In line thermometer

[Shaneoco1981]

I built my self an in line thermometer. I am thinking quite a few people could benefit from making on, and it cost me about $10 total. I used 2 small pieces of 3/8 flex copper, 2 1/2 to 1/4 reducers, and a foot long piece of 1/2 in copper. I soldered them like this, 3/8 flex - 1/4 to 12 reducer - 1/2 copper - 1/2 to 1/4 reducer - 3/8 flex copper. On the 1/2 in copper, I stuck one of those stick on thermometers on. It works great. I chill my wort using a home made counter flow chiller, between the CFC and my carboy, I put my in line thermometer and it's really easy to adjust the flow of the garden hose or the wort. It goes in at the perfect temp. I was before using one of the stick on thermometers on my carboy and I had no idea what temp it was, till it reached the bottom of the thermometer and by that time, it might be to hard to get it back into range. The only thing I might consider doing is upping it once again to 3/4 in copper. 1/2 is a little to narrow and the stick on thermometer wants to peel off. Let me know what you think.

 

[wildwest450]

How about a pic?


_

 

[Shaneoco1981]

I'll get one posted when I get home. I am at the girlfriend's right now. Give me an hour or 2.

 

[Shaneoco1981]

Here is my in-line thermometer. Hope someone gets some good use from it.

I keep it with a tube from one end to the other and sanitizer in it.

 

[Billforshort]

I've read about making one of these and just posted about it. Wish I would have seen your post first. Do you notice any spots inside the thermometer where trub can pool or harbor bacteria? Obviously you want as smooth as possible interior. Does the solder add any off flavors? On the CFC, solder is never in contact with the wort, so I was curious if you noticed anything different now using this.

 

[DrDarwin]

I like this idea a lot, but it seems like it would be very difficult to clean effectively. I would think the inside is going to be far from perfectly smooth, and since you can't very well put a direct flame to it long enough to "kill it with fire", or boil it without taking off your temp strip you might have some problems in the long run.

How many times have you used it? I'm assuming you haven't noticed any sanitation problems.

 

[strumke]

Is there any reason people don't just stick the temp strip right to the "wort out" piece of copper from the chiller, instead of adding another fitting?

 

[passedpawn]

Been there done that. Mine worked OK for a while. Then, didn't work at all.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/inline-thermometer-build-3-4-simple-simple-163779/