Coolzone

[mfeighan]

Hi guys, not affiliated or anything but i wanted to share my latest acquisition that i am stoked with.
I have 2 conical fermenters, my initial problem was that they were too tall to fit in the fridges i own. OUCH
After a lot of screwing around with computer radiators + fans in an insulated chamber I built, I finally settled with wrapping a copper coil around each fermenter and plumbing glycol chilled from an aircon unit around it to chill. This was fine however I felt that the copper didn't have enough contact with the fermenter as my bending skills are far from professional so I jammed the air gaps with something that looks like thermal paste but comes in a caulking gun thingo.
Still unhappy with the performance and ever the tinker I saw this:
http://www.gotta-brew.com/products/cool-zone-cooling-jacket.html
After a lot of mulling the idea over (and thinking of all the money i have already blown) I decided it was worth a go. Totally worth every cent! Saturdays brew plate chilled down to 29deg, whacked into the fermenter and wrapped the sucker. Came back an hour and a half later and was shocked that the temp was already 17 for pitching. The temp is taken from inside the fermenter not the outside which gets cold quickly.

Hopefully this helps other peeps, once again i am not affiliated. I even asked Nev if he could source it first.
​
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/gallery/image/9393-coolzone-jacket/

For some reason pictures were all uploading sideways grrr so I uploaded to gallery

 

[blotto]

So you have the jacket hooked up to the chiller you had already? Sounds like you found a good solution, can you feel the cold on the outside or is the jacket well insulated?

 

[user 35653]

Interested to know how you've setup the aircon with the glycol? I've seen in the past the method of deconstructing the unit, removing the fan and placing the fins in a separate bath with glycol/water mix and using a pond pump to recirculate it through the loop and back into the bath.

 

[mfeighan]

So you have the jacket hooked up to the chiller you had already? Sounds like you found a good solution, can you feel the cold on the outside or is the jacket well insulated?

Yeah the outside jacket is quite cool, I already built an insulated cabinet so i do not gain too much heat from the elements. Next project is to sew/build an insulated wrap.

Interested to know how you've setup the aircon with the glycol? I've seen in the past the method of deconstructing the unit, removing the fan and placing the fins in a separate bath with glycol/water mix and using a pond pump to recirculate it through the loop and back into the bath.

Basically i grabbed a portable unit off gumtree. With some help from people online here i bypassed the controller etc so it was cooling when power was attached.
I slowly bent the cooling radiator into an esky with radiator fluid in and dropped 2 $10 pond pumps in (one for each side)

It looks assembled as the cooling fan for the hot side of the aerator was massive and it was easier and safer to put the sides back together