I am terrible at DIY stuff, which is why I bought a chiller instead of trying to make one myself.
Sadly, even buying one apparently requires more DIY competence than I actually have.
I brewed for the first time with a chiller three weeks ago, and it took me an hour to figure out that I didn't have the first clue how to set it up without leaking at the connection between the plastic siphon hose and the copper tubing. I clamped the worm clamp down as tight as it would go, but no luck. Drip, drip, drip, drip.
So I took the whole damn thing into a hardware store, and they sold me some plumber's tape and said that would fix the problem. I wrapped the crap out of the copper tube, stuck the plastic tube onto it, and clamped it down. No leaks. Hooray. After all the trouble I had getting that sealed, I figured I'd leave everything as is and not touch the thing until the next brew day.
Enter the next brew day (today). I didn't touch anything. Still plumber's tape around the seal. Go to chill my batch, and it's like a freaking faucet at that connection. It was dripping down through the slots in the clamp (not sure exactly what was causing the problem, since water is obviously not supposed to be in the clamp in the first place), multiple drips per second. So I wrapped the whole damn thing in plumber's tape. It kept dripping through the tape. That was obviously a mistake. So I turned off the water, pulled all the tape off, loosened the clamp, pulled it away from the connection, and wrapped the connection in tape until I literally ran out of tape. Then put the clamp back on and tightened the crap out of it.
The connection is still a faucet.
I'm assuming this seal is not supposed to be so loose as to be completely unusable, so I must be doing something wrong. I have no idea what. This is NOT my area of expertise. But presumably I'm not supposed to have to retape the entire thing every time I use it. So what am I doing wrong?
Sadly, even buying one apparently requires more DIY competence than I actually have.
I brewed for the first time with a chiller three weeks ago, and it took me an hour to figure out that I didn't have the first clue how to set it up without leaking at the connection between the plastic siphon hose and the copper tubing. I clamped the worm clamp down as tight as it would go, but no luck. Drip, drip, drip, drip.
So I took the whole damn thing into a hardware store, and they sold me some plumber's tape and said that would fix the problem. I wrapped the crap out of the copper tube, stuck the plastic tube onto it, and clamped it down. No leaks. Hooray. After all the trouble I had getting that sealed, I figured I'd leave everything as is and not touch the thing until the next brew day.
Enter the next brew day (today). I didn't touch anything. Still plumber's tape around the seal. Go to chill my batch, and it's like a freaking faucet at that connection. It was dripping down through the slots in the clamp (not sure exactly what was causing the problem, since water is obviously not supposed to be in the clamp in the first place), multiple drips per second. So I wrapped the whole damn thing in plumber's tape. It kept dripping through the tape. That was obviously a mistake. So I turned off the water, pulled all the tape off, loosened the clamp, pulled it away from the connection, and wrapped the connection in tape until I literally ran out of tape. Then put the clamp back on and tightened the crap out of it.
The connection is still a faucet.
I'm assuming this seal is not supposed to be so loose as to be completely unusable, so I must be doing something wrong. I have no idea what. This is NOT my area of expertise. But presumably I'm not supposed to have to retape the entire thing every time I use it. So what am I doing wrong?