My DIY stainless IC

So my father lucked into a spool of flexible gas line by happy accident. It's ribbed stainless with a yellow plastic wrapper, 3/8" ID, and all of .010" thick. It doesn't hold a wide bend very well since it is so thin, so I had to use copper wire to tie it to itself as I wrapped it. It's 1/2" OD, so I used some 1/2" ID vinyl for the supply line with a bard fitting and hose bib. I went short on the tubing, so the output line isn't attached yet. There are 12 wraps in the coil, making a 35' straight run. I can't wait to try it out next weekend.



I'm figuring the ribbing makes more surface area than a 50' chiller in a smaller package, and the extremely thin stainless makes it behave almost as well as copper in the conductivity department.

Wow you just might have designed the next big thing in brewing, I'm very interested in seeing if there is a difference in cooling.

interesting idea. please let us know how fast it cools.

Not so much an idea, as a "necessity is the mother of invention" moment. He had 10' of copper, or about 100' of this stuff. I opted to do a little more of this than a lot less copper than needed. I'll probably do a dry run tomorrow after I get my output hose clamped. I'll just boil 5 gallons of water and see how well it works, and make sure it doesn't leak like a sieve.

Wow, nifty. I like! Can't wait to hear how well it works.

It's leak free, and the water is on the stove... Another 45 minutes or so and I'll know whether the time was worth it.

Holy farking kite!!! From 212 to 68 in a little over FIVE minutes!!! This thing is effing incredible!!! Manually whirlpooling and occasionally dipping the spoon deep to drag up the cold bottom water.

WOW! :rockin:

I believe that is similar to what MoreBeer calls their "efficient chiller." They use kind of twisted copper to increase surface area and create turbulence in the water flowing through.

I have about $26 into it including a new pair of pliers for twisting the copper ties. That's plate chiller speed, without all the pumping insanity... I had NO idea it would work this well.

It looks like it's very similar to morebeer's product, except I'm sure mine has thinner walls. They probably permit equal flow, and I'm pretty sure my kitchen sink was putting all of it's flow through the chiller so it's a dead heat there, too. I can't wait to brew up something hoppy and delicious to see what I've been missing by no-chilling.

Was it hard getting the casing off?

No, piece of cake... It's thin plastic, maybe twice the thickness of the cellophane on a pack of cigarettes. It isn't adhered to the stainless, so a light score with a razor knife and it peels off like a banana.

Without being all negative here I must first congrat you on the material find.
I must ask how it will clean out with grain particles as well cold break after use with all those accordion pockets? Convoluted chillers with an angle without deep pockets vs accordion design with deep pockets plus at perpendicular to the flow. Accordion tubing creates higher turbulence, more backpressure on the pump.
Now I know why my gas rates are so high.

I am kind of curious how much water you chilled... I'm not being skeptical just curious as the difernace between chilling 3 gal of boiling water versus 12 gal in 5 min is pretty big. I have just started thinking about chillers and this has caught my attention.

BrewBeemer said:

Without being all negative here I must first congrat you on the material find.
I must ask how it will clean out with grain particles as well cold break after use with all those accordion pockets? Convoluted chillers with an angle without deep pockets vs accordion design with deep pockets plus at perpendicular to the flow. Accordion tubing creates higher turbulence, more backpressure on the pump.
Now I know why my gas rates are so high.

Click to expand...

He's using as an immersion chiller, not counterflow so any of that junk would just get stuck on the outside.

What I would love to know is how much does it cost to get my hands on 50' of this stuff? Heck if you had 100, want to sell the leftovers?

I just checked out the home depot site, and this is only rated at 0.5psi.... Do you have any leaks running this at full blast?

Mike_A said:

He's using as an immersion chiller, not counterflow so any of that junk would just get stuck on the outside.

What I would love to know is how much does it cost to get my hands on 50' of this stuff? Heck if you had 100, want to sell the leftovers?

Click to expand...

Head "UP AND LOCKED" tonight, thanks for the correction.
Yeah i'll only take 25' not wanting to be greedy.

I doubt it'll take more than a couple minutes under the tub faucet or garden hose to have it clean and shiny again. If I had made a counterflow with it, it may have ended up being a cleaning nightmare.

I chilled a full five gallons. Since it's an open system the pressure is a none-issue, and I didn't end up with any leaks except a small one where my hose adapter screws to my faucet. That's 8' before the start of the stainless though.

Sorry so say, but the leftovers will probably get used in a bigger version if/when I scale up to 10 gallon batches. I guess it's hard to come by if you aren't a licensed gas guy, but I'm sure there are ways to work around it. Check the local residential propane installers. It's really thin, I'd be surprised if it went for more than a couple bucks a foot.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gastite-1-2-x25...985?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53de241431

Looks like this is it. Not really a cheaper option though - unless you get it free! Keep us posted in the future about how this has held up!

Smashing said:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gastite-1-2-x25...985?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53de241431

Looks like this is it. Not really a cheaper option though - unless you get it free! Keep us posted in the future about how this has held up!

Click to expand...

I just went out and looked in the warehouse. that does appear to be corrugated underneath the yellow jacket.

call up your local "HD Supply Plumbing" house and ask about it.

now I have no idea if this GasTite stuff is Stainless underneath it.

-=Jason=-

On flexable gas line i've run across a lot of thin walled corrugated brass.

The stuff I used was GasTite... I'm in the middle of spending the day driving back and forth to Lowes picking up pieces for a new MLT, since my old one is really ghetto and stopped working all that well. Once the new tun is online and I have a free day, I'm going to brew a Sorachi Ace/Cascade APA to see what all the fuss is about involving cooling and using a proper tun... Can't wait.