Chiller water consumption comparison

[ndinh]

I'm sure this was posted elsewhere but when I was searching for chiller efficiency, I had a tough time finding approximate water consumptions with various chillers. When I first started a couple of years ago, I, like most of you used an immersion chiller only. I was filling up to 10 x 5 gal buckets for 5 gal batches. My 2nd try was BK w/bazooka then pumped to a plate chiller. This was very quick and got my wort down to about 80F with one passing and I was filling about 3 x 5 gallon buckets. Great except I couldn't whirlpool and risk DMS, lack of cold breaks, etc. from slowly draining of the BK. I, then, tried Jamils method of IC+whirlpool arm (also replaced the bazooka with a pickup tube). I got my temp down past 160 within minutes but to get to 80F, I filled 6 x 5 gal buckets and took over 20 min. Upside was great hop aroma, nice hop cone but still lots of water used. This past weekend, I did the IC+whirlpool to get past 160F (3/4 bucket filled). After additional whirlpooling, I ran the wort through a CFC. 1 pass to get to 80F and it filled up less than 3 x 5 gal in about 5 minutes. Great hop aroma, nice trub cone and only used about 3.5 buckets total. I'm sure this is old news but I just wanted to share with some newbies that are shopping for a good and efficient cooling method and not having to re-buy equipment like I did.

 

[BargainFittings]

Great info.

One tip for areas in drought is to dual purpose your water. Wash your equipment, clothes etc with the waste water.

Cool it and use it to water your plants.

 

[Daves69]

Or wash clothes with the hot water! My wife always gets a load of something together when I brew!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[MB331]

I'm sure this was posted elsewhere but when I was searching for chiller efficiency, I had a tough time finding approximate water consumptions with various chillers. When I first started a couple of years ago, I, like most of you used an immersion chiller only. I was filling up to 10 x 5 gal buckets for 5 gal batches.d.

Is that the norm --- a 10:1 ratio to cool wort with an immersion chiller? I am a beginner and have only used ice baths and added sanitized ice for the cooling process. I have thought of buying an IC but if it means using or wasting that much water I'll keep doing the ice process.

 

[ndinh]

It all depends on how cold your ground water and the rate of your water flow. When I first started, I was filling up 8-10 Homer buckets. My wife would always complain because we had so many orange buckets laying around. Whirlpooling your wort will help a little but if you want fast, a plate chiller or CFC is the way to go.