Diy Counter Flow Chiller

[pk.sax]

Anyone know where I could get a couple of these? (In Australia I mean - or affordably anyway)

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Anyone know where I could get a couple of these? (In Australia I mean - or affordably anyway)
View attachment 52044

Go to a local hydraulic place. I know for a fact that RYCO make a fitting like that.

 

[phoenixdigital]

Rather than start up a new thread on this I thought I would append to this older thread as I had a lot of trouble finding information about the right fittings needed to make one of these

So I wanted to make something like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVf-lTFpR2c

I was originally trying to find all the fittings to put it together but was having trouble working out which fitting to get for the end piece where the copper tubing comes out.

While at bunnings the guy there wasn't too much help for the threaded parts but did point me towards the right bits if I solder it up (rather than screw it together). I have a small cooking butane torch I got from Aldi a few years back and it worked perfectly for soldering the bits up.

The parts for one chiller
2x
2x Does need a bit of filing to allow the inner copper coil to go competely through.
4x
2x
18m of 12mm copper coil (enough for two chillers)
1.5m of 20mm copper pipe straight
1x copper pipe cutter
1x solder

After cutting three pieces of 20mm copper pipe it fits together like this


Assembled


So the threaded connectors are the same size as a normal hose. One will go to a standard pope fitting to clip a hose to. The other will get screwed into Vinyl tubing which the copper coil will go inside.

I have been buying enough parts to build two of them and so far the cost has been $105 each but I am yet to buy the outer hose.

I'm looking at this tubing but am unure if it will hold up to the hot initial temps as things start to cool down.
http://www.mundays.com.au/19mm-cvt-clear-vinyl-tubing.html

Will this tubing be OK?

Finally here is my amateur soldering and the first few fittings. When I started I cut all the 20mm copper lengths at diff sizes. The second one I made a bit neater.


Anyone have any suggestions or obvious design flaws?

When I get the outer tubing I will do a full water test and let you all know how it goes. I just thought I would post the fittings I bought so others dont have as much trouble finding the right parts.

 

[Matplat]

Hi phoenix,

I am thinking about one of these as well and also not sure what outer tubing to use.... what did you end up using?

I will be re-circulating water from our rainwater tank that we drink, so I really wan't to be sure I'm not leeching plastic nasties into it.

Unless I can find a cost effective solution, I think a plate chiller will end up being the cheapest/best option.....

 

[phoenixdigital]

Bit late responding here but I went with the clear tubing from Mundays. The whole thing works really well.

As for recirculating back into your drinkable water I personally probably wouldn't do it. Next time I brew I will check the temps coming out the other end. I would say they would be pretty high.

The only reason I would advise against it is I remember using vynil tubing once to transfer hot wort from a kettle into a fermenter. The thing almost melted which is when I learnt why people use silicon tubing for hot liquids.

I've heard of people using this sort of hose but again it is not really "food safe"
http://www.bunnings.com.au/holman-25mm-x-20m-sullage-hose-_p3110681

 

[Matplat]

Thanks mate, i have put off making the chiller for now anyway but i will bear that all in mind when i do. A full sized kettle became of greater urgency!

 

[phoenixdigital]

Some pics of my completed chillers worked out to be about $150 each.



I built one for my mate as the most expensive part was the 18m of copper from bunnings
http://www.bunnings.com.au/syneco-1-2-x-18m-annealed-copper-tube-_p4910009

The second most expensive bit was the vynil tubing.

 

[Matplat]

I found some hardcore poly pipe (1" diameter) in a local agricultural supplies place for $1 p/m, sold by the metre, which I will end up using (there has to be some benefit to living in the country right?).

There is also a local fridgie supplies place that sell 18m of 3/8" pipe for $60 so will probably make two and sell one.

How did your cooling performance go?

 

[phoenixdigital]

How did your cooling performance go?

Cooling performance was so much faster than the standard immersion chiller. I would say about twice as fast and you don't have to sit there jiggling the chiller or stiring the wort like with an immersion chiller.

The only thing I never thought about was there are two ways people use counterflow chillers.

1. Reciculate cool wort back into the kettle cooling the entire wort faster.
2. From chiller straight into fermenting vessel.

Method 1 obvioulsy cools the whole wort down from boiling faster stopping the hops from bittering further.

Method 2 leaves hot wort in the pot for longer increasing the hop bittering

I did method 2 the first time and didn't notice too much bitterness and the whole lot was down to about 30 degrees from boiling within 8-10 minutes.

I am thinking of maybe doing option 1 to get to 80 deg... then switching to method 2 to go to the fermenter.

Does anyone know if it will make much difference?

The other trick is to adjust the wort throughput with your kettle tap. Faster the less cooling slower the more cooling.

Edit: Also I noticed from my original post I had soldered a threaded pipe for attaching the vynil tubing. I ended up having to take that off as I couldn't get the vynil tubing over it. Hose clamps hold it on fine.

 

[Matplat]

I read someone explain how method 1 is actually slower, I can't remember or work out why, but the fact that you have to cool the pot down as well comes in to it.

Oh yeah that's it, as you cool the entire volume down, your cooling efficiency decreases because the temperature difference between coolant and wort decreases.

If it will do it, I think the best option is to go for method 2. If you pull your hop bag/sock out after the hour, I think any further bittering will be negligible, especially compared to no-chill.

 

[UrbanBrewer.WA]

most modern houses hot water systems use plastic pipes . go to reece plumbing they will show you.