10 Foot Counterflow Wort Chiller

In searching through other's posts on the subject I've noticed that most use either a 20 or 25 foot counter flow wort chiller. Has anyone ever used or built a 10 foot? Can anyone tell me advantages or disadvantages?

20 is about as small as you want to go because of chilling capacity. Less copper means less chilling capacity. 10 ft is not big enough. If you are looking for a smaller sized product, take a look at a plate chiller. If I built a CFC, I would go 25 ft minimum.

I'd love to get a plate chiller, but I was more concerned about pinching pennies than space requirements.

Why are you chilling your wort at all?

Dont chill it, that will save you $$.

I'm just getting tired of having to wait overnight to pitch my yeast... That and I've destroyed one of my 6.5 gallon glass carboys from pouring hot wort in it... Sticky sharp mess...

Prodigalx2 said:

I'm just getting tired of having to wait overnight to pitch my yeast... That and I've destroyed one of my 6.5 gallon glass carboys from pouring hot wort in it... Sticky sharp mess...

Click to expand...

Cant use glass or PET, has to be HDPE to handle the temps.

I don't know if 25' is really necessary. I made a 10" jacketed heat exchanger, 1/2" interior and 1" exterior, just a straight shot. Recirculated it into the kettle and it reduced my cooling times by half using ice water.
Still too long but, I think 10 feet may be plenty.
What I would like to try is to make a tight spiral of 1/2" tubing and fit it into a 2" straight jacket about a foot long. Should be ample surface are for the wort to make contact, and should cause enough turbulence in both mediums to ensure even contact.

In fact I tried to make a coil tonight. it didn't turn out so well... Will probably end up farming it out.