Wort chiller, 50ft vs 2x25ft?

JeffLacoy · Dec 21, 2016

So I'm new to brewing, been doing my homework though, and halfway finished drinking my first keg of pale ale. Been piecing together my own setup (borrowed my brothers gear the first time), and found a good deal for a copper wort chiller on Craigslist.

Bought it one evening this week, and excited, told my brother, who informed me I ruined his Christmas gift, he got me one too! Oops.

So I'm going to just keep both and maybe experiment a bit. Has anyone ever tested the difference between a single, 50ft run of copper vs 2 interwoven coils of 25ft? I'd imagine that in a 50ft run, the cooling water has got to be close to ambient, so only so much of the coil is doing any effective cooling. My thinking is that 2 25ft coils are going to evacuate and provide more cold, fresh water compared to just a long run of cold, to eventually warm water.

Anyone been down this road, and save me the legwork?

jmitchell3 · Dec 21, 2016

If you are sold on immersion chiller,1/2" by 50 ft will work great. It's about contact area and delta (difference) between chilling water temp and wort temp. Surface area on 3/8" x 50' is .375" x 3.15 x something less than 50' lets say you have 3' total sticking out of your wort for connections to hoses and such. That's (0.375" (2x radius or diameter of pipe) / 12" (per ft)) x 3.15 (pi) x 47' = 4.25 sq ft of contact area. On the other hand, 50' (47' with connection arms) x (1/2" / 12") x 3.14 = 6.14 sq ft of surface area. So as you can see the 1/2" x 50' coil offers almost 50% more surface area than 2 x 3/8" x 25' coils.

This being said I would highly recommend investing in a harbor freight submersible pump ($12-30) with which to pump ice water through said coil. You'll find this is by far the best way to deliver "delta" for chilling with any type of chiller.

JeffLacoy · Dec 22, 2016

I don't think my original explanation was clear. Not so much surface area I'm considering, it's the amount of fresh, cold water going in. If I gang them together to a 50' run, I'm only getting that 3/8" diameter worth of water through, but if I split them, and feed cold water into both inlets, I'll be effectively doubling the amount of cold water entering. That make sense?

I'll probably try it both ways with hot water for testing, but didn't know if anyone had already tried this.

haanjamin · Dec 24, 2016

I'd say split it, you can get higher flow rates and faster chilling time at the expense of more water used. Put them in series to save cooling water.
My first chiller was 50' 3/8" tube. I bought 50' of 1/2" tubing and made it into 3 parallel coils, like the Jaded Hydra. It cools way faster due to how much more water can flow through it.

d3track · Dec 25, 2016

Search rib cage chillers and you will get some better ideas. It is a good combination of max surface area and heat exchange from cold water moving a shorter distance.