What are your CFC losses?

[jeeppilot]

I have an approximately 25’ CFC that is homemade and I’m seeing approximately 2.-2.5 quarts of loss. Some of this is in my pump and tubing, but it all seems very high. Those using a pump and CFC, what losses do you see from post-boil into fermenter?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I drain it all out via gravity.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Push it all into the fermenter with water. Gravity works too.

 

[jeeppilot]

I was using gravity for a bit but it was SOOO slow. I already had the pump so I figured why not? I can take the pump out of the equation, but with the coiled CFC it seems like wort would get caught in the loops with just gravity.

Unless, are you hooking up a length of tubing to the CFC outlet to create and greater siphoning action for the remaining wort in the coil? The top of my fermenter isn’t a whole lot lower than the bottom of my kettle when sitting on the brewstand.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Use the pump but then let it drain via gravity ...
The coils need to be horizontal.

 

[Qhrumphf]

OR

Push with water. Need to rinse it out anyway, right? Follow the wort with boiling water. Feel the hose (or better, metal) going into the fermenter. As soon as it starts getting hot (too hot to handle or shortly before), stop pushing into fermenter (move hose or shut valve and then move hose to however you drain it). Shortly thereafter wort turns to water. Kills two birds with one stone. You'll need to rinse a bit more anyway, but it's getting it started for you.

 

[jeeppilot]

Use the pump but then let it drain via gravity ...
The coils need to be horizontal.

I think that’s been my problem. I don’t have a great place for the coil and it’s never level.

 

[jeeppilot]

OR

Push with water. Need to rinse it out anyway, right? Follow the wort with boiling water. Feel the hose (or better, metal) going into the fermenter. As soon as it starts getting hot (too hot to handle or shortly before), stop pushing into fermenter (move hose or shut valve and then move hose to however you drain it). Shortly thereafter wort turns to water. Kills two birds with one stone. You'll need to rinse a bit more anyway, but it's getting it started for you.

Since I do BIAB, I can only picture this would require me to use another vessel and do an extra step, which I’m not really interested in as going BIAB was all about reducing steps and vessels. It’s a great idea but I’m not sure if it fits in my process.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Fair enough. But if you want to minimize non-trub wort loss, that's best the way to do it.