Hi HBT peeps. I have learned so much from the community I thought it high time to give back a little bit. When I started brewing about a year ago, the first thing I felt I was lacking was a legit chiller to cool my wort. I was putting my pot in a large bucket of ice water, which was so... so... I dunno... ice age. I built this about 9 months ago, so I'm a little slow to get it posted, but better late than never I suppose.
I had considered building the standard tube-in-a-hose counterflow chiller. I wanted a more vertical based design that would work well under gravity (as I had no pumps) and drain easily afterward. I thought the standard aforementioned chiller was too big around and would be too flat to drain effectively. So I envisioned an idea for a different kind of chiller. The key was tube surface area, so I thought about doing it with a more tightly wound copper coil that would have more turns to maintain the length of the tubing at ~20 ft. The coil would be flushed by water passing around it, and rather than have an outer tube, I would build a channel for the coil to be contained in and water to flow through. That water would be channeled by an inner blocking tube and an outer housing tube. The coil diameter needed to be small enough to bend, not kink, and still allow for good flow.
So I did what every self respecting DIY homebrewer does... went to Home Depot to see what I could put together. As it turns out, HD didn't have the stuff I needed, but Lowes did.
Now, let me give credit where it is rightly due... a few months after I built my chillers, I learned that John Palmer had long since proposed it (hybrid design), and so in fairness I can only take credit for creating what a great one had already created... which I can happily live with! The link is in the "bible", How to Brew. To date however, I have never seen anyone post pictures on this design, but I am sure they are out there.
First task was to wrap the copper coil around the inner PVC tube. I just did this by gently winding it around by hand:
Next was to solder up elbows and reducers:
I sealed off the inner tube with a plastic test cap to make it a blocking tube:
I sealed it by silicone gluing it down and nibbling off the overhang. Not shown is the small hole I drilled in each end cap to allow for pressure equalization but not any significant water flow:
I soldered one elbow extension on one end, then inserted the inner blocking tube:
Capped one end and pressure tested it:
Fit the assembly in the outer tube:
Made the end caps but drilling holes and mounting fittings. The flush fitting is a female hose x 3/4" male NPT. The bulkhead is a rubber ferrule waterproof strain relief with 3/4" NPT. These are held down by 3/4" jam nuts then siliconed all over to seal them well:
Then glued the end caps on with PVC glue (this is a one-time deal!):
I will spare you the test pictures, but this worked very well in my initial boiled water test, so I proceeded to build a second, smaller one. Because I live in South Florida, my ground water never gets cold enough to chill to pitching temp, so the first chiller cools from boiling to ~85, and the second uses ice water to chill from that temp to 55-65 degrees, depending on flow rate (its fed by a fountain pump in a bucket of ice/water).
Here is my initial use, where I mounted the chillers to a ladder (needed the height). I put my pot of boiling wort on top, then opened the valve and got excellent results, taking about 8 minutes to cool ~5.5 gallons to 70 degrees in full flow:
I continue to use this setup on my pump driven rig, and they have been performing very well. It is not very water efficient, but then again I have not done much testing throttling the water input down. We have no droughts in FL, so I don't have much guilt.
The materials list is: 20' 3/8" soft copper tube, 3" PVC sewer pipe, 4" PVC pipe, 1/2" straight copper tube, 2x 1/2" elbows, 2x 3/8" elbows, 2x 1/2x3/8 OD copper reducers, 4" PVC end caps (must be square, not rounded), 2x 3/4" FGH x 3/4" MNPT fittings, 2x 3/4" x 1/2" strain reliefs, 4x toothed jam nuts (electric conduit), clear silicone, PVC primer & glue, plumbing flux & solder.
Let me know if you have any questions!
-BD
I had considered building the standard tube-in-a-hose counterflow chiller. I wanted a more vertical based design that would work well under gravity (as I had no pumps) and drain easily afterward. I thought the standard aforementioned chiller was too big around and would be too flat to drain effectively. So I envisioned an idea for a different kind of chiller. The key was tube surface area, so I thought about doing it with a more tightly wound copper coil that would have more turns to maintain the length of the tubing at ~20 ft. The coil would be flushed by water passing around it, and rather than have an outer tube, I would build a channel for the coil to be contained in and water to flow through. That water would be channeled by an inner blocking tube and an outer housing tube. The coil diameter needed to be small enough to bend, not kink, and still allow for good flow.
So I did what every self respecting DIY homebrewer does... went to Home Depot to see what I could put together. As it turns out, HD didn't have the stuff I needed, but Lowes did.
Now, let me give credit where it is rightly due... a few months after I built my chillers, I learned that John Palmer had long since proposed it (hybrid design), and so in fairness I can only take credit for creating what a great one had already created... which I can happily live with! The link is in the "bible", How to Brew. To date however, I have never seen anyone post pictures on this design, but I am sure they are out there.
First task was to wrap the copper coil around the inner PVC tube. I just did this by gently winding it around by hand:
Next was to solder up elbows and reducers:
I sealed off the inner tube with a plastic test cap to make it a blocking tube:
I sealed it by silicone gluing it down and nibbling off the overhang. Not shown is the small hole I drilled in each end cap to allow for pressure equalization but not any significant water flow:
I soldered one elbow extension on one end, then inserted the inner blocking tube:
Capped one end and pressure tested it:
Fit the assembly in the outer tube:
Made the end caps but drilling holes and mounting fittings. The flush fitting is a female hose x 3/4" male NPT. The bulkhead is a rubber ferrule waterproof strain relief with 3/4" NPT. These are held down by 3/4" jam nuts then siliconed all over to seal them well:
Then glued the end caps on with PVC glue (this is a one-time deal!):
I will spare you the test pictures, but this worked very well in my initial boiled water test, so I proceeded to build a second, smaller one. Because I live in South Florida, my ground water never gets cold enough to chill to pitching temp, so the first chiller cools from boiling to ~85, and the second uses ice water to chill from that temp to 55-65 degrees, depending on flow rate (its fed by a fountain pump in a bucket of ice/water).
Here is my initial use, where I mounted the chillers to a ladder (needed the height). I put my pot of boiling wort on top, then opened the valve and got excellent results, taking about 8 minutes to cool ~5.5 gallons to 70 degrees in full flow:
I continue to use this setup on my pump driven rig, and they have been performing very well. It is not very water efficient, but then again I have not done much testing throttling the water input down. We have no droughts in FL, so I don't have much guilt.
The materials list is: 20' 3/8" soft copper tube, 3" PVC sewer pipe, 4" PVC pipe, 1/2" straight copper tube, 2x 1/2" elbows, 2x 3/8" elbows, 2x 1/2x3/8 OD copper reducers, 4" PVC end caps (must be square, not rounded), 2x 3/4" FGH x 3/4" MNPT fittings, 2x 3/4" x 1/2" strain reliefs, 4x toothed jam nuts (electric conduit), clear silicone, PVC primer & glue, plumbing flux & solder.
Let me know if you have any questions!
-BD
