It's pretty nice to have, although not entirely necessary. But, hey, why not?
you still coming to the UP in July?
I hope you guys will talk me off a ledge- I spent a lot of time and money fabricating a "super chiller" like that discussed here (minus the thermowell, d'oh!) because my tap temp in summer is ~90'F (Stupid Tucson!). I used 50' of 3/8" OD tubing stuffed at great personal effort into a 50' 5/8" garden hose purchased at Lowe's for ~$20. First mistake. I soldered on the endcaps as others have, tested it with great success (I prechill the incoming tap via a complex heat exchanger that was built by my company but failed in testing), but after actually implementing the coil in my new brewstand I think the heat of the Boil Kettle is destroying my cheap-o hose from Lowe's. My first indication was a sizable blister forming at the top of the coil- a couple of quick, judicious turns of duct tape reinforced it, and I set a ceramic tile on top of the whole works to shield it from the reflected heat. After chilling (it worked perfectly- 65'F output wort temp) I noticed that my garage was wetter than it shoulda been. Opposite side of the chiller from where I "preventatively" reinforced developed a pin-hole leak along with a nice 6" long blister).
I have several questions, and am wildly appreciative of any and all advice:
1) Stuffing that much copper through a hose was a major PITA (I hurt for days afterwards), so how good is Duct Tape at repairing water leaks in garden hose? I'd rather just wrap it up and go then redo the entire shebang.
2) Those of you with experience, does a higher quality hose hold up better? Of course it should, but we're exposing it to environments it wasn't meant to withstand.
3) Given my shell-shocked nature of spending a day threading this damn thing and having it fail the first time I really use it, are there any recommendations on hose type/brand/construction from those that have brewed multiple times with such a configuration?
4) I'm considering "fixing" my current CFC, but am really unable to move it significantly away from where it currently lives. If/when I fix it, I'm thinking of adding two layers of thin steal above it to shield the heat from the main BK burner. What are you guys doing that I might benefit from?
5) How the heck do I post pictures? If I can show you where my CFC is in comparisson to my BK I think a lot of the previous text (perhaps 1000 words?) would be unnecessary! Does this work?
View from BK end- CFC is ~8-10 inches away from bottom of kettle.