Built a 'Super Chiller'

I've been working on a 20G brewery for a little while now and when it came to chilling the wort I was in a quandry over using a CFC/plate chiller or sticking with an immersion chiller. I'd used a chillus convolutus on my 10G setup and switched to an IC/whirlpool setup. I was happier with the IC/whirlpool setup.

Realizing that a 50' IC probably wasn't going to chill fast enough and that if I just made a 100' IC the last 40' would be useless, I decided to make a dual-path chiller. I have a single in/single out that tees off into 2 X 50' X 1/2" coils. I was skeptical this would work all that well and I built it with the intention I'd probably have to cut it back apart and sell it off as a couple standard chillers, but it worked great! On the system test burn and without the whirlpool hooked up (but rocking the chiller) I was able to chill from 212* to 91* in 10 minutes. In a real life brew test, I was able to chill from 212* to 68* in 20 minutes using 71* ground water to 100* then switching to 35* water. The 35* bath ended at ~60*.

Anyway, I'm really with the results so far. I still need to solder the whirlpool return to it. Here is a pict right after it was built:

Trade ya...but you'll need to come up with some cash:

Beats trying to wrap tubing around a bucket and argon bottle. With the fittings directly over the chiller, aren't yo uworried about leaking chilling water into the wort?

Derrin said:

Beats trying to wrap tubing around a bucket and argon bottle. With the fittings directly over the chiller, aren't yo uworried about leaking chilling water into the wort?

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BM will have to answer the question but the name of the picture is "pre-chiller" so that might give an indication.

burton178 said:

BM will have to answer the question but the name of the picture is "pre-chiller" so that might give an indication.

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Missed that caption, but that makes more sense.

That's a lot of copper! How much did that set you back if you don't mind me asking? I love it! Glad it seems to work real well for you- anticipating your results once you tweak it more

MoRoToRiUm said:

That's a lot of copper! How much did that set you back if you don't mind me asking? I love it! Glad it seems to work real well for you- anticipating your results once you tweak it more

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Well, I was pretty impatient, so I bought the copper coils at Home Depot and the rest of the fittings at Lowes. The total with 2 sets of quick disconnects and the flare fittings for the temperature probes ( I can measure in/out temps of the chiller water) I spent about $210. Now, I paid $78 each for the copper coils. At the time I did it I could have got the coils from ICS for only $50 each plus $30 shipping for both and they're even cheaper today. So.... It can be built for quite a bit less than I did it for, but I wanted it right away.

I want to see a picture of it in the kettle. That thing is Bad A$$. Great idea!
Cheers
JJ

I'm not seeing the picture...


looks like work was blocking pictures... I see it clear as day now...

Damn that is a fricken monster.

MoRoToRiUm said:

That's a lot of copper! How much did that set you back if you don't mind me asking? ...

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Oh..it wasn't really that much. I had some spare tubing laying around and I....uh.....wait a minute....oh, you mean......


Never mind.

Jaybird said:

I want to see a picture of it in the kettle. That thing is Bad A$$. Great idea!
Cheers
JJ

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I'll get one next session. It's designed so it's spaced in the center(ish) of the kettle when the verticals are against the kettle wall.