Is 20' enough? - CF Chiller

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Oct 29, 2011
Messages
19
Reaction score
0
Getting ready to build a counter flow chiller and I can only seem to find 20' or 50' copper coils. 50' seems like an overkill but I'm worried 20' won't be enough. I'm using the PhilChill fittings that call for 3/8" od tubing. Any thoughts?
 
Are you doing partial boils or full boils?

If you are just doing partial boils and using water to top off to your final volume, and doing 5 gallon batches (this I'm assuming). Then you are most likely only chilling 2.5-ish gallons of wort. For this 20 should be OK.

However, if you ever plan to start doing full boils and thus trying to chill 5 or more gallons of wort, I'd go with the 50.
 
I used my 20footer on a full 5.25 gallon batch last week. Worked fine, still better than an ice bath. Temp outside was about 70 degrees and my ground water is 56 degrees so it was cooled in about 15-20 min to pitching temps..
 
Are you doing partial boils or full boils?

If you are just doing partial boils and using water to top off to your final volume, and doing 5 gallon batches (this I'm assuming). Then you are most likely only chilling 2.5-ish gallons of wort. For this 20 should be OK.

However, if you ever plan to start doing full boils and thus trying to chill 5 or more gallons of wort, I'd go with the 50.
IMHO 50' of 3/8" OD copper is way overkill with a counterflow chiller. There is absolutely nothing to gain with that length. Temperature equilibrium will be achieved within 15' with a CFC.
 
Thanks for all the input. I'm gonna go with the 20 footer. The more I thought about it, size of boil shouldn't matter. Temp of wort and water would remain constant. A full boil would just take longer for the wort to pass through the 20'. So if it's good for partial it should be good for full.
 
Thanks for all the input. I'm gonna go with the 20 footer. The more I thought about it, size of boil shouldn't matter. Temp of wort and water would remain constant. A full boil would just take longer for the wort to pass through the 20'. So if it's good for partial it should be good for full.
Exactly.!

What you want to have is a reasonable flow rate of the wort through the chiller. i.e. you want it flowing fast enough to achieve turbulant flow within the tubing. The output wort temperature should be within a degree or two of the water input temperature.

Fast enough? - *put 5 gallons through your 3/8" exchanger in under 22 minutes and you have turbulent flow* (Charlie's Law)

Hope this makes sense and helps you.

P-J
 
IMHO 50' of 3/8" OD copper is way overkill with a counterflow chiller. There is absolutely nothing to gain with that length. Temperature equilibrium will be achieved within 15' with a CFC.

My bad... I though OP was talking about an immersion chiller.... :tank:
 
Back
Top