Still Talking About CFC Chillers

[thebull]

Thanks for the info from yesterday's post concerning CFC chillers, but still one final question. If you wanted a CFC and not a plate chiller and you were lazy and not cash driven, would the Chillzilla Counterflow chiller work well. Though Bobby's design is the best I've seen, I think I'm just not up to the work if the Chillzilla will work as well.

 

[Bobby_M]

Personally I think the chillzilla is the best chiller available just based on concept alone. First, it's 1/2" inner tubing is high-flow, but also convoluted. It's likely not as prone to gunk buildup like the plate chillers are. The biggest downside is obviously the cost at almost $200. The weird thing is, I don't see all that much value in using a copper outer jacket except for maybe the rigidity. It's probably 1/2 the cost of the unit and doesn't offer that much benefit. If they made a 1/2" convoluted CFC with a regular rubber jacket, it would be great.

 

[FSR402]

Personally I think the chillzilla is the best chiller available just based on concept alone. First, it's 1/2" inner tubing is high-flow, but also convoluted. It's likely not as prone to gunk buildup like the plate chillers are. The biggest downside is obviously the cost at almost $200. The weird thing is, I don't see all that much value in using a copper outer jacket except for maybe the rigidity. It's probably 1/2 the cost of the unit and doesn't offer that much benefit. If they made a 1/2" convoluted CFC with a regular rubber jacket, it would be great.

The bnefit is that you can run boiling water thru it and not melt it. I have used my rubber outter hosed CFC 4 times now and I have a leak. A small hole in the hose.

 

[Bobby_M]

I used real rubber hose on mine and it doesn't seem to mind the boiling temps. Well, it just hasn't leaked in like 12 batches. It might have a finite lifespan but I'm not sure I'd pay $100 extra when I can build a whole new CFC for $40.

 

[keithd]

Here's my $1mil question:

How do you get it below ambient (tap temp)?

No, I'm not an IC guy sent to sabotage a CFC discussion - I haven't even built my brewery *yet*!

I was thinking about going CFC, but I had a dilema - if my tap water is particularly hot (summertime), how do I get it to pitching temp or lagering temp even? I've thought of a few ways, but as I have NO practical experience, what does everyone else do?
-keith

 

[Lil' Sparky]

You have to use ice (regardless of what kind of chiller we're talking about), either to pump ice water through the chiller or you submerse a pre-chiller (or post-chiller) in an ice bath. A pre-chiller chills the tap water before it enters the chiller. A post-chiller is where you pump your already tap-chilled wort through a coil in the ice bath.

 

[Bobby_M]

One other option that I used twice when I didn't feel like running to buy bags of ice is to put two full buckets of water into my fermentation fridge (what you don't have one?) and chilled them down to 35F or so. I put it in before starting to brew and it was ready to go when it was needed. Two buckets full was just enough to chill 6 gallons. It's not ideal but you get desperate in the summer.

 

[FSR402]

I don't have that problem. The water here only gets to like 60* in the summer. But if it was hotter then that I would use my IC in a bucket of ice/salt/water to pre-chill the water before it goes to the CFC.