All copper Counter flow chiller from Morebeer

[farmskis]

Is anyone familiar with the output pipes on this particular chiller? Is it sized like common water pipe copper pipe? I thought I read somewhere that cooling pipe copper (it is a little softer) was used and the size of that differs from the stiff copper water pipes.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/wort-chiller-counterflow-assembly-inline-thermometer.html

 

[Deadalus]

That was probably me. I was recently speculating that both sets of tubing were soft copper tubing used in HVAC applications. I just went and measured as best I could with my calipers. The outer line is about 3/4" outer diameter. That would fit with 3/4" soft copper tubing. On mine, the outer tubing is a little flattened. But that inner one, which gave me a real headache getting fittings for is slightly less than 5/8" outer diameter. I tried a couple of different methods to get fittings on there thinking it was 1/2" copper pipe which is supposed to be 5/8" outer diameter but the various fitting types I tried were too loose. And if it was 5/8" soft copper tubing that is outer diameter based so I guess 1/2" copper water pipe fittings would fit 5/8" od soft copper but again, fittings didn't work. Back when I was trying to get the fittings on it, I had a different theory that it was possibly 1/2" British copper based since these were coming from overseas. Maybe I just have an oddball and somehow the inside tubing is off somehow or something metric. Sorry I just haven't been able to definitively determine 100% that any one of my theories is correct. Plus mine was used of unknown provenance.

Are you looking to buy one without fittings on the inside wort line? I can describe how I ultimately did attach mine if needed. There are two options I know of that work.

 

[farmskis]

I am looking to buy one. Not sure yet where the pipe was cut off. I believe it was just behind the original fittings that came on it but not sure. Still waiting to find out. So I would guess it would be on the 2 pipes that stick out the tee. ( except the pipe that goes into the tee from the coil)

 

[Deadalus]

It's a bit confusing since copper water pipes are only nominally referenced to inner diameter. From https://www.plumbingsupply.com/coppertubing.html, this table sort of explains how find fittings for the soft copper tubing using copper pipe referenced fittings. Now if my CFC perhaps used 5/8" copper tubing, I still should have been able to use 1/2" copper water pipe fittings. But the sweat fittings were too loose to solder and the compression fittings ended up loose as well.

Q."I have 'refrigeration grade' copper tubing. How do I determine which size copper sweat fittings to use?"
A. Refrigeration grade soft copper tubing is sized according to the outside diameter of the copper pipe. The plumbing industry uses the inside diameter (nominal) size of the pipe for their measurement of sweat/solder fittings. To determine what size sweat fittings to use on refrigeration grade tubing you must subtract 1/8" from the outside diameter of the copper pipe measurements. If you have 1/4" outside diameter refrigeration grade tubing then you will need to order 1/8" (nominal) sweat/solder fittings. Copper sweat fittings are not available for 1/8" or 3/16" O.D. copper tubing.

Nominal Size To OD Size Conversion Table
O.D. Of Pipe	1/4"	3/8"	1/2"	5/8"	7/8"	1-1/8"	1-3/8"	1-5/8"	2-1/8"
Nominal Pipe Size	1/8"	1/4"	3/8"	1/2"	3/4"	1"	1-1/4"	1-1/2"	2"

Q. "What does 'Nominal' mean?"
A. Nominal is the term used to describe copper pipe in plumbing. Nominal refers to the inside diameter of the pipe which varies by thickness of the pipe. The outside is a constant size and is always 1/8" larger than the nominal size. Example: 1/2" nominal is always 5/8" O.D.
Note: Copper sweat fittings are sized according to the nominal inside diameter of the copper piping they will be used with.

 

[Deadalus]

I am looking to buy one. Not sure yet where the pipe was cut off. I believe it was just behind the original fittings that came on it but not sure. Still waiting to find out. So I would guess it would be on the 2 pipes that stick out the tee. ( except the pipe that goes into the tee from the coil)

You could use tubing to go to a barb x npt fitting if a sweat or compression fitting doesn't work. I hate barbed fittings though. I ended up swaging the CFC pipe large enough to fit a short length of 1/2" copper pipe, soldered that on, then I soldered on the fitting. Need one of these swaging tools.

 

[farmskis]

You could use tubing to go to a barb x npt fitting if a sweat or compression fitting doesn't work. I hate barbed fittings though. I ended up swaging the CFC pipe large enough to fit a short length of 1/2" copper pipe, soldered that on, then I soldered on the fitting. Need one of these swaging tools.

Have a picture you could send?

Thanks for all the info.

 

[Deadalus]

Here you go.

I think I got it figured out. They are both soft copper tubing. I measured in a couple places the water line that exit the tees. These have 90 degree bends, making it hard to get a good measure. But I noticed they are also kind of flattened like the outer bigger line. The flattening would explain why I got slightly smaller than 5/8" measurements. When I bought mine, there were included SS compression fittings but the owner had mangled the pipe ends. I couldn't get them on right if I remember correctly. I tried copper compression and sweat fittings and no go. Other people also had gaps when soldering on fittings to this style, sometimes getting them on ok but sometimes not. Mine were mangled and crushed some when I got it, that would explain the difficulty. I could have possibly used the swaging tool to round it out but instead I swaged the copper pipe and soldered it over the CFC tubing. You'll notice the heavy solder use where I still had to fill the bent parts. I do solder better than that usually!