Making an Immersion chiller

[dae06]

I just bought 50' of 3/8" copper coil off of e-bay. What would you guys do? Make two 25' chillers or one 50' chiller. I just started brewing and only make 5 gallon batches (~2.5 gallons of wort).

If I decided to go with the 50' for larger (future) brews, will it be too cumbersome for the small batches? :fro:

 

[maida7]

Well the first consideration is the size of your pot and do you plan to get a new larger pot

 

[dae06]

Currently I use a 4 gallon pot.

I don't know if I will go into a bigger production in the future.

 

[flamewing]

With a 4 gallon pot you'll upgrade to a larger part when you make the jump to full boil. If eventually go all grain again you'll end up in a bigger pot yet again. Then as you say you're not sure if you ever decide to make the jump to larger batches. There's a good chance you'll eventually be in a bigger pot. Being new myself I'm not sure if there's a con to using that size a pot with 50ft of copper or not. I'd like to see what you end up with because I'm toying with the size of what I would be using to make my own chiller as well.

 

[kryolla]

I would use the whole 50ft and see how it works then cut it down.

 

[flyerwire]

if you are seriously considering going to full boils and then possibly AG (or even just full boil 5 gal batches) just use the whole thing.

 

[smmcdermott]

i say use the whole thing no matter what. Just make sure it will fit in your current pot. If it fits in this one, it will fit in a bigger one too.

It won't hurt to have extra tubing on there.

 

[dae06]

I would use the whole 50ft and see how it works then cut it down.

My thought was also make it big and it would be easy to cut it down if I needed to.

Thanks

 

[maida7]

whatever you do make sure the conections are over the rim of the pot and angled down. They always seem to develop a leak where the hose is clamped on and if your not careful the leaky water will end up in the brew pot. With proper design the leak water will drain away from the pot down the hose. This is why a smaller chiller will not always work in a bigger pot.

 

[verotik]

I used the whole 50ft for mine. Its not as big as you think it would be for 50ft. It works really good though.

 

[dae06]

How many of you sweated elbows, and how many just bent the copper?

I have no problem sweating, it's actually fun for me to do it.

 

[verotik]

I just bent the copper myself.

 

[CodeRage]

For a 4 gallon pot I would only use 25'. Anything else will be overkill. 50' will probably stick out of the top. When you get a larger brew pot, like a keggle, you may need a IC that is wider than tmaller. etc etc.

When you change kettles you have two options. You can make a second CFC to work with the first CFC (plumb them in series). OR you could make a CFC chiller with a few more parts that seem to be preferred for batches larger than 5 gal.

 

[CodeRage]

How many of you sweated elbows, and how many just bent the copper?

I have no problem sweating, it's actually fun for me to do it.

If you know how to sweat elbows then do it that way. Sharp bends will cause the tubing to collapse some (if not completely kink) which will add a point of restriction hindering flow rates.

My last IC I used the soft copper tubing to make the whole coil, then I used rigid copper pipe for the risers out of the pot. Doesn't give you that much more surface area but it is still some.