go about bending the copper tubing?

Beer-lord said:

I'm hoping mine will do 5 gallons in under 15 minutes but think it's going to take a bit longer.

Click to expand...

It's going to take longer than 15 minutes down in LA

a pond pump and an ice bath re-circulation will help though.

20 minutes to build it. I bent it by hand. It was already coiled in the package so I just worked the bottom end slowly to the top and bent the top end up and out so if they blew off the water wouldn't go into the wort. It took about 15 minutes to cool the beer, although our tape water is in the 50's right now. I also just realized that I posted in the kegging forum. Thought I was in the DIY section

I had to start at the bottom and work the coils tighter all the way up til I got it the size I wanted. They make a bending tool, but as long as you go slow and get soft coiled copper, it's pretty easy

to bend it just wrap the copper around a corney keg and it will bend with out kinking.

Nice build. IMO, bend the inlet and outlets strait up, over the lip of your kettle, and terminate them going strait down on the outside. This way, even if it leaks, it won't get into the kettle.

Yea I want to do that, but I was bending by hand and didnt want to chance kinking the pipe because it wasn't cheap

Okay, I wasn't sure if you had used a bender in a shop or by hand. It is just thin copper but bending by hand kind of freaks me out. I would be deathly afraid to kink it.

I had a 20' IC for a while too, it worked pretty good. Then someone gave me a Home Depot gift card they weren't using and I upgraded slightly



I feel like Tim Taylor every time I get that thing out.

Have to say that thing u built probably wouldn't fit in my pot. Still doing 3.5 gallon boils. Figure if I go to full boils, I'd upgrade. It fills my pot as it is now

Jaysus said:

It's going to take longer than 15 minutes down in LA

a pond pump and an ice bath re-circulation will help though.

Click to expand...

Yep, I bet. Our water is warm in the summer months but I thought I might try doing this with an ice bath and having the cold water hose set into the ice bath. Still, it's going to be quicker than not having a chiller. I can deal with 25 minutes.
In the past, I've used pre-frozen boiled water to add to the wort. Helped a bit.