Immersion Chiller Size?

[adhomebrew10]

I want to get an immersion chiller before I start brewing, since I plan to do 5 gallon boils. I wanted to just get everything from HD, but by the time I buy the copper and the fittings its as much as buying it somewhere.

My question is, what size do I need. Would 25 feet be enough to effectively and quickly chill 5 gallons of wort, or do I need to invest in a 50 foot chiller?

Thanks!

 

[the_mox]

I would get a 50ft chiller for full boils. i have a 25ft one, and i have to stir constantly and it takes about 30 minutes to get the wort down to under 80*. needless to say, im looking to get a 50ft chiller.

 

[Justibone]

I built my chiller for ~$30 last month. I just got an adaptor for the faucet, a barbed connector for that so I could put the hose on it, a length of food grade hose, and a precoiled copper tube plus some clamps. Bing, bang, boom... easy. It leaks a few drops here and there, but it is pretty good... way better than waiting around for an ice bath.

It's not fast to chill the wort, but when I start running the extra hose through an icebath (a bit of pre-chilling) I bet I'll get much better results.

It isn't beautiful, but it is effective and most importantly, cheap. If you know what a wort chiller does, then it doesn't have to be difficult or expensive to make one.

 

[adhomebrew10]

I built my chiller for ~$30 last month. I just got an adaptor for the faucet, a barbed connector for that so I could put the hose on it, a length of food grade hose, and a precoiled copper tube plus some clamps. Bing, bang, boom... easy. It leaks a few drops here and there, but it is pretty good... way better than waiting around for an ice bath.

It's not fast to chill the wort, but when I start running the extra hose through an icebath (a bit of pre-chilling) I bet I'll get much better results.

It isn't beautiful, but it is effective and most importantly, cheap. If you know what a wort chiller does, then it doesn't have to be difficult or expensive to make one.

What size copper did you get for this? A 50' roll of 3/8 is 56 dollars at my home depot, and 75 for 1/2.

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

Have you thought of a CFC? You can supposedly get to 5 degrees of your cooling water within 5-10 minutes.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/counterflow-chiller-tutorial-51793/

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

Also with the high price of copper you may want to check out this vendor. When I priced things up recently his prices were cheaper than if I made one myself.
http://www.nybrewsupply.com/

 

[Justibone]

I used the shortest copper coil that was pre-coiled. Like I said, it isn't perfect, but it was 1/3 the price my LHBS was selling for and it works. Once I start running the extra tubing through a salt-ice bath, I bet it will work a heckuva lot better.