got some time on my hands currently, working on house, car, etc. got the idea of making a stainless CFC. have an idea or two how to it but would love to see some examples if anyone's tackled the project. the interwebs doesnt show alot of results. mostly copper stuff.
DIY STAINLESS CFC to show for example?
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Red over White
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What is your goal, single pass to fermenter or recirc back into your kettle?
Red over White
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I recirc back into the kettle with 2 cfc's in parallel with the effluent of 1 of them going into an immersion coil through the lid of the kettle. It will dump 11.5 gallons to 130°F in 5 mins. So far my best arrangement.
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I would say you almost need a pipe bending machine to work with stainless if you are trying to make a coil. It's super hard to bend. Just trying to modify a stainless immersion chiller to work with ace roto tanks is a challenge. The one way you might have a chance is to go big like I did with my copper chiller. Tried smaller radius but it kinked almost immediately. The large diameter makes it way easier to work with. After my 3 foot kink cut off I ended up with 57' CFC instead of 60'. This was 1/2" ID inside a 7/8" ID.
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SanPancho
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TO BE CLEAR- i am hoping to see pictures or get a description of the DIY construction of Stainless CFC chillers.
not Trying to talk about how you use your chiller, or how you made a copper chiller.
STAINLESS CFC chillers ONLY please
not Trying to talk about how you use your chiller, or how you made a copper chiller.
STAINLESS CFC chillers ONLY please
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I believe I could have used the same process pictured to do stainless steel. A tighter radius without a pipe bending machine would not be possible IMO. Only showed the picture of the copper to give you a reference of a possible way to DIY your stainless.
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Red over White
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Nice work on your chiller!
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Yes coils made on a tube/pipe bending machine. You will have to straighten them out to put the smaller diameter pipe inside a larger diameter pipe. That in it self is a challenge. Wish you luck and hope it turns out well.
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SanPancho
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no, you dont. you take garden hose and you slide it around and around to cover the ss tubing. this is what the tubing looks like when you get it.
When I first read this, I thought you wanted SS tubing inside more SS tubing.
Even with using soft tubing on the outside, in order to get the outside tubing fed over the inner coil, USUALLY you have to have the inner tubing completely straight. Even when you do that, you have to lube up the tubing a LOT since the inside of the hose is very sticky. Even if the outside wrapping isn't sticky inside, you'll only be able to feed it over about 5 feet of tubing before the drag starts ruining your day.
You might have better luck making a multiple parallel run version whatever the width of your brew stand is. If you brew near a wall, you can make it with a few 10ft straight pieces mounted to the wall. The ends use SS tees with tube compression fittings to lock down on the inner tubing.
A side benefit of straight runs is that you can use much thinner wall SS tubing for better heat transfer. The coiled stuff is usually thicker wall because it's impossible to coil the thinner stuff without kinks.
Even with using soft tubing on the outside, in order to get the outside tubing fed over the inner coil, USUALLY you have to have the inner tubing completely straight. Even when you do that, you have to lube up the tubing a LOT since the inside of the hose is very sticky. Even if the outside wrapping isn't sticky inside, you'll only be able to feed it over about 5 feet of tubing before the drag starts ruining your day.
You might have better luck making a multiple parallel run version whatever the width of your brew stand is. If you brew near a wall, you can make it with a few 10ft straight pieces mounted to the wall. The ends use SS tees with tube compression fittings to lock down on the inner tubing.
A side benefit of straight runs is that you can use much thinner wall SS tubing for better heat transfer. The coiled stuff is usually thicker wall because it's impossible to coil the thinner stuff without kinks.
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