Calculations for Immersion Chiller

[tarmenel]

Hi there,
Looking at building an imersion chiller. Not sure if I'm overthinking this but is there an ideal number of loops or circumference when making the chiller? I'm also wondering about the best size of the tube. I've seem 3/8 is most places. Is this just because its standard and easy to find? If there are calculations I'd relly appreciate if you could point me in the right direction.

 

[Craft_Conversations]

The whole idea of chilling wort helps give you a better cold break, trub/ hop gunk/wort protein clumps up together and falls to the bottom, resulting in a cleaner end product.

Two things affect temperature changes:
1. The greater difference between the temperature of your Wort and cold water flowing through the chiller.
2. Surface area: how much of the cold chiller touches the hot wort.

Thus its always better to go with a bigger chiller diameter and length (increases surface area/wort contact) and use cooler water.

I have been using a Copper 1/2" by 50' chiller with garden hose fittings. If you are building your own, I would suggest doing a double ringed chiller so its closer to the bottom of the pot. Just make sure that the entire chiller area is under your wort so its more effect at cooling.