Immersion Chiller - dual input idea

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JoeHPhil

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All,

I'm sure this is not a new idea and given the number of engineeers in the group I thought I'd get feedback before returning from HomeDepot to witness the wife's "what now?" look. I think she has grown immune to my arguments that each new peice of equiptment equals cost savings.

Anyway, my immersion chiller has cracked. This immersion chiller has survived almost 2 decades of abuse so I am happy with it's full life.



Usage:
I like to use it in combination with a whirlpool through an existing CFC. In the summer I use it as a prechiller for the CFC water after getting the whole pot to ~130*.

Thought:
Straight 1/2" copper pipe to the bottom of the chiller. A 'T" there diverges into 2 3/8" copper coils woven like an earier rib-cage style IC and back to a common straight pipe at the top. A plate at the top drilled to allow me to drop in a thermometer without fear of it falling into the pot. Lastly an adjustable 'leg' of 1/2" copper pipe to hold it to the desired height.

Tell me where I am goofy or could do better...
 
First off, I'm not an engineer. Your idea seems to have some merits and if you want to try it, that's awesome. I don't want to kill your wort chiller dreams.

I would think a standard 50 ft. wort chiller would do the job and keep things simple. The chilling of wort is a function of the amount of tubing in the wort, plus your ground water temperature and flow rate. It seems like your design might increase the total amount of copper for chilling, but the benefits of that might be neglible given your water's temperature and flow rate. It's difficult to determine without knowing the other variables, but that's my understanding of the physics involved in wort chilling. I hope this helps.
 
Pie man - thanks

the reason I thought to split the input was I understood that part of the equation was the temperature delta between the wort and the chiller. If I split the 50` into two 25` lengths I get more of a delta.

What I failed to mention is this is a 10 gallon batch
 
Hmmm, I 'm not sure that would actually increase the delta...

If your flowrate is constant, I would think a 50ft coil and two 25ft coils would have the same effect. In other words, I think the delta of two 25ft pipes would equal that of one 50ft pipe.
 
Considering the cross sectional areas, the 1/2" pipe will be the limiting factor in flow rate. It would still be better than a single 3/8" x 50' chiller, but a single 50' x 1/2" chiller would be better than either.

Just guessing.
 
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