Immersion chiller. Well happy

[Callumbo]

Hi guys.

Thought I'd share my new immersion chiller I just made.



I bought some copper hose from wickes for £20 and after some bending round a demijohn it's finished. It was so easy and it's going to be so worth it for my next home brew.

 

[Keats]

Good work, that looks great! I used my (bought) chiller for the second time today and it saves so much time.

 

[JFB]

Wow that's neat! I made one that was all over the shop used twice and chucked it up in the roof.
loving the day of the dead thingy in the back ground:thumb:

 

[yeastinfection]

Very neat...

 

[IainM]

Looks good. They really do work a treat at this time of year when the tap water is cold.

 

[Dutto]

Okay, it's "neat" but it's just not as artistic as mine! :whistle: :whistle:

I made the MkII today out of 3m of 15mm pipe and 15 elbows.

Surface area slightly less than 6m of 8mm but much higher flow rate should compensate.

It just fits inside my new Boil Pot so I will test it tomorrow and Post a photograph. :thumb:

 

[Dutto]

Immensely jealous of Callumbo, ...

... and knowing that my own coil left a bit (?) to be desired, I built the attached cooler yesterday out of 15mm tubing and a series of elbows.

The cooler rests about 2cm above the bottom of the boiler and it should allow me to create a decent "swirl" within the boiler to assist in sediment removal. Also, by not removing the cooler before emptying the boiler into the FV, I hope to minimise the disturbance of any sediment that gathers in the centre.

It currently has a surface area of 0.14 square metres and if this isn't enough (especially in summer) I can always add another set of tubes without reducing the gaps between the tubes; which are there to facilitate good cleaning after a boil.

Sorry if I have hijacked Callumbo's Thread but it was the photograph of his efforts that spurred me on to do something different! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Callumbo]

Dont even worry about it Dutto.

Your chiller looks awesome. I was thinking of doing the same if i had some more 15mm copper pipe laying around. Unfortunately i didn't and i would have cost more to buy that than the �£21 from wickes for the copper pipe.

This thing is amazing and has saved so much time. Took me a couple of goes to realise how much quicker it works when you stir it as well.

 

[iamthefly]

I'm looking at buying some cooler pipe for this, do I want to go for 8mm x 10m or 10mm X 10m?

How best/which connectors to attach it to pvc hose and to the tap?

Should the child water flow into the top of bottom coil first?

Cheers

 

[Dutto]

If it's a coil type then my "failure" was made from 10mm piping. If it's one of the "square" ones then 15mm diameter will give you more surface-area per metre length than 10mm so you need less of it.

With regard to the direction of flow, I set mine to flow from the bottom up but TBH I don't think it will make a great deal of difference whichever way you set the flow.

The discharge hose is left permanently connected with a jubilee-clip (it just reaches a nearby drain) and I connect a garden hose to the other end.

I reckon the easiest way to connect the cooler to any cold water supply system is to just use ordinary garden hose connections and attach them to the pipes with Plastic Putty and Epoxy Adhesive.

Just one tip, whichever type of cooler you construct, make sure that the end connections are pointing downwards and outside of the boiler so that any leaks will fall outside of the boiler and not into the wort.

Enjoy! :thumb:

 

[foxbat]

Just one tip, whichever type of cooler you construct, make sure that the end connections are pointing downwards and outside of the boiler so that any leaks will fall outside of the boiler and not into the wort.

Top tip and a +1 from me on that.

Another one I can add is that during the first minute or so of hot water flowing out your hose will soften and start dripping from under the clips. You need to be on hand to tighten those jubilee clips up during that time.