DIY Interwoven "Rib-Cage" Immersion Chiller

[vike4life]

Hey everyone,

I just got done building a rib cage immersion chiller i used 50ft of 3/8 copper tubing. I wanted to thank everyone on the thread, for all the helpful comments. My chiller turned out great.

 

[funnycreature]

Now that you called it rib cage I just can't un-see it! Good job!

 

[bionut]

Hi guys!
Today i bought 15 meters of 3/8" copper tubing which will be my future Rib Cage IC. The problem is that my tubing came with a black text on a side. How can i erase that text? I don't want ink in my beer (possible lead based ink?...)

 

[mtnagel]

Steel wool or fine sand paper should work.

 

[vinylrooster]

Thanks to the OP for inspiring my build. Check it out, if you're into that sort of thing:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=434617

Also included a picture for your viewing pleasure.

 

[mtnagel]

Beautiful.

 

[vinylrooster]

Beautiful.

Thanks!

 

[Stealthcruiser]

Hi guys!
Today i bought 15 meters of 3/8" copper tubing which will be my future Rib Cage IC. The problem is that my tubing came with a black text on a side. How can i erase that text? I don't want ink in my beer (possible lead based ink?...)

Try some alcohol, (isopropyl),acetone, even nail polish remover, (re: scented acetone).

Should come off without abrasives.

 

[vinylrooster]

I posted the same question on my original build post, but have yet to get any answers, so I thought I would ask here....


Has anyone used a similar shaped ribcage chiller in combination with a hop spider? I'm wondering if the chiller will interfere with hop movement and thus lower utilization? Obviously I add the chiller with about 15 minutes left in boil, so it should only effect my aroma hops

I can try to post pics to show what I'm talking about, but I am imagining using the hop spider "inside" of the ribcage. Or maybe I should just push the chiller to the side of the pot and see if I can get the spider more free?

Thoughts and input are greatly appreciated

 

[bionut]

Try some alcohol, (isopropyl),acetone, even nail polish remover, (re: scented acetone).

Should come off without abrasives.

Thanks! I will try some alcohol. Sory for the late response, but i was waiting for email notification, but i didn't got one.

 

[bionut]

After about 30 minutes of scrubing with isopropylic alcohol i managed to whipe the text off
Now, after another 60 minutes, i have a new (and my first) chiller, a rib cage chiller
15 meters (50' i think) of 9.52 mm (3/85") tubing.

 

[lifefermented]

Ha, I thought I came up with this idea, but it turns out you beat me by 4 years. I think my design is a bit of an "improvement." I used three 16 foot strands of 1/4 copper tubing, so it has an extremely high surface area to coolant volume ratio, so it should be more efficient. I posted a write up on my blog here: http://lifefermented.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/diy-immersion-chiller-the-hydra/

 

[vinylrooster]

After about 30 minutes of scrubing with isopropylic alcohol i managed to whipe the text off
Now, after another 60 minutes, i have a new (and my first) chiller, a rib cage chiller
15 meters (50' i think) of 9.52 mm (3/85") tubing.

Very clean build, well done bionut.

 

[bionut]

Thanks vinylrooster!
I can't wait to test it out.

 

[lucasxp]

That design is awesome!!! It's like a double wort chiller!

 

[hairless_mac]

I'm thinking about building a wort chiller and using a fountain pump to cycle the water. But my idea is getting a submersible pump and recirculating the water from a cooler with ice water and back into to the cooler to bring it back down. That way I'm not waisting a lot of water. My question is this.....does this sound okay or more like a hair ball idea. Any info or ideas?

 

[mtnagel]

Lots of people do it. Should work fine.

 

[hairless_mac]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was thinking about doing this for the different temps. This way I can control the flow and temp good and hopefully have really cold water circulating to bring the wort temp down quickly.

 

[bionut]

Sounds good, but you need to keep the first litres of water because it is too hot and will melt the ice very quickly.

 

[lucasxp]

I'm thinking about building a wort chiller and using a fountain pump to cycle the water. But my idea is getting a submersible pump and recirculating the water from a cooler with ice water and back into to the cooler to bring it back down. That way I'm not waisting a lot of water. My question is this.....does this sound okay or more like a hair ball idea. Any info or ideas?

Sweet idea man! I never liked the idea of wasting water like that either that's why I've never used a wort chiller but if I use a fountain pump like you that would be totally doable!
Thanks for sharing!!

 

[mtnagel]

I'm not saying you shouldn't do the recirculating pump idea, but I don't waste any of the water that comes out of my immersion chiller. I collect it all and use it in my washing machine and my swamp cooler.

 

[hairless_mac]

I'm not saying you shouldn't do the recirculating pump idea, but I don't waste any of the water that comes out of my immersion chiller. I collect it all and use it in my washing machine and my swamp cooler.

I'll just dump into the washer, that way the boss will be happy! When she's happy, makes life easier!!!

 

[jrgtr42]

Thanks for this thread (as far back as it goes...) and the ideas.
I just picked up 50' of 1/2" OD tube at Home Depot for $20. Another $10 for clamps and tubing and so forth, and I will get around to making my RCIC for my next brew day.
Just worried about the bending of the tube, especially the parts that come up and over the rim. Slightly tighter radius, I;m kinda paranoid about that kinking on me.

 

[mtnagel]

Get a tubing bender. I think it was $10 at HD.

 

[brewinginnc]

4 at harbor freight with 25% off coupon

 

[MindenMan]

I am concerned bending my 5/8" without something solid to hold it. I still saved over $100.00, but I may have to give someone $20.00 to roll/bend it. With the 5/8" tubing being very solid, I can use soldered elbows and connectors to hopefully connect w/o kinks. I do have a question for the success'd folks though, how much tubing did you use? I have a 50' roll, and am concerned if I marked the middle (25") and did my ribcage, how long would the tails be?

 

[troy2000]

I'm thinking about building a wort chiller and using a fountain pump to cycle the water. But my idea is getting a submersible pump and recirculating the water from a cooler with ice water and back into to the cooler to bring it back down. That way I'm not waisting a lot of water. My question is this.....does this sound okay or more like a hair ball idea. Any info or ideas?

Sounds good to me. I'm just getting started, and I cooled my first two batches by immersing the pot in a sink of ice water. To supply the ice, I set my old 54-qt Coleman Steel Belted cooler beside the sink and scooped ice out of it. But I'm sure a rib-cage immersion cooler hooked up to a fountain pump in that Coleman would work a lot faster...

 

[MindenMan]

I think one of those $12.00 12v pumps would be the ticket too, but at what point (*F) would you divert to the ice bath? I'm fairly sure, w/o burning up ice, that knocking the temp down from boiling to 100*F or so would be done easily with just "tap" water. I believe the ice box pre chiller idea is a sound one for taking 100*F or so wort down to pitching temps, especially when the weather outside is hot.

I know we have engineers here, any suggestions?
During the time that the wort is exposed during cooling, (from 40*F to 140*F) what type of covers are you guys/gals using to keep things from the sky falling in and creating havoc?

 

[mtnagel]

No cover on mine. At the longest, it's ~30 minutes to chill. My basement isn't the cleanest either and I've never had an issue leaving it open.

And I think getting it down to ~100F with just tap water is fine and then using some sort of ice method. I have a prechiller that immerse in a bucked of ice water and that works well, but I bet pumping ice water through the main chiller would work even better.

 

[MindenMan]

Thanks Matt. I am mechanically enough to take something apart, fix it, and put it back together again, but bending 5/8" tubing around a jig I would have to make baffles me as I no longer have a garage full of tools. (long story). I would really like to make the rib cage cooler, and am asking for ideas: if I had a small CO2 tank, I would start there.
My new 30qt turkey pot and my 40qt brew kettle, are both 15" tall, but they differ in width. The 30qt is 11" wide, and the 40qt is 15" wide. I wonder what diameter I should make the chiller. Oh crap, wait a second, how much volume does an immersion coil displace? I would hate to find out my 30qt pot only holds 3 gallons after adding in my custom coil before it overflows. Does anybody know how much, or know how to calculate the volume of a given length of tubing? Is it Pi R2 (x) L /1728?
Maybe? Help!
the volume displacement