CFC tubing connection question

[dragonlor20]

Hello once again!

I need some help figuring out how you all connect your CFCs to your boil kettles and other brewing hardware. The how-tos for most of the CFCs recommend a 3/8 inner copper tubing (which I have already done), but that creates a 3/8 connection from my kettle to my CFC and a 3/8 connection from my CFC out to return to my boil kettle or to the fermenter.

What is the recommended way to connect 1/2 high temp tubing to the CFC? Are you just clamping down on the 3/8 copper or are you actually building a new connection on the ends that is not represented in the wiki or the tutorials I am reading online?

Thanks for your help, this was an annoyance on my last brewday. Right now I have the tubing pushed all the way over the 3/8s and onto the 1/2 copper on the CFC which isn't an ideal or efficient way to make the connection.

 

[LandoLincoln]

I started off just using hose clamps and connecting the silicon hoses directly, but I've since upgraded our system and now have 1/2" male connections on both ends of the chiller, and then I have 1/2" male camlock quick disconnects. Life is a lot easier when you have QD's on all of your vessels and hoses. I highly recommend spending the money on it.

Another cool idea I saw that I've since incorporated: get a tee on the end of your chiller and install a dial thermometer so you can monitor your exiting wort temperatures.

 

[rossi46]

you can buy a 1/2" npt to 3/8" barb. then you can use 3/8 silicon hose.

 

[dragonlor20]

Well, I won't go so far as to say that I figured it out, but I did make a solution. I sweated a 3/8 to 1/2 reducer to take the pipe back to 1/2, connected that to a 1/2 threaded connection and soldered on a brass 1/2 barb. This allowed me to keep my 1/2 silicon tubing. Seemed like there should have been a simpler way, but that's what it is!

 

[de3isit]

I used a 3/8" compression x 1/2" MPT swagelok fitting on the CFC and screwed on camlock fitting. I use the 1/2" silicone hose through my pump with a 3/8" silicone hose on the outlet of the CFC. By adjusting the pum speed and the cooling water speed I can het 70 degrees consistantly.