Spike Conical - Pump Water Reservoir setup

[hlmbrwng]

I have a CF10 (14 gal nominal) conical fermentor. I got the chilling coil that sits inside.

Originally, I wanted to have a keg inside my small fridge and have the tubes go through the fridge water and into the keg, where the water would always be kept cold. There are now two reasons why I don't want to do this. 1) I am having trouble drilling through the side wall metal. I can't find a diagram and the water is not uniform. At some locations the metal is fairly thick. I don't want to destroy the fridge anymore than I have already. 2) I don't want to lose room for a second tapped keg in the fridge.

Question: If I use a cooler (~ 5 gal) with ice water, I would drill 2 holes and use grommets to run the 3/8" diameter tube through. Simple enough. But, what about the power cord that goes to the pump? If anyone has done this, how do you run the cord without creating a gap somewhere resulting in a significant amount of heat transfer?

 

[cfrazier77]

I used a cooler that had a split lid. I put frozen 2 liter water bottles in it. I just had the lid cracked for the hoses and cord and then covered it with a blanket. It worked well.

 

[dunnry]

I have a CF10 (14 gal nominal) conical fermentor. I got the chilling coil that sits inside.

Originally, I wanted to have a keg inside my small fridge and have the tubes go through the fridge water and into the keg, where the water would always be kept cold. There are now two reasons why I don't want to do this. 1) I am having trouble drilling through the side wall metal. I can't find a diagram and the water is not uniform. At some locations the metal is fairly thick. I don't want to destroy the fridge anymore than I have already. 2) I don't want to lose room for a second tapped keg in the fridge.

Question: If I use a cooler (~ 5 gal) with ice water, I would drill 2 holes and use grommets to run the 3/8" diameter tube through. Simple enough. But, what about the power cord that goes to the pump? If anyone has done this, how do you run the cord without creating a gap somewhere resulting in a significant amount of heat transfer?

I used a Dremel and notched a very small slit in the corner of the lid, big enough to fit the pump cords through, while allowing the lid to fully close. It works very well.

 

[sheikyerbouti]

How much of a hassle has it been to keep the water in the cooler at the right temp? Anyone tried lager temps?

 

[dunnry]

How much of a hassle has it been to keep the water in the cooler at the right temp? Anyone tried lager temps?

In my setup, I had two recirculating loops - one that kept the cooler as cold as possible by looping it through an aquarium chiller set to 45 degrees. The other loop had the FTS pump with a temp controller that turned the pump off and on to the coil.

I didn't attempt to keep the cooler at any set temp other than 'as low as you can go' (in my case 45). The cooler is just a cold reservoir - you use its temp differential to drop the temp of the conical. The colder the better. The FTS pump turns on and off, delivering cold water into the coils as needed, while the cooler stays as cold as possible.

I was able to get my conical down in the 46-49 degree range with this setup. I have since stopped using it and have a glycol chiller that goes quite a bit lower and is a lot easier to deal with. However, the aquarium chiller is admittedly much cheaper.

 

[sheikyerbouti]

Does anyone have any pump or insulated tubing recommendations for this type of setup?

Just got the spike 13g conical in. Fantastic craftsmanship with quality parts.

 

[hlmbrwng]

Does anyone have any pump or insulated tubing recommendations for this type of setup?

Just got the spike 13g conical in. Fantastic craftsmanship with quality parts.

I got a 240 gal/hr pump with a max lift height of 4.9'. My fermentor has extension legs, so it sits at about 5 ft. So, the pump isn't strong enough to push the water though the top of the fermentor. This means I have to lift the cooler that contains the cold water until the water moves through the fermentor. Then I can set the cooler back on the floor, as the gravity pulling the water on the way down helps maintain the flow.

I.E. Make sure the pump is rated with an appropriate Max Height! I would play it safe and go for something rated about 2 feet higher than your fermentor.

I haven't insulated the tubing yet, but plan to do so.

 

[sheikyerbouti]

Thanks hlmbrwng.

You aren't too far from me, I've been craving some Redbones For a test, I put the pump from my marks keg washer in a bucket, ran tubing up to the height of the conical and it pushed the water fairly easy...I was surprised.

 

[hlmbrwng]

Ha, Redbones. I guess you really aren't that far from me!