Have not seen this wort chiller before

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BUMP!

I'm looking at the same one. I need to talk to someone who has tried it before I pull the trigger!

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Haven't used one, but I would think it would be hard to stir wort around in that. True there's a lot of room between the pipes and that's good, but without stirring hot wort over the cold pipes, you'll still end up with cold wort next to the pipes and hot wort everywhere else. Just my 2¢.
 
it would be perfect for my square pot. :rockin:

if it will fit in a pot it will work, but shape has nothing to do with how well it will work.
 
If I was going to spend 60, (I'd prolly make it, but) I'd spend a tad more and get a counterflow plate chiller, around 80-100 for a 20-30 plate I think
 
I made my chiller in the ribcage style, which doesn't leave much room for stirring either. I just move it up and down a few times during the chill to stir things up, works great. I imagine this design would work pretty well too.
 
masonsjax said:
I made my chiller in the ribcage style, which doesn't leave much room for stirring either. I just move it up and down a few times during the chill to stir things up, works great. I imagine this design would work pretty well too.
Click to expand...

That would work well.
 
It just makes sense to me. seems most coiled chillers have the problem of bunching up the coils which prevents wort from flowing to the inside of the coils which would decrease efficiency. This design allows every coil to contact hot wort by simply moving the chiller coil up and down a bit while cooling. I like the idea of 1/4" tubing as well to increase the water velocity which is necessary when using 50' of copper, otherwise the cooling water would already be the same temp as the wort after 15' of flow!
 
It's an over complicated mess in my opinion. If you want it to be a conversation piece sitting out by your brew gear, that's one thing. However, all immersion chilling operations benefit from a very deliberate flow of wort in the pot. That's why Jamil's whirlpool chilling thing gets so much attention. The next best thing is to put a paint stirring paddle on a drill and spin the wort while chilling. After that, the next best thing is to grab the chiller and bob it up and down the whole time (not for me). The latter is just about all you could do with that chiller due to how much blockage there is.

A helical coil shape is fine for ICs and separating out each coil by a 1/2" is fine for good flow. 1/4" OD tubing is really undersized because the ID is closer to 3/16. The claims about efficiency and water use would only apply to a comparison where the chiller is left sitting still and no stirring was taking place. He also doesn't list the length, but if it's $50, it's about $30 worth of tubing. I'd much rather spend the $70 on 50 feet of 1/2".
 
Bobby_M said:
It's an over complicated mess in my opinion. If you want it to be a conversation piece sitting out by your brew gear, that's one thing. However, all immersion chilling operations benefit from a very deliberate flow of wort in the pot. That's why Jamil's whirlpool chilling thing gets so much attention. The next best thing is to put a paint stirring paddle on a drill and spin the wort while chilling. After that, the next best thing is to grab the chiller and bob it up and down the whole time (not for me). The latter is just about all you could do with that chiller due to how much blockage there is.

A helical coil shape is fine for ICs and separating out each coil by a 1/2" is fine for good flow. 1/4" OD tubing is really undersized because the ID is closer to 3/16. The claims about efficiency and water use would only apply to a comparison where the chiller is left sitting still and no stirring was taking place. He also doesn't list the length, but if it's $50, it's about $30 worth of tubing. I'd much rather spend the $70 on 50 feet of 1/2".
Click to expand...


Just curious; how do you separate the coils on a hellical wort chiller? Seems like gravity will push them together unless you put spacers between the coils?
 
I have made a few wort chillers now, you can put spacers in, but honestly with 1/2 you don't need to. They stay fairly separated on their own strength. right now I usually run from my sink or hose, into a bucket with ice water in it, that has my 3/8 inch very cheap 50' wort chiller, and from that to the wort chiller in my kettle. I don't need to, the 1/2" in my kettle is plenty enough, it just goes a bit faster.

You really can get a 50' for not much more, and you could get a 20-30 plate counterflow plate chiller for not much more too. Both would likely be more efficient, but then experience may and has proved me wrong.

My 1/2" stays quite well separated, but it isn't as soft of copper.

My 3/8, I actually soldered the intake outtake pipe as they went up it, to the rings to keep the spacing.
 
It looks like someone designing heat pipes for computer air cooling though thought it would transfer directly to wort cooling.
 
dbhokie: here's 2 wort chiller questions for you since you seem knowledgeable on them;

1. Can I make my own without soldering the copper connection? Is there a compression fitting that will work to adapt them to a garden hose attachment?

2. How long is your 1/2" chiller? I want something that can do 5 gal or 10 gal batches in the future.

Thanks!
 
Jayhem said:
dbhokie: here's 2 wort chiller questions for you since you seem knowledgeable on them;

1. Can I make my own without soldering the copper connection? Is there a compression fitting that will work to adapt them to a garden hose attachment?

2. How long is your 1/2" chiller? I want something that can do 5 gal or 10 gal batches in the future.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I just like making things, always have. Hah.

You can do it ENTIRELY without solder.

Here's what you get (easiest):

50 ft of soft flexible copper from Home Depot or Lowes or somewhere of the like. (It's already coiled! All you have to do is stretch the coils up and maybe tighten them up by hand, if you get hard copper you would need a pipe bender)

Or 25 ft

1/2 inch or 3/8 is fine too. 1/2 is a bit more efficient.

Then get ID tubing that is the same of the OD of the copper tubing you pick. Now just slide the tubing over the two ends of the copper pipe. Use cheap 25 cent hose clamps to clamp it on.

Now you can easily find a fitting that will go from hose to a barb that will fit your tubing. No solder whatsoever.

If you are using a sink, take off the end cap and match the size, most of them are standard, someone in Home Depot or Lowes Plumbing could help you easily, and you will probably have to use a fitting that screws on the faucet with a fine thread and has a coarse thread on the other side, where you can screw on a fitting with a barb for your vinyl tubing.

No solder! You get the parts you'll be done in under 30 minutes.
 
Jayhem said:
Just curious; how do you separate the coils on a hellical wort chiller? Seems like gravity will push them together unless you put spacers between the coils?
Click to expand...

Tie and solder the coils apart with 14 ga. bare copper (ground) wire.
 
With 3/8" od, you could definitely use some copper or stainless wire to keep the coils apart a bit. With 1/2", it stays apart just fine. I tack soldered the middle coil to the upright pipe and that keeps it a bit less springy.
 
dbhokie said:
I just like making things, always have. Hah.

You can do it ENTIRELY without solder.

Here's what you get (easiest):

50 ft of soft flexible copper from Home Depot or Lowes or somewhere of the like. (It's already coiled! All you have to do is stretch the coils up and maybe tighten them up by hand, if you get hard copper you would need a pipe bender)

Or 25 ft

1/2 inch or 3/8 is fine too. 1/2 is a bit more efficient.

Then get ID tubing that is the same of the OD of the copper tubing you pick. Now just slide the tubing over the two ends of the copper pipe. Use cheap 25 cent hose clamps to clamp it on.

Now you can easily find a fitting that will go from hose to a barb that will fit your tubing. No solder whatsoever.

If you are using a sink, take off the end cap and match the size, most of them are standard, someone in Home Depot or Lowes Plumbing could help you easily, and you will probably have to use a fitting that screws on the faucet with a fine thread and has a coarse thread on the other side, where you can screw on a fitting with a barb for your vinyl tubing.

No solder! You get the parts you'll be done in under 30 minutes.
Click to expand...

+1, he's exactly right. I did this last night. I used a compression fitting to join my 2 20' copper coils together. Then you have to buy a barb, and either a male or male and male to female end for your sink.

My sink actually had a removable spout, which allowed me to bring that in to compare in-store. Good luck!
 
I would get an IC built with larger OD tubing, and setup a whirlpool instead of that "thing" from the OP. It would be a ***** to clean as well...
 
Not trying to bump a thread, but I was just looking at this also, this chiller also claims to use much less water than conventional chillers...can anyone attest to this, I don't mind moving this up and down a few times during chilling, and less water to chill is a plus, basically trying to figure out if this is just a gimmick or if this really works.
 
The only way that claim holds any water whatsoever is if you absolutely want to leave the chiller in the pot without touching anything. No stirring, no jostling the chiller. Yes, then having a weird matrix of tubing every which way would be faster than a linear helix. As soon as you introduce wort movement by stirring, all advantages of a wild bend design are gone and now you've just overpaid for the labor of bending like that.
 
I wasn't sure if I should start a new thread or not, but I pulled the trigger on this chiller because of the number sold and feedback and wanted to give an update. I have used it on single and double batches with great results. Cooling times were less than 15 min. for both and that was with not stirring. Not too shabby and water usage seems to be on par with the ebay claims.
 
1. The Ebay add does not say how many feet of copper tubing it is. How long is it?

2. Thinner tubes/coils may be more prone to being damaged if banged.

3. It will be harder to clean, unless cleaning consists of plopping it in a bucket of cleaner, hosing it off, and later plopping it in teh brew kettle.
 
ArcLight said:
1. The Ebay add does not say how many feet of copper tubing it is. How long is it?

2. Thinner tubes/coils may be more prone to being damaged if banged.

3. It will be harder to clean, unless cleaning consists of plopping it in a bucket of cleaner, hosing it off, and later plopping it in teh brew kettle.
Click to expand...

1. it is 25' of 1/4" which according to every thing I have heard and read should not be as fast as it is... but timex says otherwise.

2. the coils seem pretty robust, but I have no plans of tossing my chiller around

3. It was super easy to clean, just rinsed it off then tossed it in the brew pot and rinsed once more after chilling.

I have a buddy coming over this week to brew. He has a homemade 25' 3/8" chiller that we are going to do a side by side to see how they compare. I will let you guys know how they do.
 
>>I have a buddy coming over this week to brew. He has a homemade 25' 3/8" chiller that we are going to do a side by side to see how they compare. I will let you guys know how they do.

Please do! That would be a good test.
Thank you
 
So I had a good brewing weekend with this chiller. As I said before, my buddy came over with his homemade chiller (which is 1/2", not 3/8" a I thought it was). Anyway, we did two 1.5 gallon extract batches and chilled them with the different chillers. So, the 1/2" coil had about 1 1/2 coils out of the wort and cooled it to pitching temp in 14 minuets. The 1/4" chiller I was able to adjust so that all of it was in the wort and it cooled it in same time, I was totally blown away. We were not stirring for either test as we spent that time sanitizing and drinking beer:mug:. So my buddy and I figured we would check the water usage while we were compairing them. The 1/4" used a gallon of water every minute and sixteen seconds. The 1/2" used a gallon every 16 seconds. I am totally happy with the chiller as the main reason I bought it was to keep my water usage down and since the chilling time was the same, it's kind of a double bonus!
 
I ran across this chiller on ebay last night and was wondering if there had ever been a thread about it here. Turns out I didn't even have to search for it. Thanks for the information, brew2live.
 
Wow seems the folks in this thread have mostly negative opinions about this design however the mood of the forum is often slow to change until clear evidence to the contrary. I on the other hand am very curious to test especially with the brew2live's positive report.

I already have a 25 ft 3/8" conventional IC but am very interested in getting something that is more efficient and will work for if I ever move up to larger batches. Don't have a recirculating system to whirlpool and don't really like stirring the wart manually because 1) I am lazy 2) would rather spend that time cleaning or getting my carboy ready and 3) I worry about introducing nasties (although don't think this has ever happened in the past).

So my question is how difficult to replicate this design as a DIY. I have been studying the picture and think it may not be too difficult. From the overhead shot it looks like you could use 4 cylinders (such as spray paint cans) to help form the tube in this design for the inner pattern. For the outer portion of the pattern maybe carefully bending by hand or using more cylinders can help with the 90 bends.

Looking at pricing:
1/4" copper tubing 100ft $52-63 (coppertubingsales.com vs. orange big box respectively)
1/2" copper tubing 50ft $49-57

If you DIY the cost of copper for the "thing" chiller only is about 1/4 that of the standard design of 1/2" 50ft. The cost of water savings over time may also make this more fiscally appealing.

Anyone willing to try to DIY this and share how you did it? I might I have a go at it since I want to get myself a b-day present and I like tinkering.

If I do it I am going to double the length of copper. Brew2Live, would a 50ft length of this design be submerged in 5 gallon of wort? Can garden hose fittings be soldered on to this small of tube?
 
megalomani said:
So my question is how difficult to replicate this design as a DIY. I have been studying the picture and think it may not be too difficult. From the overhead shot it looks like you could use 4 cylinders (such as spray paint cans) to help form the tube in this design for the inner pattern. For the outer portion of the pattern maybe carefully bending by hand or using more cylinders can help with the 90 bends.

If I do it I am going to double the length of copper. Brew2Live, would a 50ft length of this design be submerged in 5 gallon of wort? Can garden hose fittings be soldered on to this small of tube?
Click to expand...

As for the DIY: it looks like it can be done but the coils look smaller than paint cans and it seems like it would be hard to hold the paint cans in place as the the chiller has rather tight coils.

If you do one with 50ft it should fit in 5 gallons without a problem. I can compress this one to have all the coils in a 1.5 gallon extract batch.


ziggityz said:
brew2live, how hard was it to clean this chiller after you were done???
Click to expand...

It was really easy, I just washed it with the output hose, it cleaned off the wort and hops residue without a problem.

So I brewed an extract batch today and decided to agitate the chiller the whole time to see what it could do. It went from boiling to 79 degrees in 7 min. and used just under 6 gallons of water. The crazy part about it was that I checked the tap water temp and it was 69 degrees! I am planning on a double batch of extract for my next brew and I will let you guys know how it does.
 
We already know this chiller will outperform chillers with a shorter length of larger diameter tubing when you leave the wort sitting still. In my opinion, it's a wasted test because you SHOULD be stirring the wort. If your goal is to chill without stirring, go ahead and use 50' of 1/4" OD (for up to 5 gallons). I think 50' of 3/8" is a better compromise for 5 gallon batches and then 1/2" makes more sense when you want to be able to do 10 gallons occasionally.

1.5 gallon batches? I'd be ice bathing that in the sink.
 
Bobby_M said:
We already know this chiller will outperform chillers with a shorter length of larger diameter tubing when you leave the wort sitting still. In my opinion, it's a wasted test because you SHOULD be stirring the wort.
Click to expand...

I am just trying to wrap my brain around the physics on this and could use a little help. If it outperforms a larger diameter constructed chiller while still why would this value be lost when stirring? Will the volume of water in the 1/4" simply get too hot early on its way through the tube thus loosing ability to transfer cold/take heat out? Couldn't you keep increasing flow pressure to make up for the loss in diameter?
 
Bobby_M said:
We already know this chiller will outperform chillers with a shorter length of larger diameter tubing
Click to expand...

The 1/2" tubing that was tested was the same length as the 1/4" chiller, both 25'.

Bobby_M said:
In my opinion, it's a wasted test because you SHOULD be stirring the wort. If your goal is to chill without stirring, go ahead and use 50' of 1/4" OD (for up to 5 gallons).
Click to expand...

Not constantly stirring enabled us to be sanitizing and doing other things :mug: instead of sitting at the kettle looking at the wort. Not sure how having more information on how chillers perform in varied conditions is a wasted test, but I'm really happy with this chiller and thought others would be interested in the results as well.

Bobby_M said:
I think 50' of 3/8" is a better compromise for 5 gallon batches and then 1/2" makes more sense when you want to be able to do 10 gallons occasionally.
Click to expand...

So the main reason for getting this chiller was the water savings and relatively low overall cost of the chiller compared to counter flow or plate chiller with pump and the additional time to clean them. It looks like the 50' version that these guys sell is set up for a keggle. I would like to hear feedback from somebody that bought that and has used it on a 10 gallon batch.

Bobby_M said:
1.5 gallon batches? I'd be ice bathing that in the sink.
Click to expand...

The total size of the brew was a standard five gallon batch. I had a 1.5 gallon boil prior to DME (my mistake) . I was doing ice baths when I started brewing and it could take over 30 minutes to cool down a single batch, costing around $4 in ice. Considering the cost of the ice and wasted time, I figured I could recoup the cost of the chiller rather quickly. So far so good!!:ban:
 
For what it's worth, it appears that either of these designs could be made without to much effort. You would only need to build a jig with round posts attached to a plate in an upright position at the point of the bends. For example on the six cornered chiller you would need six posts on the six corners of the hexagon and one in the center. 2 inch pipe welded to a plate would work great for mass production, but just some round lumber or even plastic pvc attached temporarily to some plywood to keep them spaced and solid. Then just weave the soft copper to form the pattern starting with the down spout from top to the bottom and work your way up in a weaving pattern. The round posts would keep the tubing from forming sharp corners. When you run out of tubing, form the up spout. Then pull the whole mess straight off the top.

That being said i don't plan to make one like this because I prefer JZ's whirlpool chiller. As previously posted moving the wort optimizes the efficiency of a standard chiller, and the whirlpool leaves the break material and hop bits in the center of the pot and not in the fermenter. Cheers!
 
In case anyone still looks at this thread...here's my handywork...I had a small 1/4" IC and aquired a short 3/8" IC...so I married them together (outside of the brewpot in case of leakage) to form what I called frankenchiller (which is a name I think I've read elsewhere so no intent to step on other's toes). It works great...and if you read any of my other posts you'll see that I'm "wicked cheap" (as we say up here in Maine).

frankenchiller.jpg
 
Brewsday said:
In case anyone still looks at this thread...here's my handywork...I had a small 1/4" IC and aquired a short 3/8" IC...so I married them together (outside of the brewpot in case of leakage) to form what I called frankenchiller (which is a name I think I've read elsewhere so no intent to step on other's toes). It works great...and if you read any of my other posts you'll see that I'm "wicked cheap" (as we say up here in Maine).
Click to expand...

I just have to say I feel bad for that poor copper. Look at all those kinks! Glad it works well for you though and it is definitely a monster of a mess.
 

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