All copper CFC $46.03

I somewhat recently bought a DIY CFC built using the methods outlined here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/counterflow-chiller-tutorial-51793/
I highly recommend that you read the build above - it was the inspiration for this chiller.

I was less than thrilled with the build quality so I decided to make my own.

This chiller could probably benefit from being longer, but the numbers below are good enough for me. Less wort will be lost with this chiller than longer ones if inadvertently left in chiller.


Construction steps:
1. Straighten out both 3/8 and 5/8 hose
2. Put dish-soap (lube) into large hose, push small hose through. If you're like me you'll cuss a lot but eventually get it.
3. Coil pipe around something round. I Used a corny keg.
4. Using pipe cutter, cut off appropriate amount of 5/8 hose to give room for fittings.
5. Attach T, small (1-2") piece of copper hose, and reducer which has stop drilled out in that order to each side of chiller.
6. Garden hose fittings should slide over 1/2 copper pipe. They may need a little... encouragement.
7. Use elbows and scrap pieces of copper pipe to get garden hose in and out to go where you'd like them.
8. Solder everything. Remember to remove the rubber from the female garden hose coupler.


Parts and Cost breakdown:
10' 3/8 OD 1/4 nom copper hose. 9.99
10' 5/8 OD 1/2 nom copper hose 22.80
2 - Reducing coupling 1/2 X 1/4 1.30 each 2.60
2 - 1/2 copper T 0.86 each 1.72
2 - 1/2 elbow 0.55 each 1.10
Watts A-663 3/4 Male Hose x 1/2 mip 3.39
Watts A-677 3/4 Female Hose X 1/2 FIP 3.43
Had a ~1' scrap piece of 1/2 copper 1.00

Total: 46.03



Test parameters:
5 gallons water at boiling.
Water circulated through CFC and back to kettle with march pump at 1.25 gpm
Garden hose flowing at 6.6 gpm
Groundwater temp 56*F

Data:
Reported in minutes and *F
Dial thermometer probes stuck in inlet and outlet of chiller. Inlet should be roughly the mean temperature of kettle.

Time Temp in Temp out
0 **205 ** ** 205
1 **182 ** ** 97
2 **162 ** ** 88
3 **148 ** ** 82 At only 3 minutes already past DMS formation stage
4 **132 ** ** 80
5 **122 ** ** 76
6 **112 ** ** 73
7 **103 ** ** 72
8 ** 98 ** ** 72
9 ** 90 ** ** 66
10 ** 84 ** ** 64
11 ** 82 ** ** 64
12 ** 80 ** ** 62
13 ** 78 ** ** 60
14 ** 72 ** ** 60
15 ** 70 ** ** 58
16 ** 65 ** ** 58
17 ** 60 ** ** 58

Looks good. If I had a march pump I'd try this. On thing you can try is to put a pull-line through first. Then you can use it to pull the inner copper. Get some electrical pull line, attach a foam earplug or something else to catch the wind, and suck it through the straightened copper w/a shop vac. Might lead to less cussing.

Anywho, looks awesome. 65 degrees in 10 minutes.

Nice chiller! Not only did you build a better chiller but you get a nice feeling of satisfaction building it yourself.

I'm pretty pleased with the results.

This was my first time soldering and I didn't think out placement of inlet/ outlets before starting soldering but overall it turned out good enough for now.

One note on the garden hose fittings: The female one that I used is not swivel because I planned on connecting a quick disconnect to it. Swivel fittings are available for a few dollars more. My original plan was to use a brass hose repair barb (drilled out a tad to 1/2" but the ones at homedepot were thinner than the one I had at home (will be used on the "doin it right" fix of the other chiller) and appeared to be made of zinc rather than brass.

curtis97322 said:

14 ** 72 ** ** 60
15 ** 70 ** ** 58
16 ** 65 ** ** 58
17 ** 60 ** ** 58

Click to expand...

With no change in outlet temp in the last 3 minutes, you now know you can now spend the last few minutes transferring to the fermenter instead of recirculating back to the BK.

Baron ken said:

With no change in outlet temp in the last 3 minutes, you now know you can now spend the last few minutes transferring to the fermenter instead of recirculating back to the BK.

Click to expand...

Yessir. I hadn't measured groundwater temp until after I tested the chiller. The data provided was obtained purely to prove to myself that the chiller would work well on a brewday. My faucet flow is substantially higher than 6.6 gpm but I figured 4X wort flow would be a reasonably happy medium. On a real brewday I'll probably divert to the fermenter shortly after the outlet temp hits 62. I could probably also run directly to the fermenter once I'm under 160 in the kettle (DMS formation temp IIRC) by throttling the flow back to where outlet temp is in the low 60's.

Time Temp in Temp out
0 **205 ** ** 205
1 **182 ** ** 97
2 **162 ** ** 88
3 **148 ** ** 82 At only 3 minutes already past DMS formation stage
4 **132 ** ** 80
5 **122 ** ** 76
6 **112 ** ** 73
7 **103 ** ** 72
8 ** 98 ** ** 72
9 ** 90 ** ** 66
10 ** 84 ** ** 64
11 ** 82 ** ** 64
12 ** 80 ** ** 62
13 ** 78 ** ** 60
14 ** 72 ** ** 60
15 ** 70 ** ** 58
16 ** 65 ** ** 58
17 ** 60 ** ** 58

Click to expand...

Any idea why you got such a drop in temperature readings from minute 8 to 9 when the trend would say otherwise? Just curious if you did something to help the cooling during the process.

Most likely scenario on the data anomaly is that the thermo probably hadn't caught up till that point. The cheap dial thermo's I used are pretty quick and pretty accurate but sometimes hang a few degrees short of the actual temperature - a little thump solves that (I always tap the thermo's if the temp reading is critical). I have a feeeling that the temperature at 7 was probably more like 70, and at 8 68. It seems like I did bump the thermo sometime around the 8 mark and see a bigger temp drop than expected.

Me no good lab monkey!

Looking at doing one of these, it looks great! I've picked everything up but the reducers, for some reason my Home Depot doesn't carry them, but I'll track them down. As it's been a few years, is there anything you would change, any changes you already made? Is it just normal to then use racking tubing or something at the ends of the 1/4 outlets? Thanks!

HopsMan said:

Looking at doing one of these, it looks great! I've picked everything up but the reducers, for some reason my Home Depot doesn't carry them, but I'll track them down. As it's been a few years, is there anything you would change, any changes you already made? Is it just normal to then use racking tubing or something at the ends of the 1/4 outlets? Thanks!

Click to expand...

I'd make it longer, prolly 50'. Moved to Texas from Oregon and groundwater is much warmer!

I plan on pumping ice water through mine, and recirculating back into my BK. Here in Houston the ground water temp sucks even during the winter.

-G

HDIr0n said:

I plan on pumping ice water through mine, and recirculating back into my BK. Here in Houston the ground water temp sucks even during the winter.

-G

Click to expand...

Keep in mind you'll want a bunch of ice to do this, but that'll do the trick!

Yeah I usually go through about 40-60#'s for a 10g batch with my whirlpool immersion chiller. Once I build my CFC I hope it will cut me back to 20-40#'s. I usually put 20#'s in a bucket and pump from that and recirculate back into the same bucket. Once my ΔT has slowed significantly I dump the bucket and repeat the process until I am 4-5 degrees below my target temp.