Talk to me about annealing copper to re-bend 3/8 in. chiller

[scone]

I'm thinking about re-bending my 3/8 in. copper chiller. It's a concentric design (long story) and I'm not very happy with the twin coils. For one, it's almost impossible to get water out of it and the inside stays wet all the time. For another, it complicates stirring the cooling wort during chilling. Here's a link to the design.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/concentric-immersion-chiller-build-157662/

I was thinking about annealing the whole length of it with a propane torch, and bending it so that it's relatively straight. Then annealing the whole length of it again, and then bending it into it's new shape. Am I setting myself up for disaster? The inside coil is pretty tightly wound and I'm not sure how well unwinding it will work. If anyone has experience with re-working 3/8 in. tubing, I'd love to hear about it. What are the odds that I can do all this without crimping it?

 

[jerdes]

I think the odds of this working out the way you want it to are pretty slim. My suggestion would be to cut and solder the two coils back together using a coupler. You will also need to cut the riser off one of the coils and re attach it facing the correct direction, you may also need to extend it a few inches to get it to the right height to come out of the kettle.

Good luck with this which ever way you choose to go!

 

[E-Mursed]

Personally....I would cut the two sections apart and use the smaller diameter coil one as a pre-chill and use the larger diameter as a standard wort chill. The process you described sounds like way too much work otherwise.

JMO

 

[jerdes]

Personally....I would cut the two sections apart and use the smaller diameter coil one as a pre-chill and use the larger diameter as a standard wort chill. The process you described sounds like way too much work otherwise.

JMO

+ 1, even better idea!

 

[rockytoptim]

Not sure why you want to anneal it as you bent it before. I would think you wouldn't have a problem rebending it if you got enough room to straighten all that copper.

 

[63belair]

I like the idea of cutting it and using the 2 sections as a pre chiller and regular IC.

This wouldn't address the stirring issues, but have you thought about using compressed air or maybe even a shop vac to blow water out after you've used it?

 

[outside92129]

+1 on the compressed air route. There should be enough life left in the copper that you wouldn't need to anneal it for rebending.

It's going to take you a few hours to do it all. You can get 25' of 3/8 for $12(UT08025) or 1/2" for $16(UT06025) from sears.com. It is thinner though, but better for heat transfer.

 

[bad coffee]

Sell the old one and buy new copper. To anneal 50' of copper will take more propane/Mapp gas (cost-wise) than it will to just buy new. Plus, you'll have cash from the sale of the old one.

If you want the project, go for it. Let us know how much gas you use!

 

[CrazedArmadillo]

un-bend it if it's the soft copper tubing.. what's the big deal?

when you bend soft copper, it becomes hard. Trying to un-bend it will typically deform and/or kink the tubing. You basically get one shot at bending it into the desired shape. The only way to make it flexible again is to anneal it.