ic build

Im found a deal on 50the of 3/8refrigeration copper and looking for the most efficiant design fir an ic. Should i do just single coil or double with a smaller inner coil. Which would cool the wort faster?. Thanks guys


EDIT***** from 210 to 75 in 10 minutes!

Take a look at this one:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-interwoven-rib-cage-immersion-chiller-106415/

the ribcage design is functionally no different or better than a single strait coil of the same legnth. you could even argue that its less efficient because of how the hot side and cold side are intertwined and could slightly cancel out each other.

cut your 50 foot legnth in half and use two 25 foot coils in parallel. thats going to be the most efficient in terms of time to chill.

I was thinking a large coil about as big as the kettle in diameter and a smaller coil about the probably using co2 bottle inside. Is that what you mean by parralel? How do you bend this copper without kinks?

Get a set of pipe benders at lowes or hd, less tham 10 bucks

Sweet..thats cheap.

I would use two 25 foot coils in parallel. That will minimize the resistance to flow and allow the maximum water throughput. If you have the same total water flow through a single 50 foot coil vs. two 25 foot coils, you get the same cooling (other things being equal). If you could maintain the same input pressure from your tap with the double 25 foot coil as you do with the single 50, then theoretically I'd expect 4 times as much water through the double coil (2 coils each at half the resistance). But of course the input pressure to the chiller will drop as the flow increases, so just how much increased water flow you will really get depends on a lot of things (length of run from the water main to your house, pipe diameters in the house, how much scale buildup in those pipes, etc. Impossible to predict, but my gut feel is to go with the double coil.

audger said:

the ribcage design is functionally no different or better than a single strait coil of the same legnth. you could even argue that its less efficient because of how the hot side and cold side are intertwined and could slightly cancel out each other.

cut your 50 foot legnth in half and use two 25 foot coils in parallel. thats going to be the most efficient in terms of time to chill.

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I disagree, because there is a more even distribution on the ribcage design than on a single coil. However, on the single coil, it is easier to stir, which is even better distribution, but if you don't like to constantly stir for 15 minutes, then the ribcage is better.

A 25 foot pre-chiller and a 25 foot IC would probably be best for anyone that doesn't get very cold tap water.

how does the prechiller work? deafsmith- any pics of what your describing,,, i ant picture it, if i see a pic im sure i can build it..thanks for all the responses

kosmokramer said:

how does the prechiller work? deafsmith- any pics of what your describing,,, i ant picture it, if i see a pic im sure i can build it..thanks for all the responses

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You just cut the coil in half and run a tube from the pre-chiller coil to the IC coil. One goes in a bucket of ice water and the other goes into your brew pot.

kosmokramer said:

how does the prechiller work? deafsmith- any pics of what your describing,,, i ant picture it, if i see a pic im sure i can build it..thanks for all the responses

Click to expand...

I don't have any pics - my chiller is a single 50 foot coil, but I'm planning on splitting it or building a new one with two coils. You can put one coil inside the other with a "Y" splitter at the inlet and outlet so the water from the tap splits with half going to each coil. There are some threads here somewhere with pictures, but I don't have a link for you.
The prechiller is just a coil immersed in a bucket of ice water - the water goes from the tap through the prechiller before going through the immersion chiller in the wort - this is to reduce the tap water temperature in case you live somewhere that tap water is 80ºF, for example. I think the general consensus is that using a pump to recirculate ice water from a reservoir through the chiller and back to the reservoir is more effective than a prechiller. What I and a lot of people do is to run tap water through our immersion chiller until the wort temp. is down to about 90 or 100ºF, then switch to recirculating ice water - I keep my ice water in my 10 gallon RubberMaid cooler mash tun.

This is how I did it. I went to Lowes...I obtained two coils. It's already coiled so easy as can be....just pull em apart a bit. I did have to bend it a bit at the bottom to have it come up high enough but just go slowly and it won't kink. Didn't even need a tube bender but get one if not familiar with the metal better safe than sorry.

I use a bucket with icewater for one coil, and the other for the IM. My hose goes from the sink to the coil in the bucket, and from there to the IM chilller coil and those are simply connected together with a tube. From there it goes to another hose that empties into my pool. If I didn't have a pool I'd empty into my yard to water the grass.

Works like a charm...it's easy and low maintainence. No stiring or other nonsense, but you could drastically speed up your chilling if you did stir.

ok i made to coils of 25 feet each, one coiled around a corny and one coiled around a 5 pound co2 tank. Im okay on that front, i bought 1/2 inch rigid copper to use as the uprights and 1/2 inch tees and 1/2 to 3/8 inch reducers, heres when i noticed my problem. the 3/8 refrigeration tubing reflects the od while the 1/2 to3/8 reduceris opposit and the id is actually like 1/2 inch. I hate plumbing, can anyone help with this problem?

yep, for 3/8" refrigeration tubing you need 1/4" "normal" tubing (not sure what it's actually called - I just mean all other copper tubing). Likewise all the way up - 1/2" refer tubing mates with 3/8" elbows, tees, and so on. It's annoying.

1/4" pieces can be tough to find - the only place I've found here that has them is an actual refrigeration supply store.

still need stainless tie wire to clean it all up but here is a "rough draft" of the finished product. Thank for all your help!:rockin:

havent had a chance to use this yet, any idea how it will work?