Ghetto Pre-chiller

[wheels4]

Seeing how my tap water is 85 and the temps outside are in the upper 90s to 100s. I figured I needed to make a pre chiller. I got an old AC Condenser from a friend and added some fittings. Put it into a salt water ice bath and it worked pretty good. I got my wort to 74 in 20 minutes with 85 degree tap water and 98 degree temps. It worked better then I thought it would . Total cost to build $0. I had everything laying around.

 

[beninan]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if a used A/C condenser is good to use. It may still have residual freon and compressor oil that you REALLY do not want in your beer.
It also looks like you are flowing through the receiver/dryer, which is really-really not a good idea. The receiver/dryer contains a desiccant material that absorbs moisture and acts as a filter, making next-to-impossible to remove all the old A/C residuals.
Also what is this condenser made out of? The inside of the condenser was not intended for food use, so there may be a possibility that the connections are all soldered and potentially toxic.

I would feel a lot better about the idea if it didn't have the receiver/dryer on it.
Maybe a better option, would be to but a new aluminum auxiliary transmission cooler, but I sill would not be too crazy about the idea.

EDIT: Upon closer inspection of the pictures, I realized that you are not pumping the beer through it. Nevermind me! On second thought, this setup should work pretty good, just don't expect to reuse the water for anything food-worthy.

 

[Stevo2569]

I'm pretty sure this is an immersion chiller not a CFC or Plate like chiller. So the beer stays in the pot while cold water circulates through the copper coil. Or am I seeing something wrong?
Your edit beat me by a 1/2 second. Sorry

 

[Stevo2569]

Anyway wheels looks good

 

[beninan]

I'm pretty sure this is an immersion chiller not a CFC or Plate like chiller. So the beer stays in the pot while cold water circulates through the copper coil. Or am I seeing something wrong?
Your edit beat me by a 1/2 second. Sorry

Yeah I just realized that after posting

 

[wheels4]

LOL....no I would not run the beer through it or reuse the water for cooking. I could give it to the neighbors kids though.

 

[beertastic]

Nice! I'm in the same situation (80-85F tap water), so I need to come up with something as well.

 

[NewBrewB]

Seeing how my tap water is 85 and the temps outside are in the upper 90s to 100s. I figured I needed to make a pre chiller. I got an old AC Condenser from a friend and added some fittings. Put it into a salt water ice bath and it worked pretty good. I got my wort to 74 in 20 minutes with 85 degree tap water and 98 degree temps. It worked better then I thought it would . Total cost to build $0. I had everything laying around.

I built one and it works like a champ. I'll see if I can find the pictures.

 

[NewBrewB]

I built one and it works like a champ. I'll see if I can find the pictures.

Hm I dont see it. I guess I will just describe it.

I got an extra copper chiller from a friend and drilled two holes in the lid of a round igloo cooler. One chiller stays mounted to the inside of the igloo lid so if I put the lid on, the chiller fits inside the round igloo cooler. I fill the igloo with ice water (in japan I could buy a block of ice the size of a small shoebox and put it vertically in the middle of the coils).

The water runs from the hose spigot, through the chiller inside the igloo full of icewater (pre-chill), the over to the other chiller (which I set down in the beer), then to a drain. I only have to sanitize the outside of one chiller each time I use it. Anyway, it does the trick.

 

[Aschecte]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if a used A/C condenser is good to use. It may still have residual freon and compressor oil that you REALLY do not want in your beer.
It also looks like you are flowing through the receiver/dryer, which is really-really not a good idea. The receiver/dryer contains a desiccant material that absorbs moisture and acts as a filter, making next-to-impossible to remove all the old A/C residuals.
Also what is this condenser made out of? The inside of the condenser was not intended for food use, so there may be a possibility that the connections are all soldered and potentially toxic.

I would feel a lot better about the idea if it didn't have the receiver/dryer on it.
Maybe a better option, would be to but a new aluminum auxiliary transmission cooler, but I sill would not be too crazy about the idea.

EDIT: Upon closer inspection of the pictures, I realized that you are not pumping the beer through it. Nevermind me! On second thought, this setup should work pretty good, just don't expect to reuse the water for anything food-worthy.

off topic but you sure sound like a hvac guy to me ( I am ) good advice I would want to drink any oil either just one other point though if your connections aren't tight you could still drip into your wort from the immersion chiller a much smaller volume but still could contaminate the wort.

 

[Aschecte]

Also that looks more like an evaporator to me .

 

[shelly_belly]

Before I bought a pump to recirculate ice water in the IC I would fill a corny keg with ice then water. I attached a gas disconnect to the water spigot and the beverage out to the IC. It worked great.

 

[tesilential]

Before I bought a pump to recirculate ice water in the IC I would fill a corny keg with ice then water. I attached a gas disconnect to the water spigot and the beverage out to the IC. It worked great.

Thank you sir you just saved me having to build a pre chiller!

 

[wheels4]

OK I see there might be some confusion with some of you. The Condenser (not evaporator) sits in a saltwater ice bath. The hose from my house is hooked up to the condenser. The condenser is hooked up to my immersion chiller in my wort. There is no way for any chemicals, oils, freon to get into my wort. Well unless I get a hole in the copper immersion chiller and the chance of that is slim to none. This would work with any heater core, condenser etc. It got my 85 degree water to 48 degrees and I could have used a little more ice.

 

[cincybrewer]

Before I bought a pump to recirculate ice water in the IC I would fill a corny keg with ice then water. I attached a gas disconnect to the water spigot and the beverage out to the IC. It worked great.

How do you attach these items (spigot, IC) to disconnects? I'm confused, but would love to be able to do this.

 

[wheels4]

I had some fittings and hose attachments.......well let me go take some pics for you....be right back :cross:.

 

[wheels4]

The first pic is the attachment to connect to the spigot. This is available at any home/hardware store. Im lucky enough to make them. The second pic is the barb to attach the hose to the IC (I also make them). The third is the hose on and the forth it is connected to the IC. You can just use hose clamps as you are not holding pressure just moving water. I cooled the wort to about 110 then switched over to the pre chiller. I used 1/2 in. OD 3/8 in. ID hose for all connections.

 

[wheels4]

This pic is them hooked together. Just attach to spigot and start chillin. I was going to buy one but honestly there is no need to.

 

[arturo7]

Nicely done, wheels!

 

[Misfit]

Ha I was thinking if you had a small leak in the ic. You could do a r134aipa "dry hopped" with pag oil

 

[kevink]

Cool idea! So about how much ice would it take to cool 10 gallons of wort to 70 degrees with a setup like this if you have 70-80 degree tap water?

 

[wheels4]

Ha I was thinking if you had a small leak in the ic. You could do a r134aipa "dry hopped" with pag oil

Could you run that through beersmith for me? Thanks .

 

[wheels4]

Cool idea! So about how much ice would it take to cool 10 gallons of wort to 70 degrees with a setup like this if you have 70-80 degree tap water?

I will tell you what I did and take it from there. I put about 5 inches of water in the bottom of the cooler. I put 4 1 gallon ice jugs in it to cool the water before putting the ice cubes and salt in. I used 2 10lb. bags of ice and about 1lb. of salt. Im not sure if this is enough salt? But it worked. For the size cooler I have I would have liked to have at least another 10lbs of ice. I cooled the wort to about 110 with the tap water before hooking up the pre chiller. To do 10 gallons I would go with 40lbs. of ice. Then again I only used this for the first time last weekend . Let us know how it goes.