Wort Chiller: Standard or Hose fittings?

I'm a long time reader, but this is the first time I've actually had a question that I couldn't find the answer to by searching!

I'm ready to move up from ice baths to an immersion wort chiller, but am unsure which to order for my situation. I live in an apartment so I don't have garden hose access and I have one of those sprayer kitchen sinks so I can't hook up to that. I see my options as follows:

-Bathroom sink: this is pretty convenient since it's near the kitchen and it has a standard bathroom faucet where the threaded doohicky with the aerator can be unscrewed.

-Laundry room: slightly less convenient since it's far from a sink, but I can access the tap without moving the machines, so not too bad.

My confusion is that it looks like you can order a standard chiller (I assume with kitchen sink hookups) or one with garden hose fittings. Which of these would I order for the two options above and will I need any additional adapters or fittings to make it work?

Thanks!
Craig

I use a laundry sink because my kitchen sink also has a sprayer. It is a standard hose bib. That's mine, anyway.

With the laundry hook up, I'm pretty sure you just need a standard garden hose Y splitter coming from the wall. Look for a solid/hefty one, you don't want leaks in a laundry room you don't frequent every day.

Plus, someone else mentioned this, you can use the spent hot water from the chiller on a batch of clothes. Goin' green by making beer, right? Hahaha.

Also, with the bathroom, lowes and HD sell faucet thread to garden hose attachments that quick snap on and off, so in theory, you could get the garden hose attachment Chiller setup and be set up for either situation.

craigsf said:

My confusion is that it looks like you can order a standard chiller (I assume with kitchen sink hookups) or one with garden hose fittings. Which of these would I order for the two options above and will I need any additional adapters or fittings to make it work?

Click to expand...

My preference is to use a bucket in the sink and a pond pump to push the water through the IC. That way you can put ice in the bucket at the end of the chill to get those last few, hard to hit, degrees.

AnOldUR said:

My preference is to use a bucket in the sink and a pond pump to push the water through the IC. That way you can put ice in the bucket at the end of the chill to get those last few, hard to hit, degrees.

Click to expand...

Rather than using ice with your setup take some empty plastic pop bottles fill them with saltwater (table salt and water) leave about an inch of head space in the bottles and freeze them. Depending on how much salt you use can can drop the temps down to 20f. And best of all just toss them back in your freezer when your done.

Actually, I use the freezer packs that ship with yeast.

But I like the water bottle idea. I worry about the packs breaking and not knowing what's in them.

edb said:

Rather than using ice with your setup take some empty plastic pop bottles fill them with saltwater (table salt and water) leave about an inch of head space in the bottles and freeze them. Depending on how much salt you use can can drop the temps down to 20f. And best of all just toss them back in your freezer when your done.

Click to expand...

Adding salt to the bottles isn't doing anything to lower the temp in your chiller. You'd have to be pumping the salt water for that to work.

Salt lowers the freezing point of water, so you could get water that's below 32 but still liquid. But the frozen bottles are not going to get any colder than the freezer temp, regardless of what's inside.

If you want to make it COLDER than 32F, you'll need to add Ice and Saltwater to a cooler or bucket and pump from that. The Saltwater will get below 32F and stay liquid.

If the water in the bucket is 50 degrees and you put something in that's 20 degrees, the temperature of the water in the bucket will end up lower than if you had put in something that was 32 degrees. So the water pumping through the chiller will be colder and chill faster.

AnOldUR said:

If the water in the bucket is 50 degrees and you put something in that's 20 degrees, the temperature of the water in the bucket will end up lower than if you had put in something that was 32 degrees. So the water pumping through the chiller will be colder and chill faster.

Click to expand...

Adding salt is not changing the temp of the bottles

Edit: its only changing the melting temperature of the contents.

rayfound said:

Adding salt is not changing the temp of the bottles
Edit: its only changing the melting temperature of the contents.

Click to expand...

So, you're saying that if I put salt water in my freezer that's at zero degrees, it will won't get colder than 32 degrees?

Time for an experiment. :cross:

To the OP: Sorry for this massive hijack.

AnOldUR said:

So, you're saying that if I put salt water in my freezer that's at zero degrees, it will won't get colder than 32 degrees?

Time for an experiment. :cross:

Click to expand...

You don't need an experiment.

It will get colder than that. So will water, once frozen to become ICE will eventually equalize to whatever the temp is inside the freezer... just like EVERYTHING ELSE IN THERE. (once it becomes ICE, it can get as cold as it wants)


Salt does not facilitate things being colder. What SALT does in water, is allow it to be LIQUID(melted) at lower temperatures(sugar, alcohol, and anti-freeze have a similar effect). so instead of crystallizing at 32, it might stay liquid until 30, 28, 26, whatever. This is why we use salt on roads and sidewalks... it causes the ice to melt at colder temps...

So Look: You take a 16oz water bottle full of salt water, and a 16 oz water bottle full of fresh water and freeze them.

They both reach 4F (or 0F, whatever your freezer is). You take them out, and both are solid as a rock, and are both at 4F.

the Salt Water will start thawing faster, because its melting point is lower (it only needs to warm to say, 28, to start melting).


you will get liquid water in salt water that is colder than the liquid water in the fresh, but you will have ice longer in the fresh.


There probably is some **Trivial, non-zero** effect of this used in the bucket-of-water wort chiller, because the phase change of the water is happening sooner, but no matter what you do, you won't get the FRESH WATER in the bucket that you are pumping from to get any colder with one method - they will both max out at 32F... because it is FRESH LIQUID WATER you're pumping in both cases.


Think of it like really weak Anti-Freeze...

I use the recirc pump (Harbor Freight 260GPH) in a bucket of cold water method. In the winter, I can put a couple of buckets outside and they'll get mighty cold. I also add bottles of frozen water. In the summer I get 65* water out of the hose and just use more frozen water bottles. I have been thinking of using one of my 48 qt coolers for the cold water, that way I may not need to swap it out half way through the cool down. I can get my wort down to 70* in about 15 min.

Damn. I should be on Myth Busters.

(as one of the myths.)

AnOldUR said:

Damn. I should be on Myth Busters. :cross:

Both container were stuck in the freezer with the thermometers in them. The one on the left has salt water. The one on the right has plain tap water. Both are frozen solid. Pulled them out and turned the thermometers on.

Click to expand...

Look, I don't know how to say it, but you're wrong. You're getting readings that are different because they are NOT frozen solid. leave them a day or two.

The only thing the salt does is lower the freezing temperature of the water. The salt water will freeze at lower than 32* depending on the salt concentration.

AnOldUR said:

Damn. I should be on Myth Busters. :cross:

Both container were stuck in the freezer with the thermometers in them. The one on the left has salt water. The one on the right has plain tap water. Both are frozen solid. Pulled them out and turned the thermometers on.

Click to expand...

That doesn't make any sense. Are you saying that the frozen water can't go below 32F? If so, I don't think that's right. That might be were it goes from liquid to solid, but it can continue to get colder.

A apologize in advance if I'm misunderstanding your intent.

So with wort chillers your basically running cold water for around 20 mins and letting it go down the drain?

passedpawn said:

That doesn't make any sense. Are you saying that the frozen water can't go below 32F? If so, I don't think that's right. That might be were it goes from liquid to solid, but it can continue to get colder.

A apologize in advance if I'm misunderstanding your intent.

Click to expand...

That's his intent. You read it right, its just his understanding that is wrong. You're understanding is correct.

I've never tried this to determine effect, but because the specific heat of water is much higher than the specific heat of ice, it may work better to freeze salt water vs pure water. It would likely have a very minimal effect since you are trying to cool a larger amount of water.

At the same time, the specific heat of salt water is lower than the specific heat of pure water, so this would go farther to minimize the effect.

One thing I can guarantee: the effect is too small to make the math worth my time (and I'm wasting work time right now )

RIC0 said:

So with wort chillers your basically running cold water for around 20 mins and letting it go down the drain?

Click to expand...

I recirc my water in a bucket.

RIC0 said:

So with wort chillers your basically running cold water for around 20 mins and letting it go down the drain?

Click to expand...

I collect it in large garden buckets and try to use it for watering plants/my dog. We usually end up throwing a bunch of it out in the yard though after it has sat around for too long and gotten gross or full of mosquitos in the summer.

I use a large metal tub, cold water and five 1 gallon jugs frozen and get my wort down to 70 within 30 mins of coming off the heat. Thought about a wort chiller but don't know much about them other than you run water in one end and it comes out the other. How are you recirculating it via a bucket??

CraigSF, I'm in exactly the same position, except without the laundry option. I would go with the smaller (sink) adaptor, although there is a good chance that you will also need a small converter. I got the right converter with my carboy spray-clearer faucet attachment and use that. I was worried about the same thing when I first got my immersion chiller, but then I realized that it's really easy to change the tubing and fittings. In fact, I had to replace the "in" tubing because it was about 2 feet short to reach my bathroom sink, even though it's right off my kitchen. Don't sweat this decision. In the worst case it's a few bucks for a plumbing part and a few minutes of your time to correct.

Word of advice, though, if you do change the tubing or fitting, test it out before you need it. A leak or a disconnect is the last thing you want in the middle of brewing. I speak from experience.

Look under the sink and see if you can add a T to the plumbing under the sink. If you can do it without any difficulty, maybe add a valve with garden hose fitting, or a barbed end and keep the hoses under the sink. It's a minor change that your landlord might not even notice for YEARS after you move!

RIC0 said:

How are you recirculating it via a bucket??

Click to expand...

I bought this pond pump from Harbor Freight and just hook up tubing to the in and out of the chiller, stick the pump in the bucket of water and turn it on. I throw bottles of frozen water in and usually only need to swap out the bucket once. So it takes about 10 gallons of water to chill my wort down to 70* in about 15 min.

Maybe try making a wort chiller? That way you can buy only the pieces you need (ie the hose or sink connector) and be sure it works with your apartment. i made my own and I can hardly hang a picture on the wall. There's a great YouTube tutorial on the brewing network (I think). Here's what you need:
Soft copper tubing 3/8" - 20ft or 50ft
Few feet of tubing
Hardware to connect to sink/hose
A couple hose clamps
Paint can or 5gallon keg

Bend the tubing around the paint can or keg using your hands. Now you have a uniform coil. Straighten the ends out about a ft on one end, and 2 ft on the other. This is the hard part: Bend (carefully- try not to crimp the coil) the straightened ends up and over the edge of your kettle. Attach the tubing to each end and secure w hose clamps. Attach barb/sink adapter to other end of tubing w hose clamp. That's it!

This will take you 10 min and save you $30 at least and let's you choose the correct barb adapter for your set up. Good luck!