I suck at...

... bending soft copper tubing. Working on a DYI immersion chiller and I keep putting kinks even with the tubing bender.

Anyone got any tips? The plan is to use two lengths of 20' 3/8" and tee them together outside the pot.

Don't use the bender for the main coil. Wrap it around something round, like an keg.

phoenixs4r said:

Don't use the bender for the main coil. Wrap it around something round, like an keg.

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+1

All so seems to work better if you use the palm of your hand and put pressure on the back of the bend as you come around whatever you choose to use as your guid....not in front of the bend or it will kink.

The last time I bent tube it was smaller diameter but it really helped to fill the entire tube with salt.

I've read that fine sand works as well. When done blast the filler out with pressure.

I hooked mine up to the sink faucet and it was cleared out within 5 minutes.

How are you all making that 90 degree turn at the end where the chiller exists the top of the pot at both ends? I only had a problem right there with my 1/2 inch chiller. Thinking about soldering in an elbow

JimTheHick said:

Thinking about soldering in an elbow

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works the best for me

I made mine, and I did buy the bender, however, I got tired of it, and I started wrapping it around an empty corning keg, and the wrapping around the keg came out better than the bender tool section. What I would suggest is just make sure you pull it tight around the keg and it will come out nicely.

Also, I did kink the top of mine when i went to bend it for the input and output, but what I did was instead of having a nice pretty angle, i just had a gradual angle. and it works well, because they don't stick out of the pot, I could have even just left them sticking straight up.

I built one tyoday as well.......one of the most frustating things I have done but I needed a bigger one for my new brew rig. Modifying it tomorrow!

Eric

Minor kinks may look bad but can be a feature rather than a bug. The rate of heat transfer is greatly increased by turbulence in the flow. A few kinks here and there can increase turbulence so they may help with heat transfer as long as they don't restrict flow too much.

Ravenshead said:

Minor kinks may look bad but can be a feature rather than a bug. The rate of heat transfer is greatly increased by turbulence in the flow. A few kinks here and there can increase turbulence so they may help with heat transfer as long as they don't restrict flow too much.

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Well then that explains why I chilled in 5 gallons in less than 20 minutes with a 48.5 ft 1/2" copper tube chiller. It worked great...but I thought it was an annoying thing to build.

Go slow and coax the metal to do what you are asking it to do.

The tube bender works - you just have to use the right size and it should be close to snug.

There is no such thing as a 90 degree bend unless you cut and solder - just nice slow curves.

Looks like it must have been DIY chiller day today. Here are pics of my build this morning.

I just built a counter flow wort chiller tonight. I bent the copper tube around a plastic bucket. Seemed like I did it right, but I have yet to test it. Since the tube was inserted inside the rubber hose, I won't know if there are any kinks in the copper unless the flow is restricted. I think it will be fine, but don't have time to test it until tomorrow night.

Fill the tubing w/ sand or salt and it will help prevent kinking.