3 vessel counter flow.. Idea for a water cooler

[southcoastbrewer]

Hey all

about to finish off my counter flow system for my 3 vessel system... Feel free to flame ive got the suit on... I have mounted my counter flow chiller... and have had an idea... expensive one some will say, however, getting my brews perfect is my mission here..

I am thinking about drilling into my old 60L ARB/Engel fridge and making a perm fixture to my system as the water chiller for the counterflow... as it can hold a large some of water and keep it at around 5 to 6 degrees... great for boiling hot wort... My idea was to drill some valves through the lid seal it and hook it up to a pump... push the water though it back into the fridge...

I know back in the day this fridge was expensive... i have long sold my 4x4 and the fridge is now nearing 12 years old... i barely use it and thought itd be a great idea.. thoughts??

Southcoastbrewer

 

[gava]

quick response.... You'll need it to go into some type of glycol or salt bath within the fridge through another heat exchange within that bath because air doesn't exchange well at all..

reread your post... ignore that please I'd really make sure your bath is big enough.. You could even have a coil within the bath and have it as prechiller..

-gav

 

[gava]

over the top example : http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/temperature-controlled-fermentation-81596/

 

[woodwormm]

a mate of mine used to put a copper coil inside his engel and fill the engel with water and freeze it solid, ensuring that the copper coil is dry inside.

come wort cooling time he'd run the water from the rainwater tank, through the engel then into his immersion chiller. really just super chilling the water before it went t hrough the immersion chiller. seemed to work quite well, except one day he turned the water flow off for a minute to adjust something and it froze inside the copper coil in the engel!

I think your theory is a valid one.

same guy now has a plate chiller in the bottom of his engel and fittings fitted through the side of it for kegs when camping , the fridge repair tech looked at him pretty strangely when he needed a re-gas last year!

 

[shaunous]

I all see here is one way to fuk a good Engel fridge. They are far to expensive and convenient to be drilling holes in for brewing.

a mate of mine used to put a copper coil inside his engel and fill the engel with water and freeze it solid, ensuring that the copper coil is dry inside.

This on the other hand is pretty clever.