Jaded Hydra....as advertised

[casualbrewer]

My wife bought me a Jaded Hydra immersion chiller for father's day and I must say that I am impressed with it so far. Ground water was at 75 degrees and I was running it wide open with a 12' garden hose. Chilled 6 gallons of boiling wort to under 100 in 3 1/2 minutes and down to 80 degrees in just under 9 minutes. Very nice product. Btw I was slowing stirring my wort while it was chilling so that helped.

 

[mongoose33]

Stir faster.

I have one; stunningly good piece of equipment.

 

[ChelisHubby]

I have also have one, I am greatly impressed by it

 

[frettfreak]

I have been eyeing one of these for SO LONG! I have a 50' CFC that i made a long time ago that works REALLY well... but always concerned with sanitation. Glad they are as good as they look. Makes me want one even more now! lol Congrats!

 

[casualbrewer]

Will be looking forward to winter brewing now so I can get down to lager temps without ice.

 

[MrBJones]

My wife gave me one for Christmas...was able to get from boiling to pitching temp in about 10 minutes. Ground water is warmer now in the Dallas area; quickly gets to the mid-70s but tough to get below that...takes a few hours in the Cool brewing cooler with jugs of ice.

On that note, I'm looking for a 20'-ish prechiller, 1/2" diameter copper tubing. Between that and the Hydra, I'll be set any time of year.

 

[schematix]

Mine works great too. Really wish someone made a stainless rendition.

 

[Beer-lord]

I've had mine for about a year and am more than impressed. When my ground water gets to 81-82, the pump comes out when I get it to 100 then a few bags of ice and the pump gets me to 65 in no time.
A very worthwhile piece of equipment.

 

[MrBJones]

I've had mine for about a year and am more than impressed. When my ground water gets to 81-82, the pump comes out when I get it to 100 then a few bags of ice and the pump gets me to 65 in no time.
A very worthwhile piece of equipment.

Not to hijack...but what kind of pump?

 

[jpakstis]

I treated myself to a Hydra prior to my last brew day and holy moly does it work fast. Prior to that I had a pretty standard bare-bones 25 foot stainless steel IC and while it wasn't atrocious, it would take at least 20+ minutes to cool to around 70 (our ground water stays pretty close to 50-55 degrees).

This last brew day, the Hydra dropped the temp from boiling to a 175 for a hopstand in about 30 seconds. And then from 150-160ish to 70 in about 5 minutes after that.

One pretty small but nice thing I like about about the Hydra that is more about how I disliked my prior IC: my old IC had clear hoses attached via barbed connections that hung down almost to the end of the kettle, which made it a little unwieldy to drop it into boil. The hoses themselves got a little warped and stretched because of the heat. The Hydra only has the copper connections to the hose connectors so that wasn't a concern at all.

 

[casualbrewer]

Seems to be a very well made unit. Maybe next time I will try a pre chiller or recirculate ice water through it

 

[Beer-lord]

Not to hijack...but what kind of pump?

I've been using this one with great luck: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017R708QO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Murphys_Law]

Love my hydra. One of the best pieces of equipment I've bought.

 

[marvinsjunk]

Also have one and also a very happy customer. They even custom bent it to fit inside a Blichmann BoilCoil while still being almost completely submerged in a 5g batch (15g pot). I use a pump to whirlpool.

 

[Devon]

One pretty small but nice thing I like about about the Hydra that is more about how I disliked my prior IC: my old IC had clear hoses attached via barbed connections that hung down almost to the end of the kettle, which made it a little unwieldy to drop it into boil. The hoses themselves got a little warped and stretched because of the heat. The Hydra only has the copper connections to the hose connectors so that wasn't a concern at all.

Agreed. Those flimsy little hoses were constantly slipping off the chiller I used to use. By the time I replaced it they were held on with hose clamps and wrapped in tape, and they still leaked.

The Hydra is miles better in every conceivable way, I love it.