Just getting back into brewing after about a 10 year Hiatus and a move to the West Coast. Back East I used to pump 50 F water out of my well to chill with and never worried about how much I was using. Now that I am on municipal water with a drought going on I decided to see if I could make an immersion chiller that would not waste so much water. I just fired it up for the first time today and it worked great, so I thought I would share. The one drawback is that it uses a lot of ice (two five gallon buckets), which is fine for me since I have access to an ice machine.
Materials:
3/8"x25' copper coil $25.68
Rio Plus 600 (200 GPH) aquarium pump $16.56
6' 3/8" id vinyl hose ~$3
2 hose clamps ~$1.50
1 5 gallon plastic bucket. ~$3
Total cost ~$50
I brought ~4 gallons of water to a boil in my kettle (I am going to do 3 gallon batches so I can use a 3 gallon soda keg in my regular fridge.)
The aquarium pump sticks to the bottom of one five gallon bucket with suction cups. I added just enough water to cover the pump and then filled the bucket the rest of the way with ice. The immersion chiller coil went into the kettle and the output went back into the ice bucket. As the ice melted, I added a second five gallon bucket of ice to the bucket with the pump. With stirring, after 10 minutes, the water in my kettle was down to 20C (68F) At the end of the process the five gallon bucket was full of an ice water mix. About the top 8" was unmelted ice. I think there was enough left to have chilled another gallon of boiling water to pitching temp if I was doing a five gallon batch. Cheers!
Materials:
3/8"x25' copper coil $25.68
Rio Plus 600 (200 GPH) aquarium pump $16.56
6' 3/8" id vinyl hose ~$3
2 hose clamps ~$1.50
1 5 gallon plastic bucket. ~$3
Total cost ~$50
I brought ~4 gallons of water to a boil in my kettle (I am going to do 3 gallon batches so I can use a 3 gallon soda keg in my regular fridge.)
The aquarium pump sticks to the bottom of one five gallon bucket with suction cups. I added just enough water to cover the pump and then filled the bucket the rest of the way with ice. The immersion chiller coil went into the kettle and the output went back into the ice bucket. As the ice melted, I added a second five gallon bucket of ice to the bucket with the pump. With stirring, after 10 minutes, the water in my kettle was down to 20C (68F) At the end of the process the five gallon bucket was full of an ice water mix. About the top 8" was unmelted ice. I think there was enough left to have chilled another gallon of boiling water to pitching temp if I was doing a five gallon batch. Cheers!