20' copper + ice bath = success!

[citabria]

I built an immersion chiller last week but due to budget constraints I could only buy the 20 ft., 3/8 in. roll at Home Depot. This weekend I did a full boil, placed the new 20 ft. IC in there and supplemented it with an ice bath in one of those cheap blue tubs from Walmart. The immserion chiller plus the kettle in the ice bath got my wort down to 70F in 15 minutes. :rockin:

Technically I overshot my temp. I would have been at 75F in less than 15 min. 20 ft. of copper was $25.00, 1 bag of ice was $1.50, The tubs at Wamat cost something like $4.00. Total setup was $30.50.

 

[s3n8]

20 ft. of copper was $25.00, 1 bag of ice was $1.50, The tubs at Wamat cost something like $4.00. Total setup was $30.50.

I went to Lowes a couple weeks back and was shocked that 20 ft. of 3/8 tubing was $66. Is the tubing at HD thinner? Or have copper prices dropped that much lately? I ended up picking up a Stainless chiller from Midwest for around $50 instead.

 

[Blender]

Yeah that works but I don't like picking up 6 gallons of very hot wort. You can also pump that ice water through the chiller which is effective once the initial temperature is around 110 - 100 degrees. You want to recirculate the ice water.

 

[citabria]

I went to Lowes a couple weeks back and was shocked that 20 ft. of 3/8 tubing was $66. Is the tubing at HD thinner? Or have copper prices dropped that much lately? I ended up picking up a Stainless chiller from Midwest for around $50 instead.

It is probably thinner copper than Lowes. Copper is still insanely expensive.