BeardedIdiot
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,
I thought that since I've had a brew under my belt with this beast, I should probably share it on here. I've only seen one or two of these on HBT so far, and they were smaller versions with only a few runs.
This chiller is about 28" in length not counting the silicone tubing loops on the ends. The external pipe is 3/4" diameter, and the internal pipe is 1/2" diameter. The length of 1/2" pipes enclosed by the 3/4" pipe is 22" per tube. With 10 tubes, that means 220" total, or 18.33 feet of contact for chilling.
This cost me about $130 buying everything new (pipe, fittings, solder, flux, and new propane torch bottle). I found the fittings MUCH cheaper online than at Lowes/Depot.
This was definitely a challenge to build. You have to grind the inside of the T-fittings out slightly so that the 1/2" tube will slide through, but not so much that you can't solder it. With as close together as the pipes are, it became more challenging as I progressed. I don't know how many times I burned the heel of my hand trying to swing the torch or solder around to get at all sides of the fittings. With a couple days of prep time cutting pipe and grinding fittings, it took me about 6 straight hours of soldering to get it done.
As far as chilling, I did a test run with boiling Oxyclean solution (needed to clean it anyways). Gravity draining the keggle and with chilling water valve only open about half, I was able to cool about 6 gallons of 212F solution to 75F in just over 8 minutes.
Considering it used to take me 20-25 minutes to chill with my IC, I considered that a huge improvement.
I got to try it out on an actual brew day about a week later. Gravity draining through the chiller directly into the fermentor, I was able to chill 5.5 gallons of wort from boiling to 77F in 6 minutes and 14 seconds. I think I can knock off a little more time fiddling with the chilling water flow.
Pics are worth a thousand words:
I thought that since I've had a brew under my belt with this beast, I should probably share it on here. I've only seen one or two of these on HBT so far, and they were smaller versions with only a few runs.
This chiller is about 28" in length not counting the silicone tubing loops on the ends. The external pipe is 3/4" diameter, and the internal pipe is 1/2" diameter. The length of 1/2" pipes enclosed by the 3/4" pipe is 22" per tube. With 10 tubes, that means 220" total, or 18.33 feet of contact for chilling.
This cost me about $130 buying everything new (pipe, fittings, solder, flux, and new propane torch bottle). I found the fittings MUCH cheaper online than at Lowes/Depot.
This was definitely a challenge to build. You have to grind the inside of the T-fittings out slightly so that the 1/2" tube will slide through, but not so much that you can't solder it. With as close together as the pipes are, it became more challenging as I progressed. I don't know how many times I burned the heel of my hand trying to swing the torch or solder around to get at all sides of the fittings. With a couple days of prep time cutting pipe and grinding fittings, it took me about 6 straight hours of soldering to get it done.
As far as chilling, I did a test run with boiling Oxyclean solution (needed to clean it anyways). Gravity draining the keggle and with chilling water valve only open about half, I was able to cool about 6 gallons of 212F solution to 75F in just over 8 minutes.
Considering it used to take me 20-25 minutes to chill with my IC, I considered that a huge improvement.
I got to try it out on an actual brew day about a week later. Gravity draining through the chiller directly into the fermentor, I was able to chill 5.5 gallons of wort from boiling to 77F in 6 minutes and 14 seconds. I think I can knock off a little more time fiddling with the chilling water flow.
Pics are worth a thousand words: