HERMS HEX coil?

ok i'm about to order an immersion chiller to convert into a HEX for the HERMS system i am in the process of putting together.

at midwest they have stainless steel immersion chillers that are cheaper than the copper ones. would it be ok to get the stainless and save or is it more heat resistant then the copper ones?

I don't know which one conducts heat better, but if they both work as chillers, they should both work as HERMS coils.

the copper has better heat transfer, but the stainless has thinner walls meaning less mass for heat to move through. This pretty much evens them out. By what I have seen on the forum in many posts is that they will either work the same, or the stainless will add a very small amount of time to cool. IMHO, I would go stainless either way, even if I had to pay more for it. The reason I say this is because there is no worry about oxidation and I would like to keep my brewery as stainless as possible.

Do you know what the diameter of that SS one is? I've looked at it online but it doesn't say.. 1/2 or 3/8?

If I were to guess, having held them in my hands.. I would say 3/8

If you do go with copper, I'd recommend just buying the copper (from coppertubingsales.com) rather than buying an immersion chiller. It will be considerably less costly.

stainless likes to hold heat, while copper likes to give it up

Have to say thanks for the replies based on them I went ahead and ordered the stainless. To answer a question that came up about the diameter I do believe it is 3/8 of an inch

lustreking said:

If you do go with copper, I'd recommend just buying the copper (from coppertubingsales.com) rather than buying an immersion chiller. It will be considerably less costly.

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Coppertubingsales.com isn't always the cheapest. I ordered 50ft 1/2 from an ebay seller for $31.95 + $12.66 shipping. Coppertubingsales.com wanted close to $49 shipped for theirs.

Plus I saved $2.56 instantly with live.com's BIN/Paypal cash back. So my end total was just over $42 shipped for 50ft.

planenut said:

Do you know what the diameter of that SS one is? I've looked at it online but it doesn't say.. 1/2 or 3/8?

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I emailed midwest about it. Only the 50' IC is 1/2" OD stainless tubing.

I ended up buying 50' from ebay for about $85. McMaster has stainless tubing too for about $70 with thinner walls (a good thing).

Kal