WHY do people spend so much money on these?

[whoaru99]

We pay a flat fee each quarter for water, so it doesn't matter how much we use. On the other hand, it cost electricity to make ice.

And the time to make the ice, etc..

 

[whoaru99]

By the time you futz with buying the pieces, a pipe bender (since most people don't have one) and factor in time and gas @ $3.49/gallon, paying $50 to have one made and brought to the house isn't a bad deal at all.

Right.

Even having a tubing cutter, torch, etc. it isn't necessarily that much cheaper to build depending on what you do.

I think the industral grade hose connections I used increased total cost by about 1/4, maybe more.

Took my last batch from flame out to 60F in 15, give or take. Didn't time all that carefully.

Oh, yeah, I built an anti-gravity machine too.

 

[half_whit]

Now it's your turn to post a pic halfwit!

Ha! Dam n, ya caught me. I was avoiding that one after seeing some of those pictures. I really like the elbow idea. Your builds look great, guys!

Like I said, $$$ was the goal here. 20 bucks of copper, wrapped around a tall thin pot from my ice cream maker, bent by hand. It started to crimp a little in one spot, but I ran water through it and it seems to flow really nicely. After adding the rubber hose, clamps, and an awesome adapter that screws directly to my kitchen sink (our water gets super cold....and also super hot. I measured 140 when I was washing my thermometer the other day), I came in at about 26 bucks. And Lowe's is right down the street! It ain't purdy... but I'm making a Mock-bock on Friday, so I'll let ya know how well it actually works

 

[eric19312]

Need to bend the ends down so the connections will not be over the kettle and if the do leak a few drops the drops would have to climb uphill to get into the kettle...

 

[sapo59]

Build one... Cooper tubing is fairly easy to bend. I see the point of buying one when this is a simple DIY project.

 

[sapo59]

Do not see the point! Little to much homebrew haha

 

[fishfoolz]

I built one also, but can't hook the garden hose end to my water faucet inside at the kitchen sink. Is their an adapter to go from garden hose to kitchen sink?

 

[sapo59]

Yes 55/64"!to 3/4 for garden hose. Remove your aerator and see if you need female or a male to connect. Hope this helps. You can also remove your aerator and take to to the hardware store to insure you get the right fitting.

 

[fishfoolz]

Yes 55/64"!to 3/4 for garden hose. Remove your aerator and see if you need female or a male to connect. Hope this helps. You can also remove your aerator and take to to the hardware store to insure you get the right fitting.

Thanks man. I will get that this weekend before brew day.

 

[half_whit]

Need to bend the ends down so the connections will not be over the kettle and if the do leak a few drops the drops would have to climb uphill to get into the kettle...

Oh man I didn't think of that. Thanks dude

 

[eric19312]

Yw

 

[EZCyclone]

I like that you soldered those elbows on. I built a double coil chiller but was worried about solder in the wort. Is this really an issue? If not I will do a quick fixer up and show off some new pics of it! Thoughts?

 

[NivekD]

Potable water has been running through soldered copper pipes for decades with no ill effects, use silver solder.

 

[Tupperwolf]

For any of you guys looking to bend your own tubing, here's a tip: Fill it up with water, then freeze it. As quickly as you can (before the ice inside melts) bend it. The ice will keep the copper from kinking, and you don't need to buy a tubing bender.

 

[whoaru99]

I like that you soldered those elbows on. I built a double coil chiller but was worried about solder in the wort. Is this really an issue? If not I will do a quick fixer up and show off some new pics of it! Thoughts?

I used lead free plumbing solder and lead free plumbing paste flux.

 

[EZCyclone]

I know solder is used, in water pipes, I have installed miles of the stuff. My concern was not even the oh so scary thing "lead" getting into my beer. That is not a concern at all. My worry was the metals in solder tend to give off a flavor, and I was worried about that. Not to mention that the solder being a different metal then the copper... What did we learn in school kids? Two dissimilar metals in an electrolytic solution is a battery! And a battery in said unbalanced solution, means there would be electrolysis going on and displacing copper, lead and/or zinc ions into our precious wort.

Sounds like an off flavor to me, anyone ever suck on a penny? Yeah, copper ions taste like poo!

To the OP, let me make VERY CLEAR, I'm not attacking you, not even close I LOVE that you did this and want to do it very badly! In fact I have the stuff and plan to very soon. I was just hoping others had a specif answer about using solder in a 212 deg f unbalanced solution we intend to drink. Not just potable water.

 

[Jbird]

Well I just looked up copper pipe on-line and to by what I want would be like $80. Then I still have to buy the clamps and plastic tubing. I might be able to look for a deal to buy, it just would save me time to just buy it pre made. A few dollars more is not to bad. I like the idea of making it for sure right now I think the price of copper is to high.

 

[half_whit]

Could just be that my tap water comes out especially cold, but that 20 bucks of 3/8 copper got my chill time down to 8 minutes!

 

[Jbird]

Could just be that my tap water comes out especially cold, but that 20 bucks of 3/8 copper got my chill time down to 8 minutes!

That's really good!

 

[CaptMogul]

I have built two, the last one for the 15 gal kettle. The 1/2 " tubing was old and had problems sizing it to the kettle. I did get a few slight kinks though, not enough to restrict flow much. I ended up with the OD about an inch clearance from the kettle. My question is would a much smaller diameter, say 2-3 inch clearance cool any faster? As many have been built some one should have an answer. I do have insulation on the electric pot though.


Ed

 

[half_whit]

I mean, I would be inclined to believe that having some space will help cool faster. I have about an inch or so between coils and like 2 to 3 inches (without getting off the sofa to measure) all the way around. Wort... Or even boiled water for that matter, holds heat really well. So we want as much flow over the cold parts as we can get. If you're pushing up against the sides, you're restricting how much warm wort will be able to touch the cool tube. Also, I kinda make a slow butter churn motion to keep the water circulating around the coils. Physics class was a long time ago... So I could just be making this stuff up

 

[whoaru99]

To the OP, let me make VERY CLEAR, I'm not attacking you, not even close I LOVE that you did this and want to do it very badly! In fact I have the stuff and plan to very soon. I was just hoping others had a specif answer about using solder in a 212 deg f unbalanced solution we intend to drink. Not just potable water.

My beer tastes like, uhhh, beer.

If you have doubts use a different method of chilling your beer.

 

[EZCyclone]

My beer tastes like, uhhh, beer.

If you have doubts use a different method of chilling your beer.

No doubts, I have wanted to do this fore some time, and seeing that you did it is all I needed. I wasn't looking down on you or the idea, I was just hoping someone else had some real data about the differences. I think it would be neat to see. I might actually take some before/after samples of identical half's of a brew and run the wort through a mass spec just to see what heavy metal ions went into solution.

I got the stuff to make the changes to my coil, I just was to tired when I got home. I will do it soon and post some pics.

Thanks for showing us it can be done!

 

[govner1]

They aren't better than ice baths, they're faster. And ice is free.

I've isn't "free". You have the cost of electricity, etc. plus the last time I checked you needed a freezer- not free!

 

[VladOfTrub]

"What did we learn in school kids? Two dissimilar metals in an electrolytic solution is a battery! And a battery in said unbalanced solution, means there would be electrolysis going on and displacing copper, lead and/or zinc ions into our precious wort."

The fittings on the guys chiller aren't in the wort. Copper is used in breweries for kettles and tuns, still is used and and has been for many years. The acid in wort isn't an oxidizing acid. It won't turn copper or solder green. However, it is electrolytic. There isn't enough acid in wort to cause a problem with the copper or the solder, in the hour or so that the wort is in contact with the metals. Yeast doesn't seem to have a problem with it. Silver bearing or no lead solder is used these days. Or, 45% silver braze can be used if there is a phobia about stuff leaching out. A copper fermenter would be another story. Due to the lowered pH and the longer time the fermenting beer is in contact with the copper. Since you have ran miles of pipe. Have you ever looked inside of a fitting, where the pipe bottoms out? When properly soldered. The amount of solder filling the gap between the pipe and fitting, is about the diameter of a hair. Not a lot of surface area touching the liquid. But, slop a bunch of flux all over the pipe and inside the fitting and overheat the fitting, expanding it. Will allow the flux to run down the inside of the pipe or fitting and the solder will follow it.

 

[EZCyclone]

"What did we learn in school kids? Two dissimilar metals in an electrolytic solution is a battery! And a battery in said unbalanced solution, means there would be electrolysis going on and displacing copper, lead and/or zinc ions into our precious wort."

The fittings on the guys chiller aren't in the wort. Copper is used in breweries for kettles and tuns, still is used and and has been for many years. The acid in wort isn't an oxidizing acid. It won't turn copper or solder green. However, it is electrolytic. There isn't enough acid in wort to cause a problem with the copper or the solder, in the hour or so that the wort is in contact with the metals. Yeast doesn't seem to have a problem with it. Silver bearing or no lead solder is used these days. Or, 45% silver braze can be used if there is a phobia about stuff leaching out. A copper fermenter would be another story. Due to the lowered pH and the longer time the fermenting beer is in contact with the copper. Since you have ran miles of pipe. Have you ever looked inside of a fitting, where the pipe bottoms out? When properly soldered. The amount of solder filling the gap between the pipe and fitting, is about the diameter of a hair. Not a lot of surface area touching the liquid. But, slop a bunch of flux all over the pipe and inside the fitting and overheat the fitting, expanding it. Will allow the flux to run down the inside of the pipe or fitting and the solder will follow it.

B33R posted this pic of a coil, I circled the elbows. My coil, the way I built it, when soldered will have many many many soldered joints in the wort. I really have to phobias about it, I was just curious about the information. I'm going to do this, I have nothing against anyone or their technic, in fact that's why I'm here, to learn from others. I think people are reading my posts as angry or something, when in fact they are far from it. Hopfully soon I will find time to do the rebuild on my coil. I would have done it this week, but it was so nice out I have been busy brewing instead.