Any way to securely connect tubing of wort chiller to this faucet ? Help!

[AnbyG]

Hi all,

I am planning to construct a wort chiller this weekend with 3/8 in. ID copper tubes from Home Depot. I plan to purchase some compression adapters and use them to connect the tubing to the wort chiller.

However, I have no clue on how to connect the tubing to faucet in the kitchen. These do not have any screws, nor do those chunky pieces come off. I will appreciate if you can offer an advice. The ones in the bathrooms are exactly the same as the one in the kitchen. I need a wort chiller as I am doing BIAB now, ice water baths don't cut it any more. Else I will have to keep dumping enormous amounts of ice directly in to the wort as I have done so far.

I live in a condo. So I don't have the option of connecting to a garden hose, nor do I have the option to connect the tubing to a fitting under the sink.

Thanks,

Anby

 

[Muff]

See if the tip will unscrew a lot of them do

 

[grampamark]

One of these should work.

You unscrew the aerator on the end of the faucet and replace it with the adapter. Put the aerator back when you're done brewing. Takes about 30 seconds to swap one for the other.

 

[whovous]

Is there such a thing as a threaded compression fitting? Assuming there is, find out what the thread size is. Then, remove your aerator from the faucet and take it to Home Depot and find the thread size for your faucet. Once you know those two things, you need an adapter to convert the first thread size to the second. Home Depot has a zillion such items, and Amazon has still more. All this assumes the aerator will unscrew. Most of them do, even if they don't all look like it.

 

[ShutTheFermenter]

I live an apartment and had a similar problem. I remove my shower head and connect my chiller there with a fitting from the hardware store. Works great!

 

[parrothead64]

You could also just fill the sink with water and use an aquarium pump. The top of it should connect to the plastic tube on your chiller

 

[Chris Walker]

Just out of curiosity, what is the restriction on adding a fitting under the sink? It should be fairly straight forward to add in a TEE fitting where the faucet joins the main pipe. This can then be removed if you ever need to return it to current condition.

 

[homebrewer_99]

One of these should work.

You unscrew the aerator on the end of the faucet and replace it with the adapter. Put the aerator back when you're done brewing. Takes about 30 seconds to swap one for the other.

I have 2 adapters for mine. One is to accommodate the Pur water filter to the faucet and the other adapter is for the hose that screws into the underside of the filter.

 

[RPh_Guy]

You could also just fill the sink with water and use an aquarium pump. The top of it should connect to the plastic tube on your chiller

Thanks! I love this idea.

Apparently nothing connects to my kitchen faucet. I have an adapter that doesn't work and I talked to two plumbers that told me the newer fancy-ish faucets have weird threading that won't connect to anything besides the aerator.

Also heard of using frozen water bottles and dropping them into the wort. ... Just doesn't sound like something I want to do though.

 

[Chris Walker]

See the attached picture for how I connect my chiller. Main copper pipe feed comes in at the bottom to the isolation tap. The faucet connection comes out the top as before, but now I have a tee in-between. I put a tap, Flexi-pipe (which I just coil around when not in use) and an adapter to a garden hose on the end.
This was about a 5min mod and can be removed just as quickly if ever needed.
Another advantage is a good flow rate as the ID is not reduced through the faucet.

 

[bionut]

The tee under the sink is my first option, if the aerator doesn't unscrew from the faucet. The second option is the shower head in your bathroom, as someone else said before me, almost all of them have a 1/2 thread. That's what i did until i got a aerator adapter. Honestly is was a PITA to haul the kettle of boiling wort from kitchen to bathroom. Maybe yours is closer to the kitchen and you can use a hose instead of carring the kettle to the shower.

 

[rodwha]

As was stated a pond/aquarium pump will easily work, and is what I’ve done as we are all too often in drought conditions so cutting back on the amount of water needed is a good thing.

I also have a few small (~2 gal) buckets I picked up from the bakery that I use to store ice in to chill the sink of water along with several water jugs I chill tap water in to help speed up the cooling of the wort.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

Just go the hardware store. Get some tubing, clamps, and garden hose connection.
Put it all together and you have a much more powerful water flow than with the sink.

 

[MaryB]

They make quick connect adapters that WILL fit that thread of the aerator. Used mainly for portable dishwashers. See those flats on the end? Stick a wrench on them and unscrew the aerator then take it with and find a matching adapter at Home Depot, Menards etc...

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I do the pond pump route. The best part about it is during the summer when the ground water is still to warm you can throw ice in the water-filled sink to drive the temp the rest of the way down.

 

[Onewizwitout]

Home depot has shark bite fittings that will connect to copper and pex tubing that will screw into most faucets. Take your wort chiller and talk to the plumbing guy early in the morning. Most plumbing guys at that time are retired master plumbers at home depot and will figure it out for you. They love a challenge

 

[MrBJones]

Do you have a washing machine hookup? If you do, a garden hose should fit.

 

[mr_stout]

Unscrew the head and connect the tubing using an adapter that they sell at your homebrew store. They usually do not sell the adapters at the hardware store.