wort cooling system

[Britinusa]

i have a pump that will connect to my wort chiller, my plan is to fill a bucket with ice water then immerse my pump and connect it to the wort chiller and have it recycle back to the bucket, i expect to need to top up with more ice as the warm returning water melts it.
Anyone see any potential issues? I am on well water but I still hate to waste it.

 

[GarageDweller]

sounds like a good plan.
maybe let it run off a little before you recycle it back to the bucket. when I used to use an immersion chiller; the first bit of runoff water was hotter-than-hell. burnt my foot real good once by not paying attention to where the hoses were running.

 

[rkorn74]

Looking to do something similar, but I'm going to hook the waste end to a sprinkler.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

The best (read fast and efficient) way to really do this is to just use tap water until the outlet temp from the IC is the same as the inlet temp; at this point switch to your iced water in a bucket!

 

[lionnusmb]

I did this using a drill pump I bought for $7 at home depot. It took less than 10 minutes to cool 2.5 gallons of wort with about 12 lbs of ice to pitching temp. I felt really bad to waste the water too. Plus, I didn't have to be near a water source while I brewed.

 

[Huaco]

I pre-chill my water with my old IC before it goes into my CFC. I can knock it down from boiling to pitching temps and run at a rate that I find acceptable.

 

[Jeffinn]

I used a pump system exactly like that in the winter months when I can't get running water out to the garage. It takes me two large bags of ice to get the wort down to 70 degrees. It works very well.