Copper choice for Immersion Chiller

[banesong]

Well, I have finally gotten fed up with the IC that I have for my keggle. It is a 3/8 homemade chiller, but I think it only has about 20' of tubing to it. It takes about 50 minutes to chill to pitching temp, even with a pre-chiller, when the ground water is above 80.

I think that I am going to make a better IC, as well as introduce a whirlpool/recirc to the chilling process. What type of copper is the right stuff to use? I see that Home Depot has 50' of 3/8 refrigeration copper for $47; Amazon has similar for $55 (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GON8S6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20).

I suspect that this is not the right type of copper (too soft) for an IC. Am I right? If so, what is the best type of copper? Also, do you have a suggested source to get copper, cheaply?

Thanks
Thomas

 

[broadbill]

whats wrong with soft copper?

 

[bja]

I suspect that this is not the right type of copper (too soft) for an IC. Am I right?

No. Why would you think that?

 

[zachattack]

Ha all 3 of the Amazon reviewers used it for brewing

 

[DocnSun]

Cooling effect will depend on 3 things amount of coils and diameter of coils, and temp of water to cool with! 3/8 dia seems a little weak! I have seen a few pics of coils and most look like 5/16 dia. You mentioned ground water @ 80 degrees if so then there is not much cooling there.

 

[banesong]

Sorry, work took over my world.

I had it in my head that it required a more durable coil, guess not.

Should I go with a wider or smaller diameter for the tube then? I would think that wider (1/2) would get a greater surface area in contract with the wort, but have more liquid in the core that was not in contract with the heated liquid.

 

[day_trippr]

Water "in the core" or not, it's all about surface area...

Cheers!

 

[masonsjax]

I believe most of the wort chillers I have seen are 3/8"soft copper, including the homemade chiller I use.

 

[BirdmanBrewingCo]

We've made numerous with that type of copper. You just have to be careful when bending. It can kink easily if you aren't careful.

 

[brick]

Are we talking about 5 gal batches here? If so, 45min sounds like an awfully long time even for a 20' coil. If that's the case then I suspect your inlet temps are much more of a problem than coil size. I'd try chilling down to 120-130F with native 80F groundwater and then immerse the chiller in a fresh ice bath to get you down to pitching temp. If you pre-chill all the way (which you don't need to until wort temp drops) it could just be that your ice bath is spent and you're trying to drop the last 10 degrees with tepid water.

If that advice doesn't pan out, I would figure out how much more cooling you think you need (in terms of surface area) and decide what tubing diameter gets you there for the least money. For example, a 40' by 3/8in coil and a 30' by 1/2in coil get you to the same heat transfer area. I imagine one of those costs less money than the other.

 

[banesong]

Work is... Fun, sorry for the delay in reply.

Two items of note:
This is for a 10 gallon batch; my chiller for the 5 gallon batch if the pre chiller.

I don't ice the pre chiller until the batch gets down to about 110.

I will do the math to see the best cost between 1/2 and 3/8. I believe 3/8 is slightly cheaper.
T

 

[day_trippr]

Cooling effect will depend on 3 things amount of coils and diameter of coils, and temp of water to cool with! 3/8 dia seems a little weak! I have seen a few pics of coils and most look like 5/16 dia.[...]

Uh huh. If 3/8" tubing is "weak", 5/16" tubing would be even "weaker".
"Weak" or not, I suspect "most" ICs are actually 3/8" tubing.

But I'd still go with 1/2"...

Cheers!