Which end of the wort chiller is " cold water-in"?

Alright, easy question, right? Well apparently I'm an idiot...wort chiller came in the mail disassembled...and I've searched the internet for 45 minutes and can't find the answer. I just want to know...does the "cold water-in" line hook up to the tube that goes all the way straight to the bottom? Or does it hook up to the tube that's on top and coils downward? Or maybe it really doesn't matter?
Help a dude out. Thanks for your patience.

What I have read is you want the cold water in to be the coil that starts at the top. Since heat rises you want the cold to travel downward and this does some sort of convection or something. I really not exactly sure what that means, but again, I did read that somewhere.

Insertion of Counterflow?

I don't think it matters for an insertion wort chiller.

With a counterflow chiller the water flows in the opposite (counter) direction as the wort.

It's a matter of some discussion, but I'm not all that sure it makes a difference. But, fwiw, I run my IC with the cold water going straight to the bottom and it does the job well - though my suspicion is it'd work just fine running the other way...

Cheers!

[edit] ps, to really increase the effectiveness of any IC, stirring or recirculating the wort - or slowly moving the entire chiller around in the kettle - is essential....

I currently have my immersion chiller set up so that the cold water travels to the bottom of the kettle and heats up as it circulates toward the top. My question is the same as yours: would it work more efficiently if the cold water circled toward the bottom and then out? I understand that heat rises and cold air falls. Seems to me that it might make a little difference to have the cold water start at the top and circulate down. I should try it sometime. Mark

You can run it either way ... I run my ICs with cold water entering the bottom and exiting the top.

You should be stirring your wort while its cooling, so it shouldn't matter. If you're just letting it sit it's probably better to have the cold water go in the 'top'. You should get more natural convection in the wort that way.

It seems to me that the area of greatest heat will be the bottom of the kettle. The metal surface is extremely hot at flameout so if you send the coldest water straight down to the bottom that'd be the area of greatest temp difference. This would allow the IC and water to absorb as much heat as it can as quickly as possible. Not sure if that scientifically sound.

I will not matter if you keep the wort moving by stirring or some other means. If you're not stirring, you're doing it wrong no matter how the water is flowing.

This is from John Palmer's Book, "How To Brew", p. 284:

The cold water “in” fitting should connect to the top coil, and the hot water “out” should be coming from the bottom coil for best chilling performance.

I've tried it both ways and it makes absolutely no difference. Theory be damned....

processhead said:

Insertion of Counterflow?

I don't think it matters for an insertion wort chiller.

With a counterflow chiller the water flows in the opposite (counter) direction as the wort.

Click to expand...

Pssst- I think you meant to say immersion chiller



OP- doesn't matter just hook it up an let it go.

Ha Ha Ha . I had asked the same question when I made my IC. Got the same exact answers too. Hey I kinda thought it was important too.
I made mine so if one way didn't work well, I could swap the supply of COLD O2 "IN".
I did go with the cold going down from the top and exiting out of the bottom.

Works so good. (I STIR too). Never even thought about swapping!
Not that I really thought I would LOL.

awesome, thanks for the replies. mystery solved. i stir the hell out of the wort (slowly, opposite direction to water flow)...so it sounds like i shouldn't worry about it. i was pretty impressed how quickly it cooled the 5 gallon batch compared to an ice water bath...just wanted to make sure the plumbing was hooked up right. THANKS AGAIN!