m f refrigeration twin cooler

[ryan2106]

Hi i have recently purchased a m f refrigeration beer chiller and i think its a twin cooler. it has on the front 2 x in and 2 x out but also a water in and out and a overflow in the middle. could beer be pumped through the water in and out so i could serve three products through it? i cant find any information about the coolers on the net so was hoping someone on here could give me some advice.

i have just bought a peroni font also which has to copper pipes coming out the base which i imagine is to cool the font i dont think the coller can pump water so i am guessing that the water in and out could be used to circulate cold water round the font if i used some kind of pump???

i really am new to all this so any help would be appreciated.

i also have pictures that i could post however dont know how to post them...

thankyou!

[Waffty]

No.

The two in/out connectors, are effectively two loops of stainless steel pipe that pass through a block of ice.

To make the block of ice, you open the slide cover on the top of the chiller and fill it with water, until it comes out of the overflow on the front. Once this water is frozen, you're good to use the two cooling loops, as either two feeds, or one ultra cold loop (link the out & in of the red & yellow).

The in/out on the front is a recirclating water bath i.e not all the water freezes to form the ice block, so this remain near ice water, is sitting in a 'bath', in this bath is a pump, which when the unit is turned on, will pump water out of the out pipe & ideally back in again, via the in pipe. This can either be used to cool your beer tap water jacket, or disabled by 'bridging' the two connectors (in/out) with a length of pipe, or you could disconnect the power feed to the motor via switch or similar, as this pump will always be on while the unit is on, which can be a pain sometimes.

Now if you want to be a smarty pants like some of us, you could connect the power feed of the recirculating motor to a temp controller, like a ATC800, fit a cooling spike into your fermentor & use your flash cooler (& a heater of some description) to control you're fermentation temparature.

I've got the same unit at home, so let me know if you need anymore info.
Darren.

[ryan2106]

Thanks for that waffty, thats exactly what i have been trying to find out... so if i just fill it up then pipe up the water in and out to my beer font then it will take care of everything?

if so, Perfect!

got some gear from a pub thats closed down got the chiller for £45 so roll on the world cup and hopefully some nice weather and the beer shall flow... very cold hopefully!!!

[ryan2106]

I also have a gas regulator set up from a pub and wanted to post a picture of it to see if it will be suitable for my use... could anyone explain how to do this?

thanks

[boingy]

Guide to posting pics:

www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3652

[Scooby]

Here's a diagram to help with Waffty's explanation.

The water circulating is important as it stops the reservoir freezing solid.

[igmac]

correct me if i'm wrong (it has been known) but I believe you should be useing a glycol solution to stop any ice forming. otherwise ice would form around the cooling lines and the thermostat would appear slow in shutting off beause the remaining water would only get to about zero degrees. what happen is, the ice that forms around the cooling lines tends to insulate the water from these lines.

I found this with my Maxi 310 four product cooler:
filled with water 2 hour + to reach temp with water
filled with antifreeze 35 minutes

[kfm]

I've been meaning to post a Q about using glycol in the Maxi product chiller - I got hold of 4 litres of MONOPROPYLENE GLYCOL from Cornelius for my Maxi 310 but there are no guidance notes on what proportion to add it. I reckon my chiller takes around 15 litres of water to fill it - but does anyone know how much of that should be glycol?

[ryan2106]

ok, confused.com now... i thought the idea was to have ice in the chiller so the beer gets cooled in the pipes... wouldnt anti freeze stop that happening?

or does the liquid still get as cold with the anti freeze in it it just doesn't freeze up?

[Waffty]

ok, confused.com now... i thought the idea was to have ice in the chiller so the beer gets cooled in the pipes... wouldnt anti freeze stop that happening?

or does the liquid still get as cold with the anti freeze in it it just doesn't freeze up?

Me too, I was advised by my seller that the flash cooler creates a hollow square of ice that the fits around the cooling coils. The hollow bit is then used to house the chilled water for the recirculator. The thermostate is held an inch or so in the hollow block wall & comes on when the block 'thins' and turns off, when the block reaches the correct thickness. He also advised that it's normal for the unit to turn on/off if it's knocked, as this method of control isn't rocket science.

This is an old post, re: beer freezing in the cooling pipes, makes interesting read, plus it's got pictures

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15694&hilit=cooler&start=15

[Parva]

ok, confused.com now... i thought the idea was to have ice in the chiller so the beer gets cooled in the pipes... wouldnt anti freeze stop that happening?

or does the liquid still get as cold with the anti freeze in it it just doesn't freeze up?

Of course it's still cold even though it isn't frozen. Think of boiling water and frying oil, the water may be boiling at 100c and yet the oil isn't bubbling at 140c but does that mean that the oil is cooler than the boiling water? Of course not. I'm not sure that flash chillers actually produce banks of ice anyway, mine certainly doesn't. The water gets down to near 0c but due to movement from the python pump it never actually freezes.

[Waffty]

or does the liquid still get as cold with the anti freeze in it it just doesn't freeze up?
Of course it's still cold even though it isn't frozen. Think of boiling water and frying oil, the water may be boiling at 100c and yet the oil isn't bubbling at 140c but does that mean that the oil is cooler than the boiling water? Of course not. I'm not sure that flash chillers actually produce banks of ice anyway, mine certainly doesn't. The water gets down to near 0c but due to movement from the python pump it never actually freezes.

This unit is identical to mine, same make, same recon company MF Refrigeration, so I can confirm that it's designed to use water and it does create an ice bank of around an inch thick on the sides (nothing top and bottom), which houses the recirculating water.

I guess you could use somekind of anti-freeze to drop the temp by the same token, what's the point ie these are industry grade products, being used in a home environment i.e even on a hot day, with a few friends round, I'd be surprised if my unit clicks on once or twice a day

[Marcusgh]

Hi you need the pump stiring the water or glycol to keep a constant temperature otherwise the thermostat will not work properly and the product will warm up as it passes through the coil in still water or Glycol. You must keep the pump connected to the power,or you could fit a variable thermostat that will allow you to activate the pump when needed as the temperature rises in the still water or glycol,this is great to make the temperature variable,however to have a good glycol cooler you are best to replace the ice stat with a variable stat.

Marcus from bar-and-cellar-solutions.co.uk

[Marcusgh]

Hello,yes you can change the agitator motor in your cooler for a pump and drill two holes in your cooler to exit the flow pipe and send the water up to your Peroni font then send he return back down to your cooler,this will chill the Peroni pipe all the way up to your tap if you insulate the 3 pipes (2 water 1 Peroni )
Regards

Marcus from bar-and-cellar-solutions.co.uk