Wort chiller... same?

Does anyone know if these are the same... sounds like Adventures in Homebrewing has a larger diameter copper coil....




This is from Austin....

BrewVint - Wort Chiller - 30 ft. [01836]$39.99
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Manufactured by BrewVint™.
Using an immersion chiller is an economical and easy method for chilling your wort. Our immersion chillers are constructed from 30’ of 3/8” OD copper tubing, heavy duty hosing, and a high quality female garden hose fitting on the inlet side.
A benefit of the immersion chiller design is its ease of cleaning and sanitizing. Simply put the chiller in your boiling wort 15 minutes before the end of your boil and the boiling wort will take care of the rest. To increase the efficiency of your chiller, your wort should be stirred with a sanitary spoon (wood is not recommended!), or when the temperature has dropped enough the chiller itself may be swirled in your kettle. Use caution and common sense when touching the chiller, as the water exiting your chiller will be very hot!
An adapter is available to connect the garden hose fitting to your kitchen sink.
Base Product Price $39.99



This is from Adventures in Homebrewing....

Description Your Price:$50.00

one is 30 ft and 3/8 inch and the other is 25 ft and 1/2 inch. so no they are not the same. I think they both would work the same.

Is more better or is a wider copper tube better? Acually... I know more is better, but I'm trying to figure out is the 25 food 1/2 inch one from AH worth the extra $10 or not?

If it were me making the purchase, I would buy the one that is cheaper. They look to be about the same to me, except the price.

If I had to guess, I would say that the one that is 3/8" and 30 feet would be more efficient. Maybe use less water and with the 30 foot length would cool the wort faster.
Strictly a guess.

Buy two of the cheaper one and use one as a pre-chiller--summer is coming!!!!1

Or better yet, buy a CFC!!!!

I made a bunch of changes all at once last summer, but moving from an immersion chiller to a CFC was a great thing for my beers. I'm pretty sure the quick chilling was a huge factor in the improvement in the clarity, for sure.

Dude said:

Buy two of the cheaper one and use one as a pre-chiller--summer is coming!!!!1

Or better yet, buy a CFC!!!!

I made a bunch of changes all at once last summer, but moving from an immersion chiller to a CFC was a great thing for my beers. I'm pretty sure the quick chilling was a huge factor in the improvement in the clarity, for sure.

Click to expand...

That pre chiller is a good idea. I brewed last night, i doughed in at 9pm and pitched at 1:30 am which was pretty good.(thanks to the quik batch sparge)...The water coming out of the hose was nice and cold for one, and i used a combination of an ice water bath and an immersion chiller. I had my kettle in a rubbermaid bin with 2x16 lbs of ice plus a gallon or so of h20, and ran the immersion for 25 minutes. The wort was down to 72 after 25 minutes.
By the time the REAL summer temps get here, that is to say 90 degrees at midnight, ill have my keggle ready and hopefeully a plate chiller...:rockin:

The 3/8x30 ft cooler has about 425 sq. in. of surface, the 1/2x25 about 470. Less than 10% more surface for 25% more money.

How could you even consider buying a CFC when there are fantastic plans for one on this very board?!?!

I have actually thought of making a CFC. My problem is that the pot I have does not have a spiggot..... how do you get the wort out of it? Racking cane?

Ordered the one from Austin with a few other thing to get it above 60. I went to the nearest brew store from me and they had a wort chiller that looked a little shorter then Austins... 3/8 inch copper tubing and looked like it was a 25 footer. They wanted $59.95! I think he was expecting a reaction... had this grin and was stairing straight at the computer screen that informed him of the cost.

Out of curiousity I stoped by Home Depot to check out the cost of making one. 20 feet of 3/8 copper was about $37 (50 feet was $49). With fittings and all it woud probably get close to $50 I suppose. Making a CFC would be probably around $70.

I looked into building a counter flow chiller, and figured it would cost me around 40-50, plus lots of frustration, injured fingers, and valuable time. So I bought one for about 60 bucks off of Ebay and it works awesome. . .

I received a 50 ft (yes, it is big with lots of coils) immersion chiller with my new brew system, but I intend on using this as a pre=chiller. . .when all said and done, my wort will probably freeze when it hits the carboy!!!:rockin:

I still have to say build your own immersion chiller, or counterflow for that matter. The immersion is easy to build, works easy and will save you money. As soon as I get a keggle I'm building a counterflow. Untill then, my homemade immersion chiller continues to get the job done just fine.

Thanks all! 20 minutes after I placed the order they called. My first thoughts were tha the price jumped on the chiller and they did not get to the website yet, but no. Random confirmation of credit card information

Beer Snob said:

I have actually thought of making a CFC. My problem is that the pot I have does not have a spiggot..... how do you get the wort out of it? Racking cane?

Click to expand...

Yup, I use a piece of 3/8" copper tubing bent into racking-cane shape with a home-made hop-stopper on the one end. 'Tis a charm.

Also, that price for 25' of 3/8" copper sounds extrordinarily high. It only consts about $15 back home, not even.

And here it is! Hot right out of the box! I was starting to worry that it would be too wide for my pot. Looks like it will fit very well.



Its sitting on the fermentation bucket I ordered. Hoping opening the top gets easier, you practicily need pliers to open the thing. I also ordered 5 feet of high temp tubing to take care of the problem I had with the tubing softening up between the false bottom fitting and the Kewler Kit fittings (for those who did not see the thread of my first AG attempt... the standard vynl tubing softened up and broke loose making life significiantly more complex). I'm still getting clamps though just to be sure.

Ok... let me get this straight... the fermentation bucket is made in Rochester, MI (oh... about 45 minutes from me), gets shiped to Austin, TX. Then gets shiped back to me 45 minutes from where it was made (there is a stamp on the top).

Beer Snob said:

Its sitting on the fermentation bucket I ordered. Hoping opening the top gets easier, you practicily need pliers to open the thing.

Click to expand...

It will get easier, but not much. You may want to look at a bucket opener if you plan on using one for awhile.

Check it out.


We used these at work to open 5 gallon buckets. The big ones work good. Not too sure about this one though.

SWMBO comes home.... looks at it real deeply for a few minutes.... "Now what exactly are you using that thing for?"

Alternatively, why not make your own? It's bound to be cheaper! I made one with some 8mm copper coil inside a length of wide-bore pvc tubing. Instead of immersing in the wort, I put mains cold water through the pvc tubing outer (sitting in the sink) and syphon the hot wort through the copper tubing into my fermentation bin. In testing, I can syphon boiling water out of a kettle and get in coming out the other end cold to the touch! I just pitch the yeast in straight after syphoning. Syphoning time is WAY less than 10 mins for 5 gallons (depending on height of upper and lower bins).

Chillers at Austin's just went up $10. The chiller I got in the mail a few days ago is now $50 instead of $40.