Immersion Chiller from Kegland

[Matthopperman]

Hi all,

I'm looking to get an immersion chiller and this one seems like a decent price from Kegland BrewZilla 65L - Replacement Immersion / Ice Bucket Chiller (Stainless Steel)

However, I was a little concerned about the fact they advertise it as a replacement for the BrewZilla and don't sell a standalone item. From all I can tell it is just a standard SS wort chiller, but when I contacted Kegland they advised against using it to chill a wort in a regular brew kettle and that it's more suited to the BrewZilla - but I can't tell why that'd be the case.

Does anyone have any insight into why that chiller would be ineffective at cooling your standard 23 litre wort?

 

[S.E]

It would work ok. Lots of people have and still do use similar immersion chillers, often just DIY units made from a coil of copper pipe. These were more common before counter flow coils and plate chillers were easily available.

For not much more you could get a counter flow from the same supplier which would be far more efficient, is that what they were recommending?

Edit: If you don’t have pump plate chillers can be a bit of a pain to use but counter flow coils are fine, you just need the kettle elevated enough for gravity flow into the fermenter or into a cube first.

 

[Matthopperman]

It would work ok. Lots of people have and still do use similar emersion chillers, often just DIY units made from a coil of copper pipe. These were more common before counter flow coils and plate chillers were easily available.

For not much more you could get a counter flow from the same supplier which would be far more efficient, is that what they were recommending?

Edit: If you don’t have pump plate chillers can be a bit of a pain to use but counter flow coils are fine, you just need the kettle elevated enough for gravity flow into the fermenter or into a cube first.

Yeah, they were recommending counterflow. My reluctance is just due to a bit more of a convoluted setup in terms of pipes plus hoses, and that the wort moves through the pipe, therefore more cleaning than just hosing it down like an immersion chiller, but it is something I should consider if it's going to be more effective.

 

[Ballaratguy]

I’ve got one that looks the same $50 + postage

 

[S.E]

and that the wort moves through the pipe, therefore more cleaning than just hosing it down like an immersion chiller

My preference is a counter flow coil. They are no more difficult to clean than an immersion, I would say easier infact. Instead of hosing down you just connect the hose and run water though instead.

If you have a pump you can easily re-circulate boiling wort back to the kettle which cleans and sterilises inside the tube same as dunking an immersion into the boiling kettle does to the outside of the tube.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Immersion chillers like this one are highly effective at cooling from 100C down to about 40C but as you get close and closer to your water temperature they become less and less effective. So they are ok for getting within about 20C of your coolant water temp.

If you just want to drop the temp low enough to get into your fermentation chamber or fermenter and then use some other chilling to chill down to yeast pitching temp they work find.

With that said if you want to pump wort through the chiller fast and cool all the way down to 20C in one pass then you really want something like this instead:
https://www.kegland.com.au/wort-heat-exchanger-counterflow-chiller-duotight-bundle.html
This is cheap but still does a great job. You can get within about 5C of your coolant water temp fairly easily with this one above.

 

[Matthopperman]

Immersion chillers like this one are highly effective at cooling from 100C down to about 40C but as you get close and closer to your water temperature they become less and less effective. So they are ok for getting within about 20C of your coolant water temp.

If you just want to drop the temp low enough to get into your fermentation chamber or fermenter and then use some other chilling to chill down to yeast pitching temp they work find.

With that said if you want to pump wort through the chiller fast and cool all the way down to 20C in one pass then you really want something like this instead:
https://www.kegland.com.au/wort-heat-exchanger-counterflow-chiller-duotight-bundle.html
This is cheap but still does a great job. You can get within about 5C of your coolant water temp fairly easily with this one above.

Thanks for the advice - makes sense. I did have a question about the counterflow chiller there, because I'm a little lost when it comes to the connections. Connecting regular hose fittings to the water inputs makes enough sense to me, but connecting pipes for the wort leaves me a little lost. The video on your site recommends this attachment 1/2 Inch Type A Camlock - Male Cam x Female BSPP Thread - but what pipes fit onto that and how do they attach?

I'm sure that's no brainer for people familiar with kegging and all grain systems that use pumps etc, but it's all a bit confusing to me.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

In this setup with the duotight fittings all the inputs and outputs are 1/2 thread.

For water inlet/outlet B:
1. Most people are using garden hose so this fitting is probably best:
Garden Hose Male Brass Quick Connector Coupling
No teflon tape is required here as this has a face seal on the garden hose fitting.

For wort inlet/outlet A you have two options (both of these options require teflon tape as they are not face sealing fittings):
1. if you want to be a bit cheap you can use just this barb and push the silicone tube onto this:
Stainless Steel Barb 13mm x 1/2 BSP Female
2. If you want to spend a bit more and get camlocks these will allow you to disconnect the hoses from the heat exchanger a bit more easily.
1/2 Inch Type A Camlock - Male Cam x Female BSPP Thread
If you do the second option you will also want to get some of these to fit onto the ends of your silicone hose:
1/2 Inch Type C Camlock - Female Cam x 13mm Barb

For the hose you can use this silicone hose:
Heavy Duty Silicone Tube - 6m Roll (12.5mm ID x 18.5mm OD)
If you want higher quality braided hose then this is another option and this can handle much more pressure:
Braided Reinforced Silicone Hose 12mm ID x 20mm OD (10m Meter Length in Bag)

 

[mblwest]

Would like to add to this discussion with this question, I have a Guten 40, pretty much like a grainfather I think. Anyway it has a circulation pump that I could use with the counter flow cooler. My question is though, if you pump your wort through the chiller, given the suction side of the pump comes from the bottom of the brew vessel, don't you stir up all the sediment and end up putting that into your fermenter? With the immersion chiller it tends to settle out.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Would like to add to this discussion with this question, I have a Guten 40, pretty much like a grainfather I think. Anyway it has a circulation pump that I could use with the counter flow cooler. My question is though, if you pump your wort through the chiller, given the suction side of the pump comes from the bottom of the brew vessel, don't you stir up all the sediment and end up putting that into your fermenter? With the immersion chiller it tends to settle out.

Unlike the Guten and Grainfather all BrewZilla units are made with a false bottom screen that covers the whole base of the boiler. This screen has 2mm holes and is fairly effective at separating hop material and some of the hot and cold break.

I generally am recirculating throughout the mash process and also have the pump cycling on and off to recirculate during the boil too. With all this recirculation i do find I get most of the sediment form on the top of the screen.

A very small amount is below the screen but usually this amount is so small i really do not care if it ends up in the fermenter as it settles out with the yeast.

I know a lot of customers go to the effort to modify the BrewZilla with things like this whirlpool arm and stuff like that but I personally think this is a waste of money and time. I am sure some other customers will say the exact opposite too.

In short, I dont think it's an issue using the counter flow chiller and from my own experience I have not found issues like this and get quite clear wort when I brew.

 

[Matthopperman]

View attachment 123201

In this setup with the duotight fittings all the inputs and outputs are 1/2 thread.

For water inlet/outlet B:
1. Most people are using garden hose so this fitting is probably best:
Garden Hose Male Brass Quick Connector Coupling
No teflon tape is required here as this has a face seal on the garden hose fitting.

For wort inlet/outlet A you have two options (both of these options require teflon tape as they are not face sealing fittings):
1. if you want to be a bit cheap you can use just this barb and push the silicone tube onto this:
Stainless Steel Barb 13mm x 1/2 BSP Female
2. If you want to spend a bit more and get camlocks these will allow you to disconnect the hoses from the heat exchanger a bit more easily.
1/2 Inch Type A Camlock - Male Cam x Female BSPP Thread
If you do the second option you will also want to get some of these to fit onto the ends of your silicone hose:
1/2 Inch Type C Camlock - Female Cam x 13mm Barb

For the hose you can use this silicone hose:
Heavy Duty Silicone Tube - 6m Roll (12.5mm ID x 18.5mm OD)
If you want higher quality braided hose then this is another option and this can handle much more pressure:
Braided Reinforced Silicone Hose 12mm ID x 20mm OD (10m Meter Length in Bag)

Fantastic - thanks for your help

 

[Ballaratguy]

Unlike the Guten and Grainfather all BrewZilla units are made with a false bottom screen that covers the whole base of the boiler. This screen has 2mm holes and is fairly effective at separating hop material and some of the hot and cold break.

I generally am recirculating throughout the mash process and also have the pump cycling on and off to recirculate during the boil too. With all this recirculation i do find I get most of the sediment form on the top of the screen.

A very small amount is below the screen but usually this amount is so small i really do not care if it ends up in the fermenter as it settles out with the yeast.

I know a lot of customers go to the effort to modify the BrewZilla with things like this whirlpool arm and stuff like that but I personally think this is a waste of money and time. I am sure some other customers will say the exact opposite too.

In short, I dont think it's an issue using the counter flow chiller and from my own experience I have not found issues like this and get quite clear wort when I brew.

I’ve got the Guten with a false bottom and helix coil(which is fantastic) which I pump the wort out to the fermenter using a 25w mag pump. I intend to use the Guten pump to pump the wort through the counter flow chiller back into the Guten using the whirlpool arm to create the whirlpool
I will than pump the wort out to the fermenter via the helix coil as usual. Hopefully it will work as intended