hose clamps!

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slim chillingsworth

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so i got my copper tubing today and attempted a wort chiller. failed! not too bad, but not what i need.

i used some #6 (after trying #12) stainless steel clamps to seal the hose onto the copper, but still got a lot of water leaking at the input connection. i used a drill to tighten it as much as possible but couldn't get it tight enough. i even added a second clamp to no avail. any suggestions?
 
At the hardware store I work at we sell something that might work for you. I want to say its silicone tape but I dont think thats right. You wrap it around a leaky pipe and it seals the leak.
 
You need a compression fitting to seal to the copper tubing. Every hardware store, auto parts store, etc. has them. Then you have to figure out how to adapt to the hose... lots of different ways to do that.
 
A couple ideas.

You can "flare" the end of the copper just a bit which will present a slightly larger diameter to the inside of the hose.

You can sweat on a 1/4" to 1/2" reducing coupling and upgrade your hose side to 1/2" ID. The larger the hose, the better a clamp works.

The other thing mentioned, put a compression fitting on the copper with either a 1/2" MPT or FPT on the other end. Onto that, you'll screw a hose barb fitting on.

You can also get 1/2"NPT/FPT to garden hose male or female if you want to just go that route.
 
Hose clamps don't usually do a great job when they're close to their minimum diameter range, because they don't stay very round so there's a few spots that don't get squeezed. And, finding really small hose clamps that are more appropriately sized for 3/8" tubing can be tough. Sometimes I will take a piece of the next-bigger size of tubing, slit it and slip it over the smaller tubing, and put the hose clamp over that.
 
I used hose clamps and they were fine. The only thing is that I get a lot of condensation that I need to be carefull with.
 
If I were going to "sweat" something onto the copper I'd go with a direct garden hose adapter. Plus you'll need a torch and some solder. Then you really need to know how to sweat copper connectors together. If you've never done it, now is probably not a good time to start.

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Quote from Bobby M
The other thing mentioned, put a compression fitting on the copper with either a 1/2" MPT or FPT on the other end. Onto that, you'll screw a hose barb fitting on.

You can also get 1/2"NPT/FPT to garden hose male or female if you want to just go that route.


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These are good suggestions but I've had better results with flair fittings than compression fittings.

It costs more to start doing flair fittings because you'll have to buy a flairing tool but the connectors are cheaper. And from my experience they are less likely to start leaking than compression fittings.

Compression fitting are fine for stationary plumbing but when you start moving the IC around the compression fittings start having problems.
 
Yes. That's not my style and I wouldn't promote it. If you want really cheap, post #6 was right on. Grab 2" of tubing that has an inside diameter the same as your current tubing's outside diameter. Slip a 1" long section on and put a clamp over that. It will distribute the clamping pressure more evenly and you won't have any problems. I uses pieces of tubing as size adapters all the time.
 
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