I currently have a DIY CFC made from 25' of 3/8 copper inside a garden hose. works great. I'm now looking to move to a HERMS system and decided to build an HEX coil instead of a coil in the HLT. I figured this could also double as a CFC as well. I thought about using my CFC at first but didnt like the idea of pumping 170*+ water through the hose that i will later sparge with. With that in mind, I thought about taking the copper out of the existing CFC and putting it into some 5/8 copper and recoiling. But will 25' of 3/8 copper be good enough for effective heat transfer? I'm doing 5 gallon batches and dont really plan on moving up to larger batches. I also thought about doing 1/2 inside of 5/8 or 3/4 but this would require buying new copper and raising my costs considerably.
Question on building an HEX/HERMS/CFC coil
- Thread starter Munkee915
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BeatnikTom
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25' of 3/8" copper will work.
But the volume (or thermal mass) of the surrounding water, speed of the flow through the coil, whether or not you are mixing the surrounding heating water are all factors.
There is also the question of maintaining temps vs. doing lots of steps and how fast you need or want the temp to rise between steps. If you're not worried about that, then you're fine for sure.
You can buy 25' of 1/2" copper tubing for $31 though.
But the volume (or thermal mass) of the surrounding water, speed of the flow through the coil, whether or not you are mixing the surrounding heating water are all factors.
There is also the question of maintaining temps vs. doing lots of steps and how fast you need or want the temp to rise between steps. If you're not worried about that, then you're fine for sure.
You can buy 25' of 1/2" copper tubing for $31 though.
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