Anvil fermentor cooling system review and glycol chiller attempt

[yowzers]

Yowzers what size cooler are you using and about how much water? I don’t mind swapping out frozen water bottles if that will keep the temp in the 40s. My ambient temp is about 66 so seems like this should work great.

I use one of those styrofoam coolers that come from Omaha Steaks. I punched holes in it for the silicone lines in and out of the cooler so I can leave the lid on. I only put a gallon or so of water in the bottom (3 inches) or just enough to cover the submersible fountain pump I bought from Lowes. Two, two liter jugs of ice will last 24 hours when I'm lagering in the low to mid-50's, but I insulate my fermenter well with a blanket. My blanket may be much better than the Anvil insultation as that doesn't even cover the top of the fermenter. Again, I'm not using the Anvil system (using the cooler from www.ballandkeg.com) so maybe my fountain pump is better, not sure. Mine is rated at 80 GPH flow. Also, my water in the cooler is right around 32 to 34 F once I have it running so I don't understand why folks are having issues getting the cooling water down to close to freezing temps. Maybe my cheap ass styrofoam cooler is better and the small amount of water I use is easier to cool down.

 

[WesBrew]

Must be the cheap ass cooler, I cant maintain anywhere near that with my crappy cube

 

[BassBeer]

Thanks for all the replies. I’m going to try running the pump inside my chest freezer in a bowl with some water so I don’t have to worry about swapping ice or frozen bottles. The freezer hovers right around 33 so should be plenty cold. I’ll report back when I get there.

 

[WesBrew]

I use one of those styrofoam coolers that come from Omaha Steaks. I punched holes in it for the silicone lines in and out of the cooler so I can leave the lid on. I only put a gallon or so of water in the bottom (3 inches) or just enough to cover the submersible fountain pump I bought from Lowes. Two, two liter jugs of ice will last 24 hours when I'm lagering in the low to mid-50's, but I insulate my fermenter well with a blanket. My blanket may be much better than the Anvil insultation as that doesn't even cover the top of the fermenter. Again, I'm not using the Anvil system (using the cooler from www.ballandkeg.com) so maybe my fountain pump is better, not sure. Mine is rated at 80 GPH flow. Also, my water in the cooler is right around 32 to 34 F once I have it running so I don't understand why folks are having issues getting the cooling water down to close to freezing temps. Maybe my cheap ass styrofoam cooler is better and the small amount of water I use is easier to cool down.

good call on that. I got some reflectix and wrapped the fermentor (over the coat) its now taking 4.5 hours for the beer to rise 2 degrees. that is way better. also got a $4 styrofoam cooler @ publix and ran water lines through side. I'm sure I was loosing temp with the other cooler with the lid not sitting flush, even with towels shoved in there. going good at 53 degrees so far. cooler water temp in 30's for 6 hours so far. maybe go down to 50 tonight.

 

[BassBeer]

I’m curious how often everyone is having to swap out ice? Right now I’ve got my temp set to 52F and my cooler of ice/water (no lid) in my serving chest freezer (~36F). I have to change the ice once every 18-24 hours to maintain temp. Wondering if I’d be better off using the coolers insulating abitlities outside of the chest freezer? Maybe the ice would last longer in the sealed cooler? What are you guys experiencing? Thanks!

 

[augiedoggy]

If you're not dropping below freezing I don't see a reason to use glycol. I would just use distilled water.

the glycol also helps keep the water from getting slimy and nasty...

 

[WesBrew]

I’m curious how often everyone is having to swap out ice? Right now I’ve got my temp set to 52F and my cooler of ice/water (no lid) in my serving chest freezer (~36F). I have to change the ice once every 18-24 hours to maintain temp. Wondering if I’d be better off using the coolers insulating abitlities outside of the chest freezer? Maybe the ice would last longer in the sealed cooler? What are you guys experiencing? Thanks!

I used frozen jugs of water which I don't think is as effective as filling the cooler with ice. (used 3 juice jugs) I had to change them 2-3x a day when I lagered at 50-52degrees.

 

[yowzers]

I’m curious how often everyone is having to swap out ice? Right now I’ve got my temp set to 52F and my cooler of ice/water (no lid) in my serving chest freezer (~36F). I have to change the ice once every 18-24 hours to maintain temp. Wondering if I’d be better off using the coolers insulating abitlities outside of the chest freezer? Maybe the ice would last longer in the sealed cooler? What are you guys experiencing? Thanks!

I'm using a styrofoam cooler with the lines run through the side as I mentioned above. When I was lagering last summer I needed to swap out 2 to 3 2-liter ice jugs per day. I'd usually put one or two in in the morning and then do one in the evening. As I've mentioned before, I don't have the Anvil system so I insulate my fermenter with a heavy blanket. That may be more effective than the Anvil jacket.

 

[rmchair]

Hmm, did you say you are hooking the mini fridge up to the temp controller instead of just letting it run? I'd leave the fridge with the cool water going nonstop and only hook the pump to the controller. I'd also toss a couple ice bottles in the reservoir to turbo boost.

Another notion is to use an old copper immersion coil in the reservoir. I'm not sure if that's better than simply cooling the water in a bucket inside the fridge, but it seems more cool. And, bonus, it gives the copper coil a new purpose. It allows the pump heat to stay out of the water. Some engineer can probably figure the difference in recovery time for hot water mixing with cool versus letting the cool water cool the copper.

Lastly, will one of those $100 ice makers spit out enough ice to make this work? One I saw at worst buy said it used the meltwater to make new ice. I've never used one. Thatd be pretty slick if it could keep up.