immersion wort chillers

[greengrass]

Hi all, I have been looking at immersion wort chillers, the ones I have been looking at have 2 coils one inside the other, what is the advantage of this, are they more efficient or do you get just as good results with a single coil. I aim to do my boil of 5 gal in a 10 gal Burco boiler.

[BrannigansLove]

It's just increasing the surface area it can transfer heat across, so should cool your wort quicker. I built my own, so it's just a single coil, but it would cool to about 23c in 20-30 mins depending on whether it's winter or summer.

[guypettigrew]

And they work faster-no matter which design-if you stir the wort while the cold water is running through the coil.

Guy

[Notlaw]

And they work faster-no matter which design-if you stir the wort while the cold water is running through the coil.

Guy

Would that also be the case if you have a recirc pump running?

[guypettigrew]

Anything which keeps the hot wort moving over the chiller coils will cut down the time it takes to cool the wort down.

Guy

[Fil]

having built a similar 2 coil chiller i would suggest you avoid it while it worked the volume contained within its centre needs a lot of active stirring/pumping to keep mobile.. mine was way too tight to get anything inside and really stir needing me to use the coil itself to stir, or get quite active with something outside it.

a larger single coil would be better easier to get inside n stir gently or 2 or more distinct coils for better efficiency..

as a diy project its very simple using 10mm soft copper or 8mm? it comes in a coil even..
tight bends are best done with a brake pipe bender (£5? ebay) which will give you a nice clean and tight bend , (for my build i initially used end feed solder joints for the 90 degree bends etc. a real pita... )

form the shape around something about 3" smaller diameter than the inside of your kettle so you can get inside to stir gently

ring local plumbing suppliers for a good price for 10mm microbore

[alexlark]

Wickes is pretty cheap for 10mm copper

[greengrass]

Thanks all I will give it some thought.

[Donald]

After a bit of searching around I found builders merchants do 25m of 8mm microbore for less than £25.
This is really easy to bend around a keg or fermenter etc on the floor and the sheer length of it gets a 5 gallon batch cooled in 15mins.

[DarrenSL]

Post by Notlaw » Fri Jul 08, 2016 10:07 am

guypettigrew wrote:
And they work faster-no matter which design-if you stir the wort while the cold water is running through the coil.

Guy


Would that also be the case if you have a recirc pump running?

I built this for that very purpose to fit inside my IC coil. Should also create a whirlpool to collect the kettle debris. Not had a chance to test it yet though!

[guypettigrew]

That's a rather lovely thing! It would be great to avoid having to spend 15 minutes stirring the wort.

Just about to move house (Thursday), but making something like that will figure high on my list of priorities when the brewing starts again.

Guy

[DarrenSL]

I got the idea from here and knocked it together from spare bits and pieces I had around the house:
http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

I like the idea of faster cooling times resulting in improved hop aroma. I've also been working towards a closed system to stop anything (dust, flies, etc) getting in during and after the boil. Once I start cooling I put an old (sanitised) biab bag over the kettle and chiller. This whirlpooler should in theory remove the need to take the bag off for stirring.

The potential downside of my design is that the wort flows faster from one jet than the other. I don't know if this will cause a problem or whether I can compensate by making one jet smaller. We will see once I buy the circulating pump to test.

[DarrenSL]

After a bit of searching around I found builders merchants do 25m of 8mm microbore for less than £25.
This is really easy to bend around a keg or fermenter etc on the floor and the sheer length of it gets a 5 gallon batch cooled in 15mins.

I would stick with 10mm personally. You want to bend the pipe without kinking it. 10mm should kink less and also gives you a slight larger surface area.

You will need a pipe bender as Fil suggested for the tight bends or you will kink the pipe. Alternatively use push fit or compression elbow fittings or soldered if you are feeling a bit more ambitious.

[Fil]

if considering compression fittings or soldering beware unless you solder before you form the final coil the forming will deform the tube and may require a bit of re-forming with a screwdriver to get a round shape from the formed oval that will a) fit inside a compression olive or end feed solder socket, let alone seal, my 10mm tube needed a lot of pre solder reforming with screwdrivers and pliers (well more than i expected..)
Thankfully its soft copper, and a bit of pressure from the rounded back of long nosed pliers can reform the tube more circular .

with hindsight i would have been better of using a brake pipe bending tool ..