Bling For Your Font

[dicko]

Hi all,

I was in at Andale the other day getting some parts for my sons' bar and during conversation re getting the font to freeze on the outside I was directed to a new product called GLYCE.

It came in a 4 litre container and I was instructed to remove 2.75 litres of water from the ice bank and top it up with this product.

My son did this last night and here are the results



It is truly amazing how the iced formed within half an hour of running the ice bank and it is just like the a pub font.

Absolutely no other modifications except adding this gear to the ice bank.

I recon it would work in any flooded font with a cold water supply being pumped through it.

He is absolutely stoked with the result and the cost of the 4 litre container is $95.00

No affiliation with Andale whatsoever but that guy in the Adelaide store was extremely helpful with all my enquiries.

Cheers

 

[vortex]

Looks good I've got a flooded font and I was planning on running cold water through it, but this looks like the go. What temp was the coolant you were circulating?

 

[dicko]

Looks good I've got a flooded font and I was planning on running cold water through it, but this looks like the go. What temp was the coolant you were circulating?

Hi vortex

I haven't been over to my sons place yet and those pics were only phone pics on a text to me last night but he said it was only running for half an hour before it started to ice the font.

I just phoned him and he said it was icing up before the ice bank part of the chiller actually iced over. So based on that without actually measuring the temp of the water you might have an educated guess at some where between 1 deg c and say 6 deg c. considering that by the hour mark the ice bank had formed ice.

With an ice bank chiller, running on just water, it is only cold water that ever recirculates through the font and running this way it only ever forms condensation on the font and ice actually forms around the cooling pipes for the beer.
I would imagine if you had a kegorator freezer set on 1 degc or 2 degc then the results would be similar.
Obviously the warmer you want to serve your beer the less is the need for an iced up font.

If you have concerns or questions you could pop in and have a chat to them at Andale or they may have specs on the product.

My son has a mate that has a converted freezer running a flooded font so he may sell him the rest of the GLYCE to try in his set up and I will report from there.

Cheers

 

[adryargument]

I imagine that instead of the coolant, adding a pile of salt would have the same effect?
This should allow the water to reach upto around -6'C.

 

[donburke]

looks to be some glycol type of solution, or if not glycol, some other liquid that has the effect of lowering the freezing of water

you need minus temperatures of the coolant to actually freeze the font, so i'd say your ice bank solution is sitting at somewhere between -1 and -3

looks great

 

[dicko]

I imagine that instead of the coolant, adding a pile of salt would have the same effect?
This should allow the water to reach upto around -6'C.

Yes, probably worth a try in a converted freezer with plastic reservoir bottle and a submersible pond pump worth only a few dollars but I wouldn't like to load a $2000.00 ice bank chiller with a salt mixture.

Cheers

 

[dicko]

looks to be some glycol type of solution, or if not glycol, some other liquid that has the effect of lowering the freezing of water

you need minus temperatures of the coolant to actually freeze the font, so i'd say your ice bank solution is sitting at somewhere between -1 and -3

looks great

There is no temperature control on this ice bank chiller nor is there any temp guage, but apparently the earlier models used to come with adjustable temp control.
Andale told me that to convert the unit to freeze the font with glycol I would have to get a controller that they make up and replace the water with glycol.

Cheers

 

[brettprevans]

Fairly sure andale is full of crap. Im sure there are a few guys running glycol through their fonts as is. No temp control. I could be wrong .

 

[Batz]

That looks great Geoff, I have a plastic jerry on the hump on my freezer/keg fridge, pond pump to feed the font, I wonder if I could get similar results?

 

[stux]

That looks great Geoff, I have a plastic jerry on the hump on my freezer/keg fridge, pond pump to feed the font, I wonder if I could get similar results?

Surely you'd have to keep you keg-fridge below zero to do it?

But if you put the sump in a freezer...

 

[dicko]

That looks great Geoff, I have a plastic jerry on the hump on my freezer/keg fridge, pond pump to feed the font, I wonder if I could get similar results?

Hi Jeff,

I should be able to give you an accurate report on how it works with a similar set up to yours if my sons mate will give it a try in his converted freezer in the new year.
Unfortunately I wont get to see him until New Years Eve.
I'll pm you the results and report back on here.

Cheers

 

[dicko]

Fairly sure andale is full of crap. Im sure there are a few guys running glycol through their fonts as is. No temp control. I could be wrong .

Fairly sure you are wrong as with standard glycol you will need to drop the temp of the ice bank below freezing to achieve an iced font.
If you run glycol without the temp control, in other words, in standard form then it will only run at the temp that just freezes water and the font will be "wet" but not iced.

I used to own this particular chiller, so I am quite familiar with it.

Cheers

 

[dicko]

BTW, I tried googling GLYCE with no results at the moment so I assume it must be quite new on the market.

Cheers

 

[donburke]

There is no temperature control on this ice bank chiller nor is there any temp guage, but apparently the earlier models used to come with adjustable temp control.
Andale told me that to convert the unit to freeze the font with glycol I would have to get a controller that they make up and replace the water with glycol.

Cheers

bet you it has a thermostat that can be set by a technician, and if not, i bet it has a sensor in the circuit to detect resistance in the agitator motor when the solution starts to become an ice slurry

and i bet the 'glyce' is nothing more than propylene glycol

i can assure you that you wont freeze a font unless you have a solution running at subzero temps

my glycol chiller sits 7 metres from my font, the lines are well insulated, and in winter i need an average temp of -1.5 to keep my font frozen, in summer i need and average temp of -3, give or take depending on the % of glycol in the solution

glycol is less efficient at conducting heat than water, so whilst lowering the freezing point of your solution the more glycol you have, you also lose efficiency

when i consulted andale (sydney) for the selection of a glycol chiller, i was told that some people had converted ice banks by adjusting the thermostat, but i was advised against it because they had reported problems as the units were not designed for subzero temps, i think the compressor was being overworked, so exercise your own judgement

 

[Spiesy]

View attachment 59497

Dunno mate, I reckon your son might be a little on the young side to be having a nice, operational font setup like that!

 

[dicko]

Dunno mate, I reckon your son might be a little on the young side to be having a nice, operational font setup like that!

That's my grandson auditioning for " Dumb and Dumber" :lol:

Cheers

 

[stux]

Well, I'm jealous

 

[Tony]

That looks great Geoff, I have a plastic jerry on the hump on my freezer/keg fridge, pond pump to feed the font, I wonder if I could get similar results?

I had the same when i first built my keg freezer...... and the freezer ran all the time trying to keep the font cold.

I turned if off and the beer was just as good so i removed it and no longer flood the font. With the price of power......bugger that.

 

[Batz]

Hi Jeff,

I should be able to give you an accurate report on how it works with a similar set up to yours if my sons mate will give it a try in his converted freezer in the new year.
Unfortunately I wont get to see him until New Years Eve.
I'll pm you the results and report back on here.

Cheers

Thanks Geoff, I'll interested to see how it goes.

Cheers

 

[Batz]

Hey Geoff how did this turn out?