Chilling with pond water

[Casey27]

I did searches on here and found nothing about this...
This evening I had an idea. I have a pond right next to the patio where I brew. The pond is lined so it is not too scummy. The water in the pond stays pretty cool year-round (<60 F in summer and probably 40-50 the rest of the year) due to the climate here in western WA. Couldn't I just use my existing pond pump to pump water through a wort chiller and then back into the pond?
This way I would not be wasting massive amounts of water to cool the wort...
Anyone heard of this or tried it?

 

[Dwain]

Absolutely. I used to use swimming pool water during the winter. Just remember if you have a leak in your cooler, your beer will be funkrific. Also, I would make sure my chiller connections are well outside of my kettle. Some people use glycol and it's not something you'd drink. - Dwain

 

[waldoar15]

I had a hose blow off of my wort chiller last night. I'd hate to think about having pond water splashing around my wort like that, even for a few seconds.

 

[Casey27]

I had a hose blow off of my wort chiller last night. I'd hate to think about having pond water splashing around my wort like that, even for a few seconds.

Yeah I will take some serious precautions to prevent pondwater splashing into the wort should a connection start to leak or come off.

 

[Dwain]

I had a hose blow off of my wort chiller last night. I'd hate to think about having pond water splashing around my wort like that, even for a few seconds.

Yeah, that's why I put the comment about having the connections well outside your kettle. I use well water for cooling and if my well water got into the wort, my brew would probably be trashed. - Dwain