Counterflow chiller length

Has anyone tried a range of CFCs or taken measurements along the length of one to determine the point at which the wort isn't significantly cooling anymore?

I built a 50' CFC using the description in "Brew Ware" by Lutzen and Stevens, using 3/8" OD soft copper and a 5/8" hose. It's cooled spectacularly so far. Too effectively in fact - it was pretty cold outside by the time I transferred, and I had to cut the water since the wort was coming out at about 50 degrees.

The flow rate is very slow though, both gravity-fed and with a homemade Venturi device. The wort barely trickles out, and it takes a long time to drain 10 gallons.

From reading the CFC sticky and other posts here, it looks like most people build them at around 20-25 feet. I'm thinking about cutting mine down to get a faster transfer, but I don't want to get into the middle of summer when groundwater is warmer and suddenly wish I'd left it alone. I'm also most of the way through building a brew stand, and will have a pump available soon, which may take care of the flow rate. Even so, if there's no cooling benefit past 25' or so, I may as well cut and make a second one for someone else. Thoughts?

You won't see much of a performance drop by cutting yours in half. These things only get the output wort down to 3-8F ABOVE the coolant input anyway so you're max cooling is already tied to that. IOW, if the summer tap water is 75F, 80F wort is coming out unless you use icewater.

Yep, I know I'm limited by the ground water temp, just wanted to see if anyone had some specifics about various lengths. For instance, if I only had a 5-foot CFC, I would expect to end up 50 degrees or so above coolant temp. You're seeing 3-8 above coolant with 25', so I'm curious about what I would see at 20, 30, etc.

Not curious enough to splice in a series of temp probes along the 50' length of my CFC, mind you - curious in a much lazier sense.

curious in a much lazier sense.

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Khazzad ai menu!!!!!

Good use of "z" in everyday language master dwarf! :rockin:

(I hope that was intentional, else I have just exposed a new level of nerdiness all on my lonesome)

Either way, I'm fairly sure you've exposed something

I'm new to posting on the forums, making this the equivalent of the lunch-room moment in a teen comedy, where the new kid is eyeballing the table with the jocks and cheerleaders but gets beckoned over to the freak table by the guy he bumped into in the parking lot.

Ah hell, I never liked the cool kids much. Nothing specific meant by the previous post, but "Baruk Khazad!" back atcha anyway.