Did you Make your Wort Chiller, or Did You Buy One?

First AG Batch is coming up, and I have been looking at Wort Chillers. I like the simple Copper Immersion Chillers the best. Only thing is that More Beer has so many to choose from. I'm not sure of the one I'll need, so I'll borrow a buddy's for my first AG Brew, and take some measure ments as far as how high the Wort comes in my Kettle. That will determie which Chiller will work for me.


Now, anyone here simply make an immersion chiller? If so, was it worth the savings in money and what size Copper did you use?

with the current price of copper, it'd be wise to find a good deal on a pre-made one before they go up in price.
I got mine in august for $45 for a 25' coil, and the various connections needed.

When I bought mine, it would have cost me the same price to buy the copper as it cost to buy it made. If I had been able to buy a larger amount of copper making my own would have been cheaper. I believe that 3/8'' is what most people get.
This is the one I bought: http://ebrew.com/wort_chillers/regular_immersion_wort_chiller.htm
Cheaper than the same at MoreBeer and they are closer to my house so it got here in a day.

I bought 60' feet of 3/8 copper, a 270 gph fountain pump, and some 1/2 I/D tubing and was right at $100. It will cool 3.5 gallons to sub 70 in about 10 minutes with out stirring. I pump Ice water through it from start to finish and it comes out scalding for the first 5 minutes. I figured this would be adequate when and if I ever do large AG batches.

At least where I am at you can buy a pre-made chiller cheaper than making it from scratch. I don't think the homebrew store prices have totally caught up to the copper increase yet. The standard for 5gal seems to be 25' of 3/8, but if you want to chill fast go bigger and longer (that sounds dirty).

Here's the one that interests me. http://morebeer.com/view_product/19522/ I just want to be sure that it will fit properly into my Boil Tun (A Half Barrel with the Top cut off). Think it will do just as good of a job on a 5 Gallon Boil as it will on a 10 Gallon Boil?

I bought a MoreBeer (R) 1/2 x50 ft chiller and for 10-12 gallons is really good. It has the fittings for the hose connection and is really convienient.

www.morebeer.com

Made my own. The previous tenant was a handyman or something and left 100 feet of 5/8 inch copper soft copper tubing. I bought a tube bender tool and it works like charm. The copper alone sold for over $80 @ home depot. I had enough left over to make a second chiller which I place in ice water. The water runs from the house through the cooler then to the wort. It chills quickly. It was really simple.

we made ours. i don't know that we saved any money, but we like tinkering, especially the old man, who claims the home brew is too yeasty, but is always asking for another glass of it

I just made one last weekend. I LOVE IT! Got 12' of 1/2" tubing from the dumpster at church when they did a cleanup. I think I have $4 into it total and it cools the wort to sub-70 in 15 minutes.

Morebeer. For the price, it was the same as making my own.

If you really want a deal, you have to scour Ebay and be patient. I've gotten 100' of 1/2" OD for under $100 shipped. That was enough for 3 chillers.

I'm not very handy, but I had no trouble making my own. I went with 50' of 3/8" copper. I wound it around an empty paint can, wove some copper wire through the coils to give it some integrity (avoiding the slinky effect). This cooled my 5.5 gallon boil in about 15 minutes. Seems a good value and was fun to build.

Regards,
BP

I bought mine off of Ebay...the chiller had a minor dent, so the seller sold it to me for $29 plus $10 to ship. Works fine and I can get below 140 in 8 minutes and chilled to pitching temps in 20 minutes.

Bought mine from northernbrewer... was definintely cheaper than building one myself. I was in Germany at the time and copper was unbelievably expensive... mostly because of the dollar/euro exchange rate.

Made my own counterflow. I got the copper for employee cost at a supply house.

It's a bit more work building a counterflow, and I probably only saved 25 or 30 bucks, but it's set up exactly how I want it.

Cools 10.5 gallons from boiling to chill water temp in 15 min or so gravity fed. And all the wort in the kettle stays above 200* and isn't exposed to possible airborne contaminents while cooling down.

I made my own 50' chiller from 3/8". I found the roll in a rural lumber store. It was all dusty and had been there for awhile. They apparently hadn't gotten the memo about the price of copper going through the roof and the charged me only $40 Danadian for it. I wound it around a corny to get the bend.

I bought mine from MoreBeer....50' of 1/2" copper. It's a beast....I keep it out of sight in my garage, though; I'd hate to have someone break in.

I built mine complete with a prechiller for the retail price of a store-bought model (no pre-chiller). No tube bender--I bent the tubing around a cookie jar!

It's worth it to just buy retail. The little money you save on buying everything yourself probably isn't worth it, unless you can get the materials for next to nothing.

I can get from 200F to 90F in ~20 minutes. I'm happy with that.

I can go from 90F to 80F in 10 minutes. I'd like to improve that by recirculating ice-water using a pump.

I made my first immersion chiller. 25' of 3/8 soft copper, only $19 Canadian. I of course can't leave well enough alone so I bought another 25' of 3/8 soft copper and an RV water hose and made a soldered CFC for about $40 Canadian.

No matter where I buy copper around here it is that cheap, don't know why I get off so easy on price but I'm happier for it. Sounds like you guys should be ordering your copper from someone north of the border.

I made my own also a few years ago and it only cost me my labour. Free material.

Bought mine.

Made mine couple years ago and had 1 bad bend, but worked like a champ. Time for a new one maybe a counterflow this time.

Everyone is posting that copper is so expensive and it's cheaper to buy a pre-made one. I looked at the local hardware store yesterday (Menards) and it was $25 for 20' and $50 for 50' of 3/8" soft copper tubing. I didn't get a chance to look at the cost of connectors, but it seems like I could make one for almost half the price of buying a pre-made one.

I bought my IC from the LHBS and my CFC I picked up with a bunch of kegs and stuff from a homebrewer that got out of it.
Now I'm rebuilding the CFC. It only has 6 feet of copper and with the summer water temps only gets me from boil to 90* and leaks like a funnle. So I will be making it with about 15 feet of copper and make it so water only comes out where it should.

Bought my CFC. It needed some upgrades, but it's now a thing of beauty. Cools wort down quickly and allows you to keep all that valuable cold-break material in your primary. That stuff is EXCELLENT for your beer.

drunkatuw said:

Everyone is posting that copper is so expensive and it's cheaper to buy a pre-made one. I looked at the local hardware store yesterday (Menards) and it was $25 for 20' and $50 for 50' of 3/8" soft copper tubing. I didn't get a chance to look at the cost of connectors, but it seems like I could make one for almost half the price of buying a pre-made one.

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Be careful that you are measuring the ID. I know my Homedepot labels there 1/4" as 3/8" (the OD). The fine print says "1/4 nominal".

Made mine. Best money spent so far for the brewing hobby.

drunkatuw said:

Everyone is posting that copper is so expensive and it's cheaper to buy a pre-made one. I looked at the local hardware store yesterday (Menards) and it was $25 for 20' and $50 for 50' of 3/8" soft copper tubing. I didn't get a chance to look at the cost of connectors, but it seems like I could make one for almost half the price of buying a pre-made one.

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Actually, I think Menards has soft copper on sale this week.

That aside, I built mine.

60' 1/2" copper that fell off my brother-in-laws truck - $0
4 SS hose clamps $2-3
50' 1/2" garden hose $7.83

Less than $10 for the whole shebang.

Normally I'm all for DIY projects, but bending 50' of copper tubing just didn't sound very fun to me, so I bought mine.

Bought mine, but I've modified it. Seriously considering adding more tubing.

I just got one of these from Midwest a few weeks ago, $80 bucks. (50 ft, 3/8 in copper) It's either about as cheap or cheaper than making one from scratch, and no work is needed to make it.

mine was a gift.. i have the williams brewing one

I got my 3/8" x 25" (and some other goodies) from Northern Brewer. They were having a special, $5 for shipping anywhere in the lower 48 states. I once tried boiling 5 gallons on my stove and then cooling it in an ice bath (that made for a long night). Wort chiller is a wonderful thing.

correction..... 3/8" x 25' is the size. If I would have received a 25 inch wort chiller I would have been a little upset.

Here's a nice thing about a CFC in the Midwest:

In the winter, you can burry that badass in a snowbank and ubercool your wort.

Cheesefood said:

Here's a nice thing about a CFC in the Midwest:

In the winter, you can burry that badass in a snowbank and ubercool your wort.

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I've been waiting so long for a winter storm here in Charlottesville to make some beer and cool it down in the snow....maybe this year we'll get a good storm.

ohiobrewtus said:

Normally I'm all for DIY projects, but bending 50' of copper tubing just didn't sound very fun to me, so I bought mine.

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I comes in a large roll already and then all you have to do is wrap it around something that is the size of the loops you want. I initially wrapped mine around a corney and then when I wanted it larger I just opened the loops by hand. Each operation took under 15 minutes. I could have joined the loops to make it pretty, but I don't much give a damn. It just has to work.

50' coil of 3/8" copper tube online (google 3/8" copper tube for pricing - I bought mine from a refrigeration supply service). Used a tube bender and a 5 gal bucket to coil/bend the tubing. Copper wire stripped of insulation to hold coils in place. Hose fittings were purchased at HD (compression dishwasher fittings). Final price - probably no cheaper than if I had purchased one. The feeling from making it myself is priceless. Cools 5 gal wort from 200 deg F to 75 deg F in less than 10 minutes.

I made one. It sucked, so I then bought one.

The one I made actually did work, just was a PITA.