Germey
Well-Known Member
Well, I guess I can just chalk this up to a learning experience.
I wanted to go with 1/2" tubing, not knowing much about bending the stuff.
I had a friend help me wrap it around a 5gal bucket, but we still managed to get a few kinks in it. I didn't think much of it at the time. It worked great for about 10 batches. On the last one, though, I sanitized it as normal with the hot wort, then turned on the hose water. Almost immediately, it started leaking from around the hose QDs, then the hose blew off the end piece. Well, ****, I said loudly and set to work reattaching the hose, thinking only that there would be a delay in my cooling. I reattached, but it kept leaking, like there was an enormous extra pressure in the water path. Then I noticed the water was brown, but only after I had blown a gallon or more of wort wort down the driveway with the cooling water.
The post-mortem pics are below. Apparently, one of the kinks was getting moved just a bit every time I picked the chiller up or moved it. That movement finally caused a split.
May my misfortune be a cautionary tale to all.
I wanted to go with 1/2" tubing, not knowing much about bending the stuff.
I had a friend help me wrap it around a 5gal bucket, but we still managed to get a few kinks in it. I didn't think much of it at the time. It worked great for about 10 batches. On the last one, though, I sanitized it as normal with the hot wort, then turned on the hose water. Almost immediately, it started leaking from around the hose QDs, then the hose blew off the end piece. Well, ****, I said loudly and set to work reattaching the hose, thinking only that there would be a delay in my cooling. I reattached, but it kept leaking, like there was an enormous extra pressure in the water path. Then I noticed the water was brown, but only after I had blown a gallon or more of wort wort down the driveway with the cooling water.
The post-mortem pics are below. Apparently, one of the kinks was getting moved just a bit every time I picked the chiller up or moved it. That movement finally caused a split.
May my misfortune be a cautionary tale to all.