Is it worth the trouble to make own immersion wort chiller?

[camiller]

I have three BIL's that are plumbers, one day 50' of 3/8" copper fell off one of their trucks in my driveway....

Cheep 1/2" garden hose was < $8 IIRC plus a few hose clamps (I have a torch and could solder but the fittings would have cost as much as the rest of the rig) < $10 in the project. Well, I also occasionally make a case of NA beer for the BIL.

 

[Yambor44]

Camiller, thats very nice!

 

[Poindexter]

I built mine today for $56. Alaska prices = lower 48 + 20%.

Since I PM on my stove top anyway all I need to do is cool 2.5 gallons.

I started with 20 feet of 3/8" OD tubing. I uncoiled it just enough to get close to what I wanted and then started tightening it back down.

Used a Young's bottle as my bending guide.

The rest of the spool of the plastic tubing I wanted was 14 feet of 3/8 ID x 1/2 OD with the string encased in the plastic, the clear vinyl stuff says beware of heat.

2 of 3/8 to 5/8 inch hose clamps included in price.

155 gallon per hour pond pump included in price.

Add one sink of ice water, plug in pump.

Imma boil it in some vinegar tomorrow and then do a 2.5gal AG batch of EdWorts Haus on Tuesday to celebrate. Maybe tear open some Romex to lash the coils down.



Just relaxed enough out of the box to start making a the chiller:

The only tools I used were a sauce pan to bend around, a Young's bottle as a bending guide, some gloves to protect my hands, and a screwdriver on the hose clamps:

The tubing I got was from the middle of the spool, wrapped pretty tight. I ran hot water through the system with the pump and then cooled the tubing in a relaxed position:

If you have never fooled with soft copper tubing before, 3/8OD is a nice compromise between able to do by hand, but sturdy enough to not kink easy. Just take your time. You want to open the coil from the box just enough to stack it as a single helix, you will probably find a double or triple layer in the box.

Once you have your straight ends and your coil established, roll the guide forward along the curves/corners you need to get out of the kettle as you go. If you hold the guide still and try to just pull the tubing around the corner, the tubing will collapse. Bend a little, roll a little, bend a little, roll a little, RDWHAHB.

Total took me under an hour, but I have some experience with the fussy sizes of soft copper under 3/8OD.

 

[aeonderdonk]

I just built mine with 1/2 in copper tubing and it looks pretty decent. Hoping to give it a try in a couple weeks.

 

[DRoyLenz]

Does anybody have any experience building a tube-in-tube counter flow wort cooler. I once interned at a company that builds refrigeration compressors, and built myself a tube-in-tube condenser for a computer chiller, but I had access to the company's workshop that had all of the torches, benders, and solder I needed.

Working in a condo in the middle of Chicago, is there a simple way to make one of these? I was thinking of coiling a small diameter copper tube (similar to an IC) then fitting a garden hose (or maybe even larger diameter copper tube) over top the smaller diameter tube. The only issue I see with this is getting the smaller tube out of the larger tube at either end.

Any thoughts or experience anyone can share?

Thanks!

 

[DRoyLenz]

I realized that this was a bit off-topic, seeing as this is an immersion chiller thread. I have created another thread for this topic, so please view that at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/any-experience-making-counterflow-wort-chillers-126027/

 

[azscoob]

Well, looks like its time for me to whip up a chiller, the cold tap water out here is hot enough to cook pasta in. I will be making mine from 25' of stainless steel tubing and using a pump to move freezer kept brine solution through the line, is that overkill? my cold water after running for 15 minutes just measured 93 degrees (down from initial 111)so using it to cool the wort is a joke. any input or further ideas would be great!