Wort Chiller Blues: HD Only has 20 or 50 Feet 3/8" Copper

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njnear76

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I was looking into making a wort chiller, but Home Depot only has 20 feet or 50 feet of 3/8" copper. :mad: Will I lose a lot of efficiency with just 20 feet on a full boil or should I buy a longer pre-made chiller? Yes I plan on doing full boils.

The total for parts was around $37 for the 20 feet design.

Thanks,
Mike
 
I only had a 25' coil of 3/8" when I was using an immersion chiller and it worked fine. My CFC is also only 25' so I doubt losing that 5' will make much difference, at worst an extra couple minutes of cooling time.
 
Is it 25' submerged? Or total length? I assume the latter. You have the distinct advantage of building it to fit you pot, so you can gain back so of the length that is lost to the pre-made ones since they may be taller to fit tall pots.

Also, you might try Lowe's or Ace. I really prefer Lowe's as they seem always seem to have what I am looking for that HD doesn't seem to have at the moment.
 
Provided shipping isn't outrageous, that site is a deal. I recently paid $75 for 60 feet of 1/2" at Menards.
 
flaminio said:
Provided shipping isn't outrageous, that site is a deal. I recently paid $75 for 60 feet of 1/2" at Menards.

That sucks. You could have saved 20 bucks.

$42 (including shipping) for 50 feet of 3/8"
$54 (including shipping) for 50 feet of 1/2"

I went with the 3/8". It was tempting to go with 1/2" but I already spent a enough this month on brewing stuff. Transistioning to All Grain is painful cost wise. :(
 
Sea said:
if you can afford it, go with 50' of 1/2". You WILL NOT be sorry.

+1 on this, even if you don't use all 50 as your IC, you can use 30 feet to submerge and the other 20 to make a prechiller.
 
wow, those are killer copper prices.....forwarding to SWMBO for x-mas ideas
 
Beerrific said:
Also, you might try Lowe's or Ace. I really prefer Lowe's as they seem always seem to have what I am looking for that HD doesn't seem to have at the moment.

Remember HD is practicing severe cost containment because they gave their last CEO 20 bajillion dollars to go away. Given a choice I would rather drive 15 miles to a Lowe's than 3 miles to a HD right now. The folks at Ace usually know what they are talking about.
 
Out of curiousity how much volume of wort will a immersion wort chiller displace? I know it depends on the size.

How about for 25 and for 50?

I got a 9 gallon pot and plan on boiling down to 6 gallons. Would a 50 feet wort chiller be ok?

Mike
 
Thanks for that link, that's probably the best price I've seen, and it's 25' length instead of 50' which has been harder to find.

I have ordered from these folks at least 4 or 5 times for different items and they are good to deal with. (Standard disclaimer, don't work for or know them at all, just a satisfied customer)

BTW they have good prices on CO2 cylinders too. I found a paint ball store that will refill 5lb cylinders instead of exchange like other CO2 suppliers so I bought 2 for my kegerator. Always good to have a spare
 
I am on the copper sales website and have a question: what type of copper tubing should I get (type k, type l, refrigeration)?
 
From what I've read, refrigeration tubing is a good choice. You're basically doing the same thing as seen with an actual refrigerator: pumping cool fluid through the system to maintain a low temperature (or in our case, lower the temperature of a liquid). I think refrigeration type is the way to go.
 
Here's a picture of a friend's homemade chiller that I used yesterday. I don't know the total length, but I would guess it's close to 50'. I really like the fact that it has a sort of "twin coil" design as opposed to the traditional single coil. The more coil you have in the wort, the more surface area you have and the quicker you can cool. When I used it yesterday it brought my wort from boiling to about 75-80 in under 15 minutes. I'm planning on making mine this way now.

2013-02-02 11.30.34.jpg
 
I bought 20' of 3/8" ID / 1/2" OD for only $13 at lowes, and that was more than enough to cool down my 7 1/2 gallon pot. If you have a pot bigger than that, then yes get the larger size.
 
Just a thought...I saw 50' of 3/8" OD copper at Lowes for $40 the other day. Add in the few extra pieces you need to make it complete and you're looking at less than $55 for a 50' chiller.
 
You don't need 50' of 3/8" copper. There are several convoluted designs out there that use 25' of 1/4" and get 5 gallons to below 70F in under 10 minutes.

In other words, action and motion are much more important than length, diameter and material. The most important factors are water temperature and flow rate, which you can't control that unless you use a pre-chiller or ice bath and pump anyway.

Try a convoluted design. The JaDeD Wasp is their smallest 1/4" chiller and chills 5 gallons in 13:30 (see video at link). Their KuDu does it in 5:30 and their Beast does it in under 5:00.

 
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