Wort Chiller

I've got a 25' copper wort chiller and a 25' copper pre-wort chiller used to chill my 5 gallon batches, but it seems like it takes too long to cool 5 gallons. I'd say it takes about 30 - 45 minutes to get down to 75F, which still isn't as cool as I'd like it, but I just give up after 45 minutes. Could it be that I have the hose water on too high? Is the water flowing too fast through the chiller? I don't think it should take this long to cool the wort, but maybe I'm wrong. How long does it usually take?

I only have a 15ft chiller and to increase my efficency, I run my hose into the chiller, then out of the chiller into a tub, then I use a small piece of hose to siphon out of the tub. The boil pot is in the tub and so it is getting cooled internally by the chiller, and externally by the water in the tub. I aim the hose in the tub so it swirls the water around in a circle. I can get my wort down below 70 in 15 minutes this way. Until I can build a CFC, it works.

here is a crappy drawing

It takes me about 10-15 minutes. My water is usually about 60 coming out of the hose. I also put my brew pot in a tub of ice water that contains a pond pump, which pumps the water through my chiller. There are many benefits of doing this:
your water gets extremely cold (keep adding ice and salt)
you are chilling your wort from the inside and out (brew pot is submerged)
you are saving water

Brett3rThanU said:

I've got a 25' copper wort chiller and a 25' copper pre-wort chiller used to chill my 5 gallon batches, but it seems like it takes too long to cool 5 gallons. I'd say it takes about 30 - 45 minutes to get down to 75F, which still isn't as cool as I'd like it, but I just give up after 45 minutes. Could it be that I have the hose water on too high? Is the water flowing too fast through the chiller? I don't think it should take this long to cool the wort, but maybe I'm wrong. How long does it usually take?

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As long as your water is fairly cool (should be this time of year), you should be able to bring the temp of a 5gal batch to under 80F in 15-20mins. Make sure you're slowly stirring every few minutes to help distribute the cooler wort that was in proximity to the coils...that makes a *huge* difference in efficiency.

Also, I've got a small utility basin near my clothes washer that has a garden hose thread on the faucet. To save water, I run the output of the chiller to the empty washer and use that warm water to do a load of laundry after I'm finished. If you don't have a utility basin, using the washer's supply faucet would work too, just maybe not as conveniently.

If you constantly stir the wort opposite the direction of water flow (either with a spoon or by draining and pumping back in ala the Jamil whirlpool chiller) you will be within a few degrees of your water temp in about 10 minutes.

The only think CFCs or plate chillers do that is fundamentally different than an IC is constantly exchange the wort in contact with the chilling surface for hot unchilled wort. It is stupid easy to do that with an IC though, it costs you a march pump if you don't want to stand there and stir.

I just hook up my chiller to the tap and put the kettle in a bucket of ice water. (one bag of ice and a couple gallons of water. Takes about 10 minutes. A few minutes longer when it's really hot outside.