Great price on copper coil at home depot.

I went to home depot to get a copper coil. Much to my delight they had a sale that kind of blows my mind. 50ft of 3/8 copper coil for $15.03. Originally $62.99. I'm not sure if it's just my local home depot (San Jose, CA) or what, but if you're in a market of making a wort chiller it wouldn't hurt to call your local HD and see if same deal is available. Maybe they can price match if it's not. Hell just get some and take it for recycling. Make few bucks.

Holy S#!t... wish I had that deal near me, I pay $11 per 10 to 15 feet i think.

Which location? ... I'm there tomorrow ...

I ran into the same thing about a year ago and literally did a triple take - I kept thinking the footage wasn't really 50 feet, or the diameter wasn't really 3/8", or the price was wrong, or...

Finally dragged the box off the shelf and almost ran to the cashier to pay for it.

One chiller, dirt cheap!

Cheers!

dutchoven said:

Which location? ... I'm there tomorrow ...

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Haha get there early! I think I'm gonna get more just in case! lol.

It was Blossom Hill Location in South San Jose (Santa Teresa and Blossom Hill). They probably had 5 more coils there. Ironically enough a person that I asked to double check that price for me was a home brewer as well. He's reaction was also "holy s*it", he said he's getting two of these at the end of the shift. lol. Call tomorrow morning and tell them to pull one on will call for you. Or give you a rain check if they're out.

Yellow tags are clearance items, we can't price match or rain check the prices. what you see is what you get, when its gone its gone. Usually its when we are changing vendors or something.

oh, good to know.

Bartp said:

I went to home depot to get a copper coil. Much to my delight they had a sale that kind of blows my mind. 50ft of 3/8 copper coil for $15.03. Originally $62.99. I'm not sure if it's just my local home depot (San Jose, CA) or what, but if you're in a market of making a wort chiller it wouldn't hurt to call your local HD and see if same deal is available. Maybe they can price match if it's not. Hell just get some and take it for recycling. Make few bucks.

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Holy $hit!

buy them out. then scrap the stuff... youll make money

Does anybody know if this is all locations or just this one?

I got a great deal when I bought the copper for my immersion chiller. They couldn't find the price in the system for the 25' rolls (there were two of them on the shelf, I wanted to buy one), so they charged me for the 10'-ers...

"Uh, do you mind if I buy both?"

I think I'll drop by HD later today to check this out. I have no need for this but the price is right. Maybe copper racking canes? I already made an immersion chiller and recently acquired a homemade CFC.

I just stopped by my HD, no sale here.

I work at HD in Little Rock, Ar. No sale here. It's $56.

As a homebrewer, you were supposed to buy all of them. You could easily sell them to people on this forum for $25 and they'd thank you for it.

Type in the sku on homedepot.com and in comes in at 43.16. You should be able to get the store to price match the web price.

This copper is HVAC-sized copper tubing. You will need HVAC-sized fittings, NOT the customary water/liquid fittings that the big box stores carry. I ran into that when I bought my tubing. Fortunately, I have a friend who is a HVAC tech, and got the fittings for me. Just be aware of that.

glenn514

Oh, damn! $15? That's awesome! I want!!!

glenn514 said:

This copper is HVAC-sized copper tubing. You will need HVAC-sized fittings, NOT the customary water/liquid fittings that the big box stores carry. I ran into that when I bought my tubing. Fortunately, I have a friend who is a HVAC tech, and got the fittings for me. Just be aware of that.

glenn514

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McMaster-Carr. When I got all the thin tubing I made a dual-coil chiller, but the only place I could find the fittings was M-C.

glenn514 said:

This copper is HVAC-sized copper tubing. You will need HVAC-sized fittings, NOT the customary water/liquid fittings that the big box stores carry. I ran into that when I bought my tubing. Fortunately, I have a friend who is a HVAC tech, and got the fittings for me. Just be aware of that.

glenn514

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You can connect anything you need to pvc hose with hose clamps and then connect the pvc hose to the copper using hose clamps.

Huh? 3/8" OD tubing fits into 1/4" sweat fittings all day long.

Bobby_M said:

Huh? 3/8" OD tubing fits into 1/4" sweat fittings all day long.

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+1 It's certainly not unique to the tubing on sale. It has always been thus...

Cheers!

Bobby_M said:

As a homebrewer, you were supposed to buy all of them. You could easily sell them to people on this forum for $25 and they'd thank you for it.

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I have though of that. Then I though to my self that coming home and saying "Honey guess what! I bought 5 coils of copper! It was a good deal" would not go overly well. haha

It would go over well if you mentioned that $50 profit you'd pull in 5 minutes. I've never heard the old lady say that about 4 pairs of shoes that were on sale.

Bobby_M said:

It would go over well if you mentioned that $50 profit you'd pull in 5 minutes. I've never heard the old lady say that about 4 pairs of shoes that were on sale.

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+2 I'd buy one off you. So, if you decide to do it, lmk cause I got DIBS!

called all the home depots in columbus oh and none of them have it on sale

I'll swing by after work, if they have any more left I'll get some.

None in stock at the three stores I went to in the Sacramento / Elk Grove area.
Meadowview Rd. and Florin Rd. in Sacramento and the West Stockton Blvd. Store didn't have any.

Well quick update.

1. I was able get one more coil for that price. So yay, 100' of 3/8 copper for $30.06. Im not sure what I'm gonna do with the extra coil yet, I might be greedy and just hang on to if for future projects. Like prechiller or a still lol.

2. Hello to my new wort chiller. Total cost was about $21 with vinyl tubing and hardware

Bartp ... Thanks for the heads up on the copper, I picked up a couple rolls and left a few for others. Glad you could get some extra. Chiller looks great; what did you bend the copper around?

dutchoven said:

Bartp ... Thanks for the heads up on the copper, I picked up a couple rolls and left a few for others. Glad you could get some extra. Chiller looks great; what did you bend the copper around?

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cool I'm glad you got some of that. I bent the copper around a 5 gallon bucket, just tightened up a coil around a bit and then tied it with copper wire

glenn514 said:

This copper is HVAC-sized copper tubing. You will need HVAC-sized fittings, NOT the customary water/liquid fittings that the big box stores carry. I ran into that when I bought my tubing. Fortunately, I have a friend who is a HVAC tech, and got the fittings for me. Just be aware of that.

glenn514

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My understanding is that soft copper tubing is nominal sized, the O.D. is constant and the I.D. will vary slightly depending on wall thickness (type L, M, etc.). So thin walled or not it should still be standard 3/8" O.D. and should not present any problems.

caveat emptor.. I am no plumber!

I can't find that deal in my area... go make some chillers

I looked into this more and my remarks above are not quite correct so I wanted to set facts straight in case anyone else reads this. Apologies for the bad info.

Type l, m, and k are nominally sized. The size is an approximation of the id but the actual id will be a function of wall thickness (ie what 'type' the tube is). The outside diameter is a constant 1/8" larger than the stated nominal size. So 1/2" tube has an od of 5/8" regardless of type. K is thickest walled, l is medium, and m is thinnest.

Now here is the catch. There actually is specialty tube for a/c lines and it is sized differently. ACR tube is sized according to actual od. So a 1/2" ACR tube has an od of 1/2" and an id of slightly less than 1/2". Wall thickness is close to that of type l. So 5/8" refrigeration line (ACR) has the same od as 1/2" type l, m, k tube. The id is close too but slightly larger for the 5/8" ACR. Wall thickness is also close to 1/2 type l.

So, if you are using refrigeration line go with 5/8" and you'll be fine. If it is type l, m, or k then 1/2" is what you want. For both the od will be 5/8" and the id slightly larger than 1/2".

edit: so to make this relevant for this thread, 3/8" refrigeration line would have an od of 3/8." 3/8" l, m, or k tube would have an od of 1/2." So 1/2" ACR line and 3/8" L, M, or K tube would have the same OD. ID and wall thickness of type L 3/8" would be very close to 1/2" ACR line.

One more thing, the super cheap copper tubing sears is selling as "utility coil" is not ASTM rated. I contacted the manufacturer and they told me it is .020" wall thickness. For reference, type M tubing is .028" thick, type L .040", and type k .049. These numbers are for 1/2" tube and would be different for 3/8" tube.

I don't know what the od would be for the sears tube. It could be 1/8" larger as is standard for l, m, k tube or it could be as stated (i.e. od=1/2") as it is for ACR line. Or it could be something else entirely. I dunno. If I was on a budget I'd consider the sears "utility coil" but I think I'll just fork out the extra cash for something a bit better.

I bet type M tube would be fine but I'm going to try and locate some ACR line or type L tube. The sears stuff is very thin walled, it might kink easy or not. I dunno. For $26 shipped for 1/2" X 25ft it is a heck of a deal and probably worth trying.

Oh, and for the record I'm getting this info from a handy .pdf manual located at http://www.copper.org/resources/pub_list/pdf/copper_tube_handbook.pdf

You can look up the 3/8" stuff there if you like.

Edit: sorry for all the 1/2" references in a thread about 3/8" copper tube. I'm shopping for 1/2" right now so that was what was on my mind. I know this is off topic but I wanted to put it out there anyhow and it certainly doesn't merit a new thread. Hopefully it's helpful for someone. And the cheap sears utility tubing is available in 3/8" as well.

ibintinknockin said:

buy them out. then scrap the stuff... youll make money

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Or resell!

Lost said:

One more thing, the super cheap copper tubing sears is selling as "utility coil" is not ASTM rated. I contacted the manufacturer and they told me it is .020" wall thickness. For reference, type M tubing is .028" thick, type L .040", and type k .049. These numbers are for 1/2" tube and would be different for 3/8" tube.

I don't know what the od would be for the sears tube. It could be 1/8" larger as is standard for l, m, k tube or it could be as stated (i.e. od=1/2") as it is for ACR line. Or it could be something else entirely. I dunno. If I was on a budget I'd consider the sears "utility coil" but I think I'll just fork out the extra cash for something a bit better.

I bet type M tube would be fine but I'm going to try and locate some ACR line or type L tube. The sears stuff is very thin walled, it might kink easy or not. I dunno. For $26 shipped for 1/2" X 25ft it is a heck of a deal and probably worth trying.

Oh, and for the record I'm getting this info from a handy .pdf manual located at http://www.copper.org/resources/pub_list/pdf/copper_tube_handbook.pdf

You can look up the 3/8" stuff there if you like.

Edit: sorry for all the 1/2" references in a thread about 3/8" copper tube. I'm shopping for 1/2" right now so that was what was on my mind. I know this is off topic but I wanted to put it out there anyhow and it certainly doesn't merit a new thread. Hopefully it's helpful for someone. And the cheap sears utility tubing is available in 3/8" as well.

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Thanks for lots of great info lost. You're right, the refrigeration copper is indeed 3/8 OD, so its thinner than 3/8 type L. However, the price difference between type L, the Utility Copper is a major factor. The diameter is a bit smaller but the surface area of the coil is still more than adequate. Also, utility copper might have thinner walls, but its not as soft as type L, so it's actually more rigid and harder to kink.