wort chiller idea help

I can't seem to get past my cheap-ass ways and refuse to buy or pay for materials to build a copper tubing wort chiller. So here's a cheaper alternative I came up with, and a major flaw I'm hoping you can help me correct.

I figured I'd take 15' or so of small diameter clear vinyl tubing and coil it up into a tight enough coil to fit inside a small cooler (the type of cooler one would carry his/her lunch in). I'd hook one end of the tubing to my auto-siphon and the other end would go into the carboy. Fill the cooler with ice and water to make a cold icy bath to chill the tubing in. Then slowly siphon the hot wort through the tubing into the carboy. I'm hoping the small diameter tubing and slow siphon allows for enough rapid heat exchange between icy water and hot wort. Certainly length of hose would be a factor.

The problem: how to keep the vinyl tubing from melting. Best I can tell, standard food-grade vinyl tubing is rating up to 165 F. I figure I need something at least up to 230 F...? Also am not sure how well my auto-siphon would hold up to the hot temps. Any ideas? Seems I could use teflon coating tubing as it has a much higher temp rating, but what about the "cheap" plastic of my auto-siphon. Thanks for any thoughts,

Jeff

The auto-siphon won't hold up to almost boiling wort.

Your siphon will melt (personal experience) and the vinyl won't exchange heat. I made my chiller pretty cheap...25' of 3/8 copper tube coiled around a 3" pipe and placed in a 4" PVC pipe. I capped both ends of PVC and put fittings in the ends to get beer in and beer out and water in and water out. I gravity feed from the kettle and can chill to pitching temp in about 10 mins.

thisjrp4 said:

Your siphon will melt (personal experience) and the vinyl won't exchange heat. I made my chiller pretty cheap...25' of 3/8 copper tube coiled around a 3" pipe and placed in a 4" PVC pipe. I capped both ends of PVC and put fittings in the ends to get beer in and beer out and water in and water out. I gravity feed from the kettle and can chill to pitching temp in about 10 mins.

Click to expand...

This sounds interesting... any pics?

I'm brewing tonight so I'll try to take it apart and get some pics. There was some trial and error in putting it together so the pics will definitely help.

if you've got 25' of copper... why not make an IC?

As Thisjrp4 said vinyl is a very poor conductor of heat and will not exchange the heat as the wort passes through it. As many others have said the vinyl will not stand up to that temperature. Finally a small lunch style cooler does not hold even close to enough ice even if vinly did exchange heat. When you first start to cool the wort, that 200 + degree wort will burn through ice rather quickly.

If you want to make an immersion chiller the tubing really needs to be copper which is an excellent heat exchanger at a reasonable cost. If you need to do it on the cheap you might try watching craigslist for someone doing plumbing work who has some copper pipe left over. Otherwise one of the big box hardware stores and 3/8" copper tubing is the best bang for the buck. 25' worth isn't that bad in price. I think I bought a 40 or 50 foot coil for like $35

This is like a CFC...kind of. I think it is more efficient than an IC.

I took some pics but don't have permission to upload. I can email them to you if you want. I have 25' of 3/8" Copper tube wound around a 3" pipe. The coil goes in a 4" pvc pipe. Originally I planned on making the end caps threaded and that is why the copper "in" and "out" ends are on the same side. Ultimately I just used a friction fit cap on the end and it works great...no glue. There is a water in on one end of the pvc and a water out on the other end. My "bulkhead" fittings are made from brass barbed fittings, one with a male threaded end and one female. There is a washer and gasket to prevent water leaking. The coil is connected to the barb with short pieces of vinyl tube and hose clamps. It's hack but works well.

You can host the photos on an image hosting site like imageshack.us and past the link in your post. Or, just post 6 more times and you can post pictures.

OK Let me try...Sorry in advance if this is obnoxious.

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Sorry Number 6 OK Lets see if I can post my pics now.

EvilTOJ...that didn't work.

OK Sorry again. Here are the pics

Thanks for the help guys. I can see I should just do the job right the first time and go with copper tubing.

Here - I hope this helps people looking for pictures.

I built my copper tubing wort chiller two months ago for about 25 bucks.... that doesn't sound too expensive to me.

Thanks XXGuy One day I'll figure out how to post the pics properly. Beer goes through the copper and water through the PVC. Works really well. I chill 5 gallons in about 10 minutes.

I hate to put plastic into my hot wort at any point. You know that plastic molecules are getting into your beer with flavor or carcinogenic consequences. If a new copper or stainless chiller is too expensive, keep watching the local equivalent to Craig's List, thrift stores or want ads. I have a huge pile of brewing equipment that I bought, a little at a time, for pennies on the dollar. I did build my own mashtun and boil kettle from used Sanke kegs. I got two copper chillers from private sellers for scrap value.