Made my immersion chiller, not sure if it was worth it

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Jonnio

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So I am pretty well done with my immersion chiller, just have to add some more structural support and it will be done, but its usable as is. I did a 1/2 x 50' chiller, and now that its all said and done not sure if I would have done it all the same if I had a do over.

Here are the things I did that I wouldn't recommend.

1) I wanted to maximize the coil, so I decided to use some leftover 1/2 rigid pipe as my tube that runs from the top of the chiller to the bottom. Apparently I am the first person that goes to Home Depot wanting to be able to solder 1/2 tubing to 1/2 rigid pipe. The only thing I could find was a compression to threaded fitting that would sorta work. I jammed a street elbow into the threaded side and soldered that, then used the compression fitting for the tubing. Which leaked like a sieve, so I ended up soldering that too....that was like $6 down the drain, but it seems to be holding up so far.

2) I am not sure that 1/2 is worth it on the tubing. It really caused a lot of trouble in finding fittings and tubing.

Overall for about $80 or so I have a 50' 1/2 immersion chiller that is going to be major overkill for my 4 gallon boils, but will be ready to go when I hit 10 gallon batches. I am going to add a recirculating system like on morebeer (I think that's where I read about it) so I should have a pretty stout setup.

I will try and post some pics tomorrow in case anyone wants to see it.
 
What you were looking for where 3/8" to 1/2" adapters. All the fittings are rated by the inside diameter of the pipe. Rigid 1/2" pipe is 1/2" ID so it uses 1/2" fittings. 1/2" soft copper tubing is 3/8" ID so it needs 3/8" fittings. I know this is a huge source of confusion.
 
What you were looking for where 3/8" to 1/2" adapters. All the fittings are rated by the inside diameter of the pipe. Rigid 1/2" pipe is 1/2" ID so it uses 1/2" fittings. 1/2" soft copper tubing is 3/8" ID so it needs 3/8" fittings. I know this is a huge source of confusion.

I figured there was something like that out there. My HD just downsized their plumbing to a small section of one isle, so they had no 3/8" fittings :(

Well, If it ends up leaking I will cut it off and go buy the right fitting, but I think it has enough solder in there to hold up, it was just a waste of money...I knew I shoulda gone to Lowes :)
 
Here is a pic of my chiller - it started leaking again out of the compression fitting, so I am going to have to replace that before I do too much brewing. I just sanitized the inside of it and didn't worry about a little leakage into my brew for this first go round though.

IMG_7174.JPG
 
I would suggest going to a couple of your local ace hardware's, that is where I found a lot of odd 3/8 sweat fittings, so they could probably accommodate.
 
You want PITA, I built my chiller using some 1/4 refridgerator tubing that I got for wicked cheap from a clueless Depot. Problem is that the ONLY place I could find the small fittings I needed was online, at McMaster (I was transitioning from the rigid 1/2 tubing to a split-coil with the 1/4" flex tubing).

I'm sure in the end, I didn't end up saving a dime, but it was fun to learn a new skill and it works well, so I'm happy.
 
Yeah, $80 was more than I had planned, but you also couldn't buy the chiller for that. It is basically the equivalent of Chiller from northern brewer for $130
 
Quick question, what type of tubing do you all use? I have ~50' 3/8 and 1/4 copper to made a dual coil chiller (I think that's what came in the rolls) Anyway, i have the copper, and fittings for the faucet. I need to figure out what hose to connect everythin with and what fittings to sue to divide the waterflow and then bring it back together.

I'm going to build this for a 60 quart pot that I will be getting.

-Mike

BTW, with the 1/2" copper many people "swage" copper to get it the right diameter. By flaring the end it enables the end to be able to either fit inside or slide outside an equal sized fitting. HVAC shops can normally do this.
 
I just used reinforced vinyl tubing because a 100' roll (maybe 50', I can't remember) was on clearance for $10. I think it is rated to 180 degrees or so which is probably a little low, but it seemed to work.
 
I just finished making a counter-flow chiller today. My local hardware store only had 20' sections of 3/8 soft copper, so I stuck with that (if it doesn't cool fast enough I might just have to recycle the wort back through again. I also bought a clearance 50' 5/8 (standard size) hose. Bought a 12 inch section of 1/2" copper pipe, two elbows, two tees, two end caps and four clamps. Total ~$50.

Anyways, I too had a problems with leaks where the water supply hose (cold tap) and the copper pipe are connected via hose clamps. Either I need to add another clamp, or I might just spend the extra bucks to solder solid hose fittings to the whole apparatus. This way, I'll never have to worry about leaks.
 
I just made an 3/8 immersion chiller yesterday as well;
immersion_chiller_02.jpg


Can wait to see how it compares to my counterflow chiller.
Cheers
BeerCanuck
 
BeerCanuck - I'd be interested in your comparison. I have had an issue with trub clogging up my CFC and have been thinking about going to an immersion. I have about 25' of 3/8 laying around.
 
BeerCanuck - I'd be interested in your comparison. I have had an issue with trub clogging up my CFC and have been thinking about going to an immersion. I have about 25' of 3/8 laying around.

I don't have issues with my cfc clogging. A hop bag and stainless pot scrubber on pickup tube works well for me;
pickup_siphon_and_hop_bag.jpg


I pieced the immersion chiller together with 3/8" tubing and 1/4" copper fittings it's approximately 50';
immersion_chiller_01.jpg


Cheers
BeerCanuck
 
I have only used the immersion chiller once.

The main concern I had with the immersion chiller is cooling the wort to pitching temps ~70F. With colder tap water temperature (> ~64F ) this was not an issue.

I like the immersion chiller because its easier to clean. When cleaning my counterflow chiller using kladue's earplug technique I was surprised by the amount of crud buildup.
The capturing of the hot output from the immersion is nice when it comes to clean up. The other benefit I liked was the ability to forgo a hop bag since the immersion chiller dropped everything in a nice trub pile. Since the wort was chilled to pitching temps I was also able to use an autosiphon with an aeration gadget to rack. My other keggle has a bulkhead which is nice when connecting a counter flow. My new bigger keggle doesn't have a bulkhead which is an expense that is nice to forgo in my immersion setup.

Cheers
BeerCanuck
 
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