Where did you get your HERMS coil?

[kal]

Copper is a better conductor of heat. True. But you can make up for the difference with A- more tubing and/or B- higher temp water. Seems like these could be practical trade offs to me.

You don't have to make up for it really.

I see often people quote that copper is a better conductor of heat than stainless. That is true, but with a HERMS coil where the two liquids exchanging heat are almost at the same time (usually within a degree or so from each other) this difference in heat transfer efficiency is no longer relevant.

Where it matters and the difference is noted is when the two liquids are much farther apart in temperature such as a CFC (counterflow chiller) for chilling wort from boiling down to pitch temps. There you could easily have a 140-150 degree F difference.

So get a stainless HERMS coil, but a copper CFC.

Kal

 

[trnitz]

I'm in the market for a HERMS coil. I want to 1/2" OD tubing. I havent settles on copper or SS. So if you have a HERMS coil, where did you get it?

Im trying to find the best price out there!

Thanks for the help!

Stainlessbrewing.com

I checked out the price of a 1/2" x 50' stainless, and it wasn't much cheaper than buying the stainless pre-coiled from SSB. Zero chance of kinking it while trying to coil it, and for just a few bucks more, well worth the price, IMHO.

 

[dsteeves]

Hi,

I have a ss brewpot as my HLT and I've fashioned my own 50' copper HERMS coil (bent in a 14" diameter). I mounted the HERMS coil to the pot via compression fittings, but the weight of the HERMS coil is bending my pot (the ball valve attached to the lower HERMS port is pointing a bit upwards because the kettle wall is deflecting a bit). Is this normal, or is there some way to counteract this? Thanks for any input!

 

[LandoLincoln]

Hi,

I have a ss brewpot as my HLT and I've fashioned my own 50' copper HERMS coil (bent in a 14" diameter). I mounted the HERMS coil to the pot via compression fittings, but the weight of the HERMS coil is bending my pot (the ball valve attached to the lower HERMS port is pointing a bit upwards because the kettle wall is deflecting a bit). Is this normal, or is there some way to counteract this? Thanks for any input!

Yeah, there are ways. The way I did it was cheap and did the job, but it looks rather unprofessional. I went to the dollar store and bought three stainless steel serving forks, bent the tines in opposite directions, and then bent the handles in such a way so that the handle wove through the coils and the tine ends rest on the bottom of the pot, supporting the coil.

Eh. Not many people look into the bottom of the HLT anyway.

 

[Indian_villager]

You don't have to make up for it really.

I see often people quote that copper is a better conductor of heat than stainless. That is true, but with a HERMS coil where the two liquids exchanging heat are almost at the same time (usually within a degree or so from each other) this difference in heat transfer efficiency is no longer relevant.

Where it matters and the difference is noted is when the two liquids are much farther apart in temperature such as a CFC (counterflow chiller) for chilling wort from boiling down to pitch temps. There you could easily have a 140-150 degree F difference.

So get a stainless HERMS coil, but a copper CFC.

Kal

Kal is correct. Your greatest restriction will be the film coefficients of the two fluids. If you want better heat transfer pump the wort in the coil harder or agitate the water in the HLT.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Yeah, there are ways. The way I did it was cheap and did the job, but it looks rather unprofessional. I went to the dollar store and bought three stainless steel serving forks, bent the tines in opposite directions, and then bent the handles in such a way so that the handle wove through the coils and the tine ends rest on the bottom of the pot, supporting the coil.

Eh. Not many people look into the bottom of the HLT anyway.

In simpler terms, buy something cheap thats stainless, and bend it to make standoff legs to keep the back of the coil up.