Wort chiller. To buy or not to buy...

Is it maybe just my area or has the cost of copper increased so much that buying a commercial wort chiller costs about the same as making your own?

I was looking online at Lowes & The Home Depot and the price of copper coil is super expensive. I can buy one from AHS for $65 + shipping which is only slightly more than I'd be spending on copper to build my own.

Am I looking in the wrong place?

I bought mine from Midwest and it was about that price. I've used it on three batches so far and it has been worth every penny. If you have the tools, time, and materials to build one I hear they're not to hard to make. I think they come out to be fairly close in price when it's all said and done.

Here's where I bought mine. It's ~$55 for 50' 1/2 inch.

See Bobby_M's video to make your own. 50' would do 10 gallon. If you're brewing 5, you could make two for less than the price of one from Midwest and sell one

I should add when I built mine, I used the entire 50' of ref. coil in the coil itself. The inlet and outlet were plumbed with 3/8 to 1/2 ell and 1/2" rigid copper. Both are connected to 1/2"qd's and attach to a dedicated hose.

That's exactly what I mean. I'm all about the DIY concept but mainly for $$ reasons. If it's the difference of a few bucks I'd just buy one.

I was reading this build http://www.olderascal.com/brewing/wortchiller/index.html and $10 was the cost of copper. I'm assuming the cost has gone up significantly since this page was made. Unless of course I'm just looking in the wrong places for copper.

Yes, copper has gone up dramatically. So much so that there has been lots of reports of copper wiring an tubing being stolen out of houses that are being built in our area. Apparently some of the thieves were caught trying to sell huge amounts of the stuff to recycle centers.

If you have a locally owned plumbing supply or hardware store check there. I bought 50 feet of copper at my little Mom & Pop hardware store cheaper than Home Depot.

I had the option to either buy a 25ft one for 50.00 or so or build a 50ft one for 55$ so of course I went with the 50ft route.

I just made one Thursday and it only ran me $30-35. I actually just used it yesterday for the first time and it chilled my wort to 80 degrees in 15-20 minutes

Buy or make one for sure. Makes the process much easier.

I bought the stainless steel version from Midwest Supplies...anyone use these instead of the copper?

Copper is pretty expensive these days so like you have found, it's often not much of a savings over an already made one. By the time you buy the tubing, fittings, and depending on the design, the stuff to sweat on the joints or add hoses you may not be saving much.

I made one last year with 50' of 1/2" and the total cost was around $85 (bought copper locally, not online), which was about $10 less than you could get a similar one already made at LHBS or someplace like Midwest. Not a huge savings, but I more or less went that route because it was fun to build and gave me an excuse to spend some time in the garage with a newborn in the house

I built my counterflow for around $40-45 using 20' of 3/8" od copper and a higher grade 5/8" nylon reinforced clear tubing for the outer. A garden hose would have worked fine though. 20' of 3/8 od copper was only $10 at HD. It will bring boiling wort to 58* with a water temp of 55*. I used another small piece of 3/8 copper to hang over the side of the pot when siphoning so it can handle the high temps. It will work great for any size batch, and very quickly.

I have a SS chiller and it's great. I put the 16qt brew pot in the sink with ice water, put the chiller in the brewpot and use it to swirl the wort while chilling. I can drop the temp of about 10qts of wort to about 75F in about 5 mins. Using the chiller coils to swirl the wort makes a huge difference. I suspect that the SS tubing is much stiffer.

People tend to ignore the intrinsic value of having/using something you made yourself. You make your own beer because of the quality of the finished product, right? Why should the tools you use to make it be any different? Brew your own, build your own...you won't be disappointed.

FallsDamBrewery said:

I bought the stainless steel version from Midwest Supplies...anyone use these instead of the copper?

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I had to put an extra set of clamps on the hoses due to small leaks, but it works fine and cools quickly.

FallsDamBrewery said:

I bought the stainless steel version from Midwest Supplies...anyone use these instead of the copper?

Click to expand...

I just started brewing and have done two extract kit brews now. I also bought the stainless version from Midwest. I like it but can't compare to a copper one as far as performance. I can tell you it does a great job at cooling down the wort, the water coming out the chiller is too hot to touch for the first few min.

TRainH2o said:

If you have a locally owned plumbing supply or hardware store check there. I bought 50 feet of copper at my little Mom & Pop hardware store cheaper than Home Depot.

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Same here. It's much cheaper at the mom and pop stores than at the major chains. Plus the small stores here will cut the length you want, unlike what I've found at Lowes.

I am in this sam boat being in SW connecticut. The cost of buying 50' of copper is about $60 here. A little ridiculous if you ask me. I am all for the build it yourself, but not when it can save me time, money and aggrevation(only a little, i know) buying it online.

Two days ago, I bought TWO 20' coils of 3/8" copper refrigeration tubing at Home Depot. Each coil was a bit UNDER $12.00, so I'm talking $25.00 for 40' of copper. HD, however, does NOT carry the fittings, since refrigeration copper is slightly different in size than conventional copper. I do have a dear friend, however, who is in the HVAC business, and DOES have the 90° elbows and the union I will need.

glenn514

I also bought my copper tubing from
http://coppertubingsales.com/copper_tubing_prices.php

You can buy a 25-30ft chiller for $60-75 or make a 50ft chiller for $40-60; so saying you can buy for the same price is false. You can buy a 50ft chiller for $110-140.

I've made 3 so far with scrap copper a buddy of mine had in his garage. I found that while making the actual chiller was cheaper, that after buying all the compression fittings, sink adapters and plastic tubing I needed, I should ahve just bought them. My LHBS wants like $130 for one that you can buy from Midwest for about $60 or so. Just my $.02.