Homemade Immersion Chiller

I was planning on making my own immersion chiller today out of copper tubing. I went to Home Depot only to find that the flexible copper tubing I was planning on using was over $100 for a 50' coil, and $80 for a 20' coil. Does this seem right to anyone? Does anyone have any ideas of where to get cheaper materials? If not, I may just buy a pre-fab one from an online HBS.

Thanks for the help.

coppertubingonline.com

I bought 50' of 1/2" for about 60. I split it with a friend

B

I'll be purchasing this: at my next purchase from AHS. For $60, you can't beat it. And YES that is about right from HOME DEPOT!

Yeah, the price of copper is nuts right now. You could buy the 50' and make 2 and sell one. Maybe recoup some of the cost.

Home Ripo is over priced on most items because they have it all there, and you don't have to go to several different supply houses to complete all the stages of a project. The supply houses usually have better quality at better prices, but they are getting harder to find.

+1 on coppertubingsales. Use the extra copper to make a prechiller or you will wish you had.

I just bought 50' of 3/8" at http://coppertubingsales.com/ as well for under $50 shipped (ok, it was $49.69 but still). The smallest they sell is 50' rolls but they have every size. It's only $10 more for 1/2 if that's what you want.

I plan on splitting it into two coils, one inside the other, and splitting the water path through the two coils and then bringing it back together at the end. Hopefully, it will cool it down fast!

Hey Ajwillys,

How did your double coil turn out? Do you have pictures or suggestions? Lowes has 1/2" x 50' on sale for $38 this weekend!! Good timing

Do you suggest I use all 50' or should I just use 25' and split it with a friend?

Thanks,
Lorne

Wow, what an old thread! It turned out great, I've been using ever since. I would use all 50'. I did. Just make sure it fits inside your pot, this design probably won't work well with a 7 gallon pot. Unfortunately I don't remember the specifics of the parts anymore but I have one large rigid pipe that splits into two, then turns downward and steps down in size to the coiled size. Then I have one coil inside and one outside. At the bottom of the coils, the reverse occurs and they come back together, then it heads back up to the top. I connected it to garden hoses by just adding RTV to the outside of the larger copper and sliding a garden hose over. It fit pretty good. Double hose clamped it to ensure it doesn't leak (and I watch it, I've had to replace the garden hose once).

I'll see if I can find some pics.

Edit: Here you go.

Thanks for the reply. Didn't see how old the thread was haha.

I did however make a wort chiller last night. I went with the ribcage style. Seemed easier than doing the dual coil.

I based it off of the design here for RedIroc: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-interwoven-rib-cage-immersion-chiller-106415/

All in all, this is 25' of 1/2" copper tubing. I altered the design a bit and added a compression T fitting to split the incoming water into each coil to even disburse the cold water in the Wort. Then both come up and shoot out.

One issue I had was I didn't anticipate how large the 90 degree turn radiuses would be so my straight lengths ended up being too short. I kinked the first one I tried to bend, so I didn't want to risk breaking the tube by straightening and trying again. So I may just have to add a foot or so of clear tubing with a clamp for the exit tubes. Luckily I left PLENTY of tubing for the inlet to a hose bibb. That also came across the top to act as my handle to carry it. Since that's the inlet the tube won't burn my hand, the other two would.

It's a great design and easy to make!! I plan to test it this weekend. Here's some pictures of my finished chiller.

Looks very nice! Much cleaner looking than mine!

Thanks AJ!

I plan on testing her out today First batch is going to bottles today and I'm gonna jump straight to my second.

I bought mine from coppertubingsales. 50 feet of 1/2 for like $75 with shipping. They have immersion chiller kits too, but I opted to just push silicone hose over the ends of the copper tubing...no need for fancy fittings.

30 bucks at lowes 20'

Yea I went with compression fittings, for two reasons:

1. I didn't want to purchase soldering stuff.
2. I have heard that having the solder in the water can degrade over time, but I don't know how true that is.
3. Also compression fittings just look good!