Washer Hose for a Pre-Chiller

Has anyone tried using a stainless steel Washer Hose for a pre chiller?

Thinking about trying it, but not sure if it would work. Home Depot has an 8 foot Stainless Washer hose, thinking about connecting 2 other pieces of hose to it, and dumping it in a cooler full of ice water. I can bring my wort down to 90 degrees in about 7-8 mins, but due to tap water temp can't do much more.

Thinking this may give me enough of a drop to get where I need to get to, without having to worry about creating or buying and shipping a copper pre-chiller.

Anyone tried it? Anyone think it might work? Everyone think there is no way it will work?

It'll work, just not as well as copper due to lower conductivity of stainless.

The "stainless" part of those hoses is just a mesh covering that's there to protect the inner hose, which is made out of some kind of rubber. The rubber's not going to give you much heat transfer at all.

I use a washing machine hose as the connector for my IC.

I cut the hose in half, and use a half on each end of my copper IC to connect to the garden hose or pump hose.

Is that what the OP is asking?

I think OP is asking about using a coiled up stainless steel jacketed supply line as the heat transfer coil of a prechiller.

Won't work. The inside of that hose is plastic, which likely won't transfer much heat.

JetSmooth said:

I think OP is asking about using a coiled up stainless steel jacketed supply line as the heat transfer coil of a prechiller.

Won't work. The inside of that hose is plastic, which likely won't transfer much heat.

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This is what I am talking about. The hose I found is metal, without a rubber or plastic insert, but it does say it has a polymer coating to prevent corrosion. Not sure if that would be enough to stop heat transfer or not. May have to give it a try this weekend and see since I don’t have time to get a pre-chiller shipped and can’t find one locally.

Hmmm. I don't know about that hose. But I guess someone has to be first.

JeepDiver said:

This is what I am talking about. The hose I found is metal, without a rubber or plastic insert, but it does say it has a polymer coating to prevent corrosion. Not sure if that would be enough to stop heat transfer or not. May have to give it a try this weekend and see since I don’t have time to get a pre-chiller shipped and can’t find one locally.

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I'm confused here. I think I need to see a picture of that stainless steel washer hose you are speaking of. If it is a stainless steel mesh, there is no way it could hold water without an inner lining of rubber or plastic. The stainless steel washer hoses I have seen are just a larger version of the stainless steel supply lines many people use in their mash tuns (after removing the lining) to strain out grain particles. I don't think they would make a solid stainless steel tube to go on a washer, the movement of the machine would eventually break the line.

So... I need to see what you are talking about.

+1. I use on of the bigger hot-water heater hoses in my keggle as a filter (attached to my dip tube). It's one of the ones that's probably about an inch in diameter. It absolutely had an inner hose that needed to be removed from the SS braid, same as the small SS hose that I use in my mash tun.

A stainless steel "hose" wouldn't be watertight unless, well... unless it was a piece of stainless steel tubing. The stainless steel has to be in a braid to be flexible, which makes it absolutely not watertight (otherwise, it wouldn't work very well as a filter!)

JeepDiver said:

This is what I am talking about. The hose I found is metal, without a rubber or plastic insert, but it does say it has a polymer coating to prevent corrosion. Not sure if that would be enough to stop heat transfer or not. May have to give it a try this weekend and see since I don’t have time to get a pre-chiller shipped and can’t find one locally.

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Link???

the_bird said:

+1. I use on of the bigger hot-water heater hoses in my keggle as a filter (attached to my dip tube). It's one of the ones that's probably about an inch in diameter. It absolutely had an inner hose that needed to be removed from the SS braid, same as the small SS hose that I use in my mash tun.

A stainless steel "hose" wouldn't be watertight unless, well... unless it was a piece of stainless steel tubing. The stainless steel has to be in a braid to be flexible, which makes it absolutely not watertight (otherwise, it wouldn't work very well as a filter!)

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These are higher end companies, but you can get cheaper onces

http://www.penflex.com/products-corrugated.php

http://www.hosemaster.com/products/buytherighthose/corrugatedmetalhose/hose.php

Here are some examples at a plumbing supply place (they have both lined braided and corrugated)

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/flexes.html

Though now that I think about it, a couple of sections of cooper water heater line may be better than the stainless

I use a 25' rv hose in a big cooler with ice and water to prechill the water coming out of the faucet on the house. Living in Florida I have to do something to cool the water enough to cool the wort. My brew pot also sits in a big tub of ice when chillin time arrives to help teh immersion chiller .

Regards

OK, now I understand what you are referring to - corrugated stainless tubing. I've never seen this used on a washer though. They would probably work but you can get corrugated copper for cheaper (I believe).

The most cost effective solution would likely be to just use 1/2" OD copper tubing in a coil.