Jonnio
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- Joined
- Dec 30, 2007
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So I am pretty well done with my immersion chiller, just have to add some more structural support and it will be done, but its usable as is. I did a 1/2 x 50' chiller, and now that its all said and done not sure if I would have done it all the same if I had a do over.
Here are the things I did that I wouldn't recommend.
1) I wanted to maximize the coil, so I decided to use some leftover 1/2 rigid pipe as my tube that runs from the top of the chiller to the bottom. Apparently I am the first person that goes to Home Depot wanting to be able to solder 1/2 tubing to 1/2 rigid pipe. The only thing I could find was a compression to threaded fitting that would sorta work. I jammed a street elbow into the threaded side and soldered that, then used the compression fitting for the tubing. Which leaked like a sieve, so I ended up soldering that too....that was like $6 down the drain, but it seems to be holding up so far.
2) I am not sure that 1/2 is worth it on the tubing. It really caused a lot of trouble in finding fittings and tubing.
Overall for about $80 or so I have a 50' 1/2 immersion chiller that is going to be major overkill for my 4 gallon boils, but will be ready to go when I hit 10 gallon batches. I am going to add a recirculating system like on morebeer (I think that's where I read about it) so I should have a pretty stout setup.
I will try and post some pics tomorrow in case anyone wants to see it.
Here are the things I did that I wouldn't recommend.
1) I wanted to maximize the coil, so I decided to use some leftover 1/2 rigid pipe as my tube that runs from the top of the chiller to the bottom. Apparently I am the first person that goes to Home Depot wanting to be able to solder 1/2 tubing to 1/2 rigid pipe. The only thing I could find was a compression to threaded fitting that would sorta work. I jammed a street elbow into the threaded side and soldered that, then used the compression fitting for the tubing. Which leaked like a sieve, so I ended up soldering that too....that was like $6 down the drain, but it seems to be holding up so far.
2) I am not sure that 1/2 is worth it on the tubing. It really caused a lot of trouble in finding fittings and tubing.
Overall for about $80 or so I have a 50' 1/2 immersion chiller that is going to be major overkill for my 4 gallon boils, but will be ready to go when I hit 10 gallon batches. I am going to add a recirculating system like on morebeer (I think that's where I read about it) so I should have a pretty stout setup.
I will try and post some pics tomorrow in case anyone wants to see it.