Keep us posted on the chiller
Just ran a test, dropped the temp in my fermenter from 72.6 to 71 degrees in 10 minutes time.
The way I have it setup:
The submersible pump that came with the SSBrewtech ferm temp controller is inside the cooler filled with water. The output of that pump comes out of the cooler lid and into the Input tide of the water chiller. The water chiller's output side goes into one side of the chillers coil. The other side of the chiller's coil goes back into the cooler through the coolers lid.
The pro's of this setup:
1. Only one pump needed
2. Pump will only go on when it's needed
3. The water chiller won't cycle as much
4. Won't use as much electricity
The con's:
1. Handle one only one fermenter
2. Will take a few minutes longer to cool (~3-5 min longer)
The water chiller has a small reservoir built into it. I have the water chiller set to keep the water at 65 degrees (I keep the fermenting wort at 72 degrees for my Ale's). When the temp controller kicks in, the pump will go on and push whatever water is in the reservoir that is at 65 degrees out and into the coils located inside the femrenter. The water chiller will then automatically kick in once it senses the temperature of the water in it's reservoir starting to go up. Watching the thing work I noticed the the reservoir temp will hover at 67 degrees as the whole thing is pumping through the system.
The other way to do it, which is didn't want to do at this time unless I really need to, is to install a second pump inside the cooler. The ferm temp pump will be connected directly to the ferm temp coils as per the SSBrewtech instructions. The second pump in the cooler will pump all the water through the water chiller so that all the water in the cooler will be chilled.
The pro's to this setup is:
1. It will cool the fermenting wort down quicker
2. Use a larger cooler with more water in it to connect multiple fermenters to it as a "poor mans" glycol chiller. The water chiller I have is a 1/10 HP and is rated to handle 13 to 105 gallons. Of course the more water you have, the longer it takes to chill that water.
The con's:
1. The second pump will always be on pumping water through the chiller
2. The chiller will kick on more often to keep all the water inside the cooler chilled (not an issue as it's made this way to keep aquariums chilled)
3. It will use more electricity with the second pump always running and the chiller kicking on more often.
EDIT: I should also mention that the smallest tube that you can connect to the water chiller is 1/2". The barbs on the SSbretech coils along with the pump are 3/8" so you'll need two 3/8" to 1/2" barb to attach 1/2" hose to the chiller and to 3/8" hose to the colis along with 3/8" hose coming from the pump to 1/2" hose going into the chiller. If you set it up with a second pump as I described in the second half of this post, you won't need the reducing barbs as long as you get a second pump with a 1/2" inch outlet.