Finding Copper Coils for a decent price

[SwampassJ]

I decided my 20' of 3/8" Copper IC needs to be upgraded to 50' of 1/2" but I can't find any decent prices. Is it normal for 1/2" copper to be between 75 and 100 dollars or am I just looking in the wrong places?

EDIT
90 minutes later and I'm almost down to 50 degrees using a recirculating pump.

 

[Guidry]

Thats why i am thinking about soldering 2 25' coils into a 50' length.

 

[kegtoe]

wow, 90 minutes????

Why dont you buy a plate chiller? If you are going to spend 100 on copper plus your time to build. I bought a nice chiller from Dudadiesel for $70 and it works awesome. I tried it just gravity feeding and with a pump. worked well either way.

 

[P-J]

$59.41 - For 50' coil of 1/2" OD ref copper

 

[SwampassJ]

$59.41 - For 50' coil of 1/2" OD ref copper

With shipping still comes out to 75, almost same price as Homedepot at 79. Thank you for the site though they have some good stuff I might tinker with sometime.

As for why no plate chiller. My cooling water temp is subject to whatever my pool water is (today after 2 weeks of freakish cold weather) the pool is down into the mid 50s, summer time its sometimes close to 100. Then when it plateus I move to doing the submersible pump in ice and just add more and more bags. I'm thinking next brew day I'm going to dump in some salt to lower the freezing point (I get 40lb bags for customers pools). Plus for the plate chiller I need to drill in a valve.

 

[kegtoe]

Im curious what your pool water has to do with it. Is there any way you can use regular tap water?

With shipping still comes out to 75, almost same price as Homedepot at 79. Thank you for the site though they have some good stuff I might tinker with sometime.

As for why no plate chiller. My cooling water temp is subject to whatever my pool water is (today after 2 weeks of freakish cold weather) the pool is down into the mid 50s, summer time its sometimes close to 100. Then when it plateus I move to doing the submersible pump in ice and just add more and more bags. I'm thinking next brew day I'm going to dump in some salt to lower the freezing point (I get 40lb bags for customers pools). Plus for the plate chiller I need to drill in a valve.

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

Perhaps the link in my sig would help.

A word of caution though, 1/2" tubing cannot be bent to fit inside a 5gal or 7.5 gal pot using the "ribcage" design. You would need to bend it into a standard single coil design.

 

[Screw991le]

Im curious what your pool water has to do with it. Is there any way you can use regular tap water?

Pool water is free, tap cost money. Actually it is the sewer charge. People without water wells will pay plenty for cold water running for an hour at a time.

 

[SwampassJ]

Im curious what your pool water has to do with it. Is there any way you can use regular tap water?

Because my tap water is typically 80-88 most of the year where as running my pool water through the discharge into a hose adapter is cooler most of the year. Plus one is free if you factor in having the pool running to begin with.

 

[wegz15]

Didn't you just say you use bags of ice? And with a plate chiller it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. From what i've heard. I have no experience with a plate chiller. However my immersion chiller takes about 20 minutes on tap water. About 60 gallons of tap water. I'm assuming the tap is running at 3gpm.

 

[Strongbad52]

Try Buy.com, I didn't see any 1/2" tubing but they do have a 50' coil of 3/8" refrigeration tubing for $50 and it has free shipping.

 

[Strongbad52]

Here is the direct link to buy.com

http://www.buy.com/prod/726-18000500-copper-refrigeration-tubing-3-8/q/loc/66357/90142946.html

 

[SwampassJ]

Didn't you just say you use bags of ice? .

I don't use ice until my wort temp levels out from the tap or pool whichever is cooler at the time. Then I switch to an immersible pump in icewater. I'm not getting a plate chiller because then I have to watch for break/trub and I need a spigot drilled in.

 

[jmhart]

I don't think you need to go up to 1/2" Simply increasing from 20' to 50' of 3/8 will do the trick.

 

[KCBrewer]

Why not pick up a garden hose and a couple of tee's and hose fittings and turn that immersion into a cfc? I built my cfc for about $40 with 20' of 3/8 copper and even used a higher dollar braided vinyl tubing. Since you already have the copper, you should be able to convert it for about $25-30 and it works much better than an immersion chiller.