Yet another immersion chiller - first attempt

Nothing spectacular, just another immersion chiller. I used a 6 gallon 'True Brew' bucket to wind the coils, and I used 50' of 3/8" copper. I designed it so if I am doing larger than 5 gal batches I can expand the coils a bit and have it reach the top of my brew kettle

I did not put hose fittingson it, but chose to put 1/2" OD tubing (8ft on both sides) and picked up a fountain pump at Harbor Freight http://www.harborfreight.com/620-gph-submersible-fountain-pump-68393.html

One side goes to the pump, the other to a 'exhaust hose' for the hot water

I have one of those 17 gallon rope handled tubs that can be had at WalMart cheap, and I near topped it off with water the night before and left it in the drive. When I pulled it into the garage, it was 41F. I then took seven 1L bottles of ice from the deep freeze and dumped them in the 'feedwater' tub. I'd say that dropped it to about 39F. After I am done, I toss them back to the freezer to refreeze for the next time.

I immersed the pump in the near freezing water and put the return hose in the same tub. Of course this slowly made the temp rise in the tub, which got me thinking - I need another tub to toss in all my gear needing cleanup, and I will use the hot water return in the second tub to pre-wash/soak my gear. Additionally, that will keep the 'source' water colder and should be more efficient.

It dropped the wort from boil to 80F in about 15-18min. That was in a 65F garage. I think I can do much better with not having the hot water recirculate into my cold water 'coolant' tub.

It sure beats waiting an hour with the boil kettle in the same tub full of ice water - that took 1 hour last time.

The build list was some hose clamps from HF, along with the fountain pump (don't forget your 20% coupon!), 16' of 1/2" OD 3/8" ID clear tubing from Lowes, and 50' 3/8" copper line - also from Lowes.

With that much copper you could split the build with a buddy and make two chillers. I wanted one tall enough to make coils to the top of my 11 gallon SS brew kettle, hence the larger amount of copper. It still looks and sounds like overkill LOL

I'd say I have just under $80 in the build. The chiller alone would retail for that or more, so I'm happy. Now I just need another rope handled bucket to capture the return and put that water to use...

You mind sharing pics? Always awesome to see other people's diy projects.

Here it is with the plastic tub, the pump and a bottle I use to freeze ice in. Bottles go in the tub with the cold water, pump sits in the ice water bath.

At present is it packed down to the size for a 5 gallon brew, but could be stretched to a taller height if needed for a larger batch.

Very nice, I like the idea of recirculating ice water. The chiller looks really decent, nice job.

I use the same set up. And a hint for better performance. Collect the first 5 gallons of water to do clean up. It will be hot and by not putting it back in recirc bucket you keep the recirc water cooler even though you have less volume.

Yeah, I am going to pickup another plastic tub and use the second for cleanup water. I was mildly surprised how quickly the recirc raised the temp in the tub considering there was 17 gal or so of near freezing water in it to start.

The ice water certainly helped, but I saw the thread on rib cage immersion chillers so I 'rewound' mine. Here's the latest: