been over 1000 times, which chiller?

[kickflip_mj]

so i have a 5 gallon herms set up and i was wondering which chiller. i have an emersion chiller right now but with the local water it takes forever to get down to temp (and alot of wasted water) so i was thinking

1. buy another pump to circulate ice water.

2. make a CFC and buy another march pump($$$), the downside is i think i would still have issues with the local water temp

3. buy march pump and whirlpool? not to sure on this method.

so here are some of the major options any others would be great, im just trying to save some water but also cool very quickly. any help would pe apreciated

 

[Homercidal]

Considering your source water temperature, I would not recommend the CFC. I would spend the money on a pump, and build a recirculating whirlpool chiller and make an ice bath to cool the water even more.

I'm not sure how much ice and water it would take to get it down to pitching temp. I would maybe start with tap water and after a few minutes, switch over to ice water, or you may melt all of the ice before it can get down to pitching temp.

 

[kickflip_mj]

is that like a pump on the outside of a bucket with the coils running throught the bucket filled with ice water?

 

[kickflip_mj]

oh its not that the water temps in the winter arnt cold enough just when it starts to warm up i can only seem to get my wort down to 80 degrees.

 

[ILOVEBEER]

I just bought a 40 plate chiller off of ebay. I haven't tried it yet, but the water wasted isn't that big of a deal. I brew in the back yard and have plans to run the "waste" hot water first into my MT and HLT for cleaning later and any leftover to a sprinkler and water my lawn while I chill.

 

[Dog House Brew]

CFC, effeciency of a plate w/o the clogs and all the cleaning. Make one and save. I think the convoluted is more for sales than anything. Make one large enough and recirc back to the kettle or run straight to the fermenter.
My $.02

 

[bendavanza]

Since you already have a herms have you considered using the herms coil and ice bath as a chiller? The Pol did this recently.

 

[kickflip_mj]

i have thought about it, the problem is i usually do two batches at a time and it would be a pain because i have one batch boiling and one circulating.

 

[HalfPint]

I have to use ice to cool my wort. What I did is got a smaller IC (25 foot of 3/8" copper) and have it in a 5 gallon bucket of ice. I run my hose to that one first and that one is routed to my Ic that's in the wort. I live in Houston, Tx and our hose water during the summer can be around 90* F+. I typically use 20 lb's of ice after the Ic's been in the wort running with the hose water for about 10 mins. It usually takes me about 15 minutes to cool 5 gallons of wort from boiling using this method stirring the wort every couple of minutes.