HERMS coil questions

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VonMessa

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I know that this topic has been discussed ad nauseum, but before I spend more money, I'd like to get some feedback.

I have my HERMS system (manual) all set up. It is (2), 15 gallon kegs and a 120 qt. igloo cooler, all hard plumbed with copper pipe/brass fittings. All connections are flare fittings. I now have a plate chiller and attempted to use my old immersion chiller as the HERMS coil. It is 1/4" and the flow rate is abysmal (as I suspected it would be) so transfers are very slow. I figure that it would be OK for recirculation as it flows at about the same rate as I now recirculate and holds within 5 degrees of HLT temp but it is useless for fast transfer as it took almost 30 minutes to get 15 gallons from HLT to MLT which is unacceptable.

My question(s) are as follows:

Is the flow rate of 3/8" pipe much less than 1/2" or will I not be happy with it?

Is 20' of 3/8" enough to pick-up enough heat? ($25)

Is the flow rate of 1/2" too fast to pick up enough heat ($35 for 20') I know that I could back off the flow for recirculation.

Should I just put in a bypass on the HERMS coil ($0) I have the fittings and valves, but it would require more valves which complicates the system which I am trying to avoid. I also would like to semi-automate it in the future and solenoid valves aren't cheap (and would require more inputs from my controller)

Discuss :)
 
my herms coil is 25' feet of 3/8" copper, but I hacked it up for faster flow.

The legs that come up and out of the kettle are 1/2" rigid copper. At the bottoms of those, I split the 1/2" with Tee's, then reduced down to the 3/8" size.

I cut the coil in half and made two 12.5' coils that run in parallel from those Tee's.

A bit of work, and I don't know if it was totally necessary, but that's what I did. Flow and heat transfer are fine.
 
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