DIY glycol chiller coax

[aeviaanah]

Looking to build our own glycol chiller for our 7bbl brewery. I am familiar with the typical build of taking the evaporator coil and submerge in a glycol bath. An engineer friend of ours mentioned using a plate or coaxial tube exchanger designed for refrigerant and water. I'm sure this is more efficient but also more complex, trying to understand if this is overkill. As this isn't a homebrew application I'll need every btu I can get. Brewery calculators are around 24000 BTUs and I have a 24000 btu unit.

Do you guys experience icing with the submerged evap coil? Has anyone done what I'm proposing?


@RiverCityBrewer
@AuggieDoggie

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

I just submerged the evap coil in a 7 gallon cooler full of 35ish% glycol. When chilling I run it at 27F and I haven't had any issues. Auggie may have more experience running one in a larger capacity.

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm no HVAC engineer so assume I'm stupid. Commercial glycol units use unfinned copper coils for the evaporator to allow for more liquid flow in between. The fins add efficiency when air is the media but it's not great for liquid. In order to compensate, make sure you have very good circulation in that tank at all times.