Immersion Chiller Idea Using Kegerator

I’m planning on building an immersion chiller and had an idea to incorporate my kegerator into the design. I live in a part of Southern California which sees temps over 100 during the summer. With the hottest months coming up, I’m not sure if my tap water will be cold enough to cool the wort efficiently through an immersion chiller.

So here’s my idea…the night before brew-day, fill up an empty corny keg with tap water and leave it in my kegerator overnight at around 40 degrees F. After boiling the wort, I would connect tubing from the liquid-out end of the keg directly into the immersion chiller. Then, I would hook up my co2 to the keg of water with just enough pressure to get the water to flow through the chiller at a decent rate.

Has anybody tried something like this or does anybody see potential problems with this method? I’m thinking that although it might be a waste of CO2, it is a simple enough way to pump ice cold water through the chiller. Thoughts?

I would buy a cheap submersible pond pump at Home Depot or where ever and start with tap water before switching to the chilled water. Won't waste CO2 and it's basically the same idea.

If I'm just using tap water, why couldn't I just connect a hose instead of buying a pond pump? The whole idea of this was to chill the water temp before running it through the chiller.

just make a pre-chiller...basically a small cooler with a 20' coil of copper in it filled w/ water and ice....water goes from tap through ice water coil and through immersion chiller...

ronllave said:

If I'm just using tap water, why couldn't I just connect a hose instead of buying a pond pump? The whole idea of this was to chill the water temp before running it through the chiller.

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You could use a hose. But when the wort is still near boiling, there is a large enough temperature differential where you can get effective cooling. When the temp. differential isn't as large (say when the wort is around 100F), you can switch over to chilled/ice water to continue cooling. Cooling initially with the chilled water would be a waste of your chilled water and you might run out of it in your keg before the wort is properly cooled.
By using a submersible pump you can start it in a bucket/keg of tap water, then when the wort is cooled to ~100F (or whenever the temp. differential isn't large enough to rapidly cool), you just pick up the pump and throw it in your bucket/keg of chilled/ice water. Efficient and easy.

I am make going to be making a immersion chiller this weekend and i plain on make a immersion chiller and a pre-chiller. so i ca get my wort down faster. I dont think it will take much more money or time to do so.

My idea of using the keg was avoid having to build a pre-chiller. I already have everything I need to use the kegerator and keg, so I would be saving money and time on building a pre-chiller. I guess it comes down to using my CO2 versus spending the money on either a prechiller or a pond pump. I"m just unsure how much CO2 it would actually take to pump through enough chilled water to cool a 5 gallon batch.

I do a similar system where I freeze bottles of ice and then use those to chill a bucket of tap water to the 30-40F range.

I chill down to sub-100F range with tap water, then switch over to the bucket. I use a fountain pump that I bought off of amazon for like $15 to force the water through the chiller, and then recirculate back into the ice bucket.

Wait Wait Wait Wait .... !

ronllave said:

So here’s my idea…the night before brew-day, fill up an empty corny keg with tap water and leave it in my kegerator overnight at around 40 degrees F.

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you have SPACE in your kegerator????

Hang Glider said:

Wait Wait Wait Wait .... !





you have SPACE in your kegerator????

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Must have a walk in cooler or something.....

PinkyOFloyd said:

Must have a walk in cooler or something.....

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Ha! That would be awesome. Yes, my kegerator fits two corny kegs.

I guess the concensus is that using a pond pump or wort chiller would be easier then pushing cold water from a keg using CO2, but I'm still not convinced. I have the kegerator and everything set up, so I wouldn't have to spend money or build anything extra. The only downside I see is using up some CO2.

If it will use up a lot of CO2, I understand why this set-up wouldn't be ideal. Does anybody have suggestions on a cheap pond pump to buy?

studmonk3y said:

I would buy a cheap submersible pond pump at Home Depot or where ever and start with tap water before switching to the chilled water. Won't waste CO2 and it's basically the same idea.

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+1 on the submersible pump idea. I use this one from Northern Tool (http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_792_792) in a HD bucket with water and I get about 4 bags of ice and I'm able to drop temp down to ~75F in 15-20mins. Don't get a fountain/aquarium pump...many times they don't have enough lift to push water up to the IC and through 25-50ft of tubing.

BTW, it's on sale for $37 has awesome lift and I think is rated for 1300GPH. Great flow rate!

axr

C'mon guys... the man asked for thoughts and suggestions on HIS idea, not to give him OTHER ideas.

ronllave said:

My idea of using the keg was avoid having to build a pre-chiller. I already have everything I need to use the kegerator and keg, so I would be saving money and time on building a pre-chiller. I guess it comes down to using my CO2 versus spending the money on either a prechiller or a pond pump. I"m just unsure how much CO2 it would actually take to pump through enough chilled water to cool a 5 gallon batch.

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Ronllave, I think it sounds like a fine idea though I agree with studmonk3y... you should run regular hose water through it to get it down to the 100ish range and then use your chilled keg water to get it the rest of the way down.

I don't think you'll use a ton of CO2 to push the water... I know I've filled some kegs up with sanitizer and pumped them all out with just a few shots of 30psi. There will be a bit of back pressure to go through the chiller so it might take a bit more CO2. I'd say just test it... fill a keg with regular water and see how many shots of CO2 it takes to run the keg through your chiller.

A few potential problems I see with your design:
-There's a chance 5 gallons might not be enough water to get it down to temp.
-Having to switch from hose to your keg half way during the chill might be annoying.
-I think it takes longer than just "overnight" to chill 5 gallons of liquid in a refrigerator...
-Like you said, too much CO2... but I personally don't think it'll be a problem.

I guess there's a reason why nobody else used this method. I was just looking to use equipment I already owned instead of spending more money. I guess its just easier to buy a pump or build a pre-chiller. Thanks for the feedback!