Quick disconnects for chiller?

[swem]

My LEAST favorite part of my brew day is cleaning and storing my immersion chiller. From my water access to my drain is quite a ways so the hoses are fairly long and cumbersome. What types of fittings that mount directly to the chiller (right now I just have the tubing over the open ends secured with hose clamps that tend to loosen up) have you guys had good luck with? Being able to easily connect and disconnect my hoses would be great. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Yesfan]

My small chiller is like that. The bigger one I got from More Beer has garden hose fittings on it (female on the inlet, male on the outlet). I went to Home Depot and got a female garden hose barb and about a 6ft section of tubing for the outlet side.

You should be able to hit Lowe's or Home Depot and find some copper fittings that will let you attach the garden hose fittings like mine.

 

[funnycreature]

I also have a quick connect for a garden hose on my IC. Works like a charm!

 

[billl]

I've got stainless quick disconnects. They work wonderfully.


http://morebeer.com/category/stainless-steel-quick-disconnects.html

The only setup is soldiering on a threaded adapter to the ends of the chiller.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_21790-137-C...t_qty_sales_dollar|1&page=1&facetInfo=Adapter

 

[TAK]

They have what I think are called compression fittings. They're a brass fitting that basically squeezes onto the copper tube as you tighten it. That will get you threaded ends. You might need to get a couple different sizes of coupling fittings to convert to the thread size needed for regular hose thread. From there, you can install regular garden hose quick disconnects. All my threading has teflon tape to prevent leaking. My disconnects always leak though. So, I like to get them below the kettle. So, I actually have a couple of 2-3 ft insulated tubes (the kind that have a mettle mesh on the outside) attached to my chiller that hang over the side and my disconnects go there, below the kettle.