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So, I made a fool of myself in another thread by not thinking through something that I had just taken for granted. That frozen water never got below 32 degrees. (Something about igloos and sled dogs burying themselves in snow, but that turns out to be an insulation and wind chill thing.) I did a little experiment and, given enough time, the salt water and tap water did indeed both get well below freezing.
But it brought up another question that I can't find the answer to. The frozen tap water got warmer quicker than the salts water. The water in that container pretty quickly went to 32 degrees, where the salt water stayed well below freezing for a long time. Were their outside factors that caused this or is that the way it will always happen?
My thinking is that the cold had to go somewhere. This would mean that swapping frozen tap water bottles in a chiller bucket would be better than using salt water in them because more cold is being transferred to the chilling. If the salt water retains it's chill longer it's better at keeping the food in your ice chest from spoiling, but not what we're looking for when trying to drop our wort temperature as quickly as possible.
Salt on left / Tap on right:
(If left in freezer long enough they would both end at the zero degree setting of the freezer.)
But it brought up another question that I can't find the answer to. The frozen tap water got warmer quicker than the salts water. The water in that container pretty quickly went to 32 degrees, where the salt water stayed well below freezing for a long time. Were their outside factors that caused this or is that the way it will always happen?
My thinking is that the cold had to go somewhere. This would mean that swapping frozen tap water bottles in a chiller bucket would be better than using salt water in them because more cold is being transferred to the chilling. If the salt water retains it's chill longer it's better at keeping the food in your ice chest from spoiling, but not what we're looking for when trying to drop our wort temperature as quickly as possible.
Salt on left / Tap on right:
(If left in freezer long enough they would both end at the zero degree setting of the freezer.)