Counter flow chiller upgrade

[ThomasO5608]

I'm curious if anyone has tried taking a counterflow chiller and making a closed loop system with an ac pump and some kind of refrigerant? Currently in the winter time with 54 deg ground water I can chill a 5 gal batch to 65 deg in 6 minutes. In the summer months chilling down to pitching temp is a struggle at best. I have been recycling the wort through the chiller and back into the boil kettle but I don't like to take it much below 140 deg for fear of contamination. Even doing that with 72 deg ground water I still don't like to pitch the yeast until I am below 70 deg. One other aspect of chilling wort that I don't like is the huge amount of wasted water that is used. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Tom

 

[Seattle2k]

I'm sure it has been done with chilled glycol. AC condenser goes into a cooler full of glycol. recir pump pushes the chilled glycol. There are specialized glycol chillers for this sort of thing too.

 

[mattd2]

The other way would be to build a miniature cooling tower and utilise evaporative cooling

 

[77bawls]

I'm sure it has been done with chilled glycol. AC condenser goes into a cooler full of glycol. recir pump pushes the chilled glycol. There are specialized glycol chillers for this sort of thing too.

That's the sloppy way to do it. The proper way it to remove the evaporator and install a tube in tube heat exchanger or plate heat exchanger. I have one sitting in my garage that I made that cools down to -40. Of course it could be regulated to be warmer than that.

 

[Seattle2k]

That's the sloppy way to do it. The proper way it to remove the evaporator and install a tube in tube heat exchanger or plate heat exchanger. I have one sitting in my garage that I made that cools down to -40. Of course it could be regulated to be warmer than that.

Every forum has a know-it-all 1-upper.

 

[jammin]

I think a lot of pro breweries run ground water through their HEX until they get close to the limitation of their ground water temp. That's when they kick in the glycol.

 

[helterscelter]

That's the sloppy way to do it. The proper way it to remove the evaporator and install a tube in tube heat exchanger or plate heat exchanger. I have one sitting in my garage that I made that cools down to -40. Of course it could be regulated to be warmer than that.

any chance you can put up some pics and information about this? I assume it's custom built?

 

[jddevinn]

That's the sloppy way to do it. The proper way it to remove the evaporator and install a tube in tube heat exchanger or plate heat exchanger. I have one sitting in my garage that I made that cools down to -40. Of course it could be regulated to be warmer than that.

You removed the evaporator from the unit, soldered on a direct heat exchanger, evacuated the system and refilled?

How did you size the heat exchanger? How much refrigerant did you need to fill it? Are you controlling the flow with a TXV?

 

[77bawls]

any chance you can put up some pics and information about this? I assume it's custom built?

I'll try to remember to take a pic tomorrow. It's not a looker by any means lol.

You removed the evaporator from the unit, soldered on a direct heat exchanger, evacuated the system and refilled?

How did you size the heat exchanger? How much refrigerant did you need to fill it? Are you controlling the flow with a TXV?

I evacuated the system, removed the evaporator, and brazed on the heat exchanger. I didn't measure the amount of refrigerant, I charged by superheat. It uses a cap tube. A txv would give you more control.

 

[jddevinn]

I'll try to remember to take a pic tomorrow. It's not a looker by any means lol.



I evacuated the system, removed the evaporator, and brazed on the heat exchanger. I didn't measure the amount of refrigerant, I charged by superheat. It uses a cap tube. A txv would give you more control.

I'm interested in seeing pictures as well.

 

[kristiismean]

I always wondered about building a Peltier plate that could be dripped in the cooler. no water, no chilling, just a plate that could get to 0 degrees and hold it. (yes I understand it's not reasonable and the power needed would be so inefficient. not to mention the high cost)

for now I use an ice batch to keep the water wastage to a minimum..

 

[mattd2]

I always wondered about building a Peltier plate that could be dripped in the cooler. no water, no chilling, just a plate that could get to 0 degrees and hold it. (yes I understand it's not reasonable and the power needed would be so inefficient. not to mention the high cost)

for now I use an ice batch to keep the water wastage to a minimum..

The main problem with the plan is you can't drop the whole thing into the cooler as a peltier only transfers heat across it - so if you put the whole thing in the container it would just make one side cold while heating the other (plus heating it more for the inefficiency)

 

[77bawls]

Here it is in all it's glory, not pretty by any means but I just threw it together.

 

[77bawls]

I take it none of you are impressed. If I don't have much going on tomorrow I'll fire it up and take another pic.

 

[77bawls]

 

[mattd2]

I take it none of you are impressed. If I don't have much going on tomorrow I'll fire it up and take another pic.

where does the wort go?

 

[77bawls]

There's caps on it. The top one is there. The bottom on is behind where the refrigerant goes in. The inner tube is completely surrounded by -40° refrigerant. Also this wouldn't be used for a wort chiller. It would have to be used with glycol to keep beer lines cold over a long distance. The wort would freeze in the heat exchanger. You could probably tune it to work with wort but it's completely overkill for that.

 

[ThomasO5608]

This is what I was thinking of when I made the original post. I have a convoluted counter flow chiller and I would like to adapt it to something very similar to this. I would defiantly need to educate myself a little or employ someone familiar with how to tune such a system for chilling wort. Thanks for the pictures. It has inspired me to move forward with my project.