Herms heat coil attachment question

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ftlstrings

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I am planning out a HERMS build and I'm wondering how you all have connected your copper coils to/through the keg/vessel wall??

I am planning on using a SS keg to house the coil, so I guess I'm asking what fittings or couplings are commonly used?

Thanks!

Mike.
 
I'm sure it's something simple, but I haven't seen anything that seemed appropriate here in town and I thought rather than ship in a bunch of stuff that might be useful...
 
Solder the copper pipe (I use 1/2") to a solder-to-male-thread copper fitting http://www.homedepot.com/Building-M...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053. Put a SS washer http://www.greatbargain.net/order/shop2.html and oring on those threads and put the threads through the kettle wall from the inside. On the outside place another oring, and then a locknut followed by a ball valve then hose fitting or quick connect for the bottom coil outlet, or just a quick connect fitting or hose barb fitting for the top of the coil (inlet). Because gravity will be in effect, no ball valve is needed on the top.

You can still remove the coil by unscrewing the fittings from the outside of the kettle.

There are lots of ways to do this surely though! good luck!

Cheers
 
I build my herms coil to "hang" in the hlt with valves and connections out the top. I did not drill my hlt. Even though I have a CFC, I have also used my herms coil to cool the wort by sticking it in a bucket of ice water.

Ed
 
It also depends on what you're connecting on the outside and whether you want to weld bulkheads in or not.

I'd probably weld full couplings in. Compression fittings go on the inside and male QD's go on the outside.

To make it weldless, I'd put a locknut on the male QD's 1/2" NPT threads with some teflon tape, then an oring, then into the holes in the vessel, then thread on a compression fitting that has female 1/2" NPT threads.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I am off on the right track, an now I know it thanks to you all! I am gonna start out with weldless fittings to see how I like the setup with 3/8" copper for my coil.


~M~
 
but what is the difference in surface area to volume?

For one thing both 3/8" and 1/2" soft copper tubing of 50' length both have 0.032" wall thickness. 3/8" has an ID of 0.311", 1/2" an ID of 0.436" of cross sectional area. This makes 1/2" at 1.965 times more cross sectional area than 3/8". Which one would you rather have as back pressure and flow on your pump? 3/8" for $83.88, 1/2" for $109.99 as an example off this site; www.plumbingsupply.com/coppertubing.htm as an example. Go to "C" for the copper pipe, soft tubing section, look at their chart.There must be other sites that are cheaper just look around. Nothing worse that "I should of got the bigger tubing" question after your build. It takes more pressure to pass liquid thru 50' of copper tubing with 3/8" than 1/2" tubing, the math is there. Hope this helped you decide.
 
Not too much cheaper, but the cheapest source I know:
ICS Industries 100 foot of 1/2" for 92.54

Cheers

I like the plumbingsupply due to their charts in my files showing true ID measurement specs not to purchase from them unless the only company as they are on the high side in prices. To see tubing size without the ID measurement shown as well wall thickness for heat transfer i'll move on.
That was an example just to show the cross sectional area differences.
 
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