Immersion chiller water pump

[Happyrock]

Im currently getting set up to do all grain BIAB again. In the past I used the no chill method and had good results but this time I want to chill. Im going to make an immersion chiller out of soft drawn copper tube. I think I need to combine this with a big bucket of ice water and a submersible pump as I live in Central Queensland and tap water alone wont cut it. Bunnings have a submersible pump for $79. Thought I could use that and run the waste water to a sprinkler or something in the backyard so its not just going down the drain until the temp gets down to a reasonable level and then just recycle the water back to the bucket until the wort is at pitching temp. Just wondering if anyone has a similar set up and how it works for them. I want to get the wort chilled to pitching temp as quickly as possible. I have no experience with chilling full batches and any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

 

[Meddo]

If you have an efficient coil you should only need ice water for the last 20-odd degrees, tap water at mains pressure should get you that far. I use a 12V little brown pump from eBay for the ice water and it gives plenty of flow for the job (for cooling, perhaps not driving a sprinkler though...).

 

[Judanero]

Ice water run through a pump is a good idea to get that last little temp drop, agitating the wort at the same time as the immersion chiller is being used will help to drop the temps quicker...

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/71974-ghetto-immersion-chiller/ worth a read through if you haven't already.

I almost exclusively no chill these days but I would collect the first bit of water from the chiller as it's quite hot, use that for cleaning purposes, then connect the soaker hose and water the lawn/ garden.

I now have two 200L drums that collect/use all the water as I am actively trying to minimise my water usage around brewing related things.

 

[Adr_0]

I could get 23L down to about 25°C using a recirculating pump through a plate chiller, single pass. The water side flowed back from a bucket of iced water to another empty bucket, and I'd use about 4-8kg of ice depending on weather, and produce about 23L of water after ice has melted and I'd add some for keep up water levelling for the pump.

The pump I used was from the pet store next to Harvey Norman in town. I can't remember the size, think it was 1500lphr and 3.5m of head, nowhere near $79 though.

 

[Maheel]

if your using 12mm (1/2") copper and dont flatten it when coiling a small pond pump will give you plenty of flow.
If you need more head height then get a bigger pump....

if your copper flattens you get back pressure and then you need a pump that creates some pressure to over come the back pressure .

i like a pond pump over 12v LBP as you can just plug it in easy and dump it in a bucket


same as
others said use mains supply to get the temp down then swap to your ice water otherwise you ice will melt fast

use some click garden fittings and hose on the pump to make it easy to swap om and out on your coil

 

[fw00r]

I use a submersible pump in an eski filled with ice and water, Currently through an immersion chiller but soon to be using immersion chiller (to 70degC) then plate chiller in series.
To pump this chilled water through this I use a Hopar pump, like this one (3000LPH Aquarium Fountain Pond Submersible Water Pump)
This is a 240v pump so use your own discretion with the safety side of this plus water.

I've attached one of these Holman 15mm Plain Tap Adaptor with Clamp to the outlet and run a normal garden hose to the rest.

I use a fair amount of ice for this setup in its current state (IC only), but I live in Darwin and do double (40L) batches. Hopefully the plate chiller will reduce that.

 

[pcqypcqy]

I use a submersible pump in an eski filled with ice and water, Currently through an immersion chiller but soon to be using immersion chiller (to 70degC) then plate chiller in series.
To pump this chilled water through this I use a Hopar pump, like this one (3000LPH Aquarium Fountain Pond Submersible Water Pump)
This is a 240v pump so use your own discretion with the safety side of this plus water.

I've attached one of these Holman 15mm Plain Tap Adaptor with Clamp to the outlet and run a normal garden hose to the rest.

I use a fair amount of ice for this setup in its current state (IC only), but I live in Darwin and do double (40L) batches. Hopefully the plate chiller will reduce that.

Are you dumping your hot water directly back into the eski when you start chilling? As others have said, if you take the first few buckets of the hottest water and use that for cleaning, you can then start dumping back into the eski when the water temp cools down some and you won't need to use as much ice.

For the OP - Your idea should work, but like someone else suggested I'd take the first whatever litres of the hottest water and reserve this for cleaning. It will be too hot for sprinkling on grass/plants/children. If you have a water tank or pool or anything like that, you can capture all this water for use later on.

I was just using tap water for a while but had the same problem. I've just plumbed in a pressure pump onto my water tank over the holidays that I will use with an immersion chiller, which returns back to the water tank, so I can run it at full speed without worrying about how much water I'm using as it's a closed system. I will also probably end up making a pre-chiller before the immersion chiller to get the water tank water temp down from mid 20's to mid 10's maybe, and see how that goes. The prechiller will probably just sit in a 20 litre bucket with water and a few ice bricks out of my freezer, or a bag of ice.

 

[fw00r]

Are you dumping your hot water directly back into the eski when you start chilling? As others have said, if you take the first few buckets of the hottest water and use that for cleaning, you can then start dumping back into the eski when the water temp cools down some and you won't need to use as much ice.

For the OP - Your idea should work, but like someone else suggested I'd take the first whatever litres of the hottest water and reserve this for cleaning. It will be too hot for sprinkling on grass/plants/children. If you have a water tank or pool or anything like that, you can capture all this water for use later on.

I was just using tap water for a while but had the same problem. I've just plumbed in a pressure pump onto my water tank over the holidays that I will use with an immersion chiller, which returns back to the water tank, so I can run it at full speed without worrying about how much water I'm using as it's a closed system. I will also probably end up making a pre-chiller before the immersion chiller to get the water tank water temp down from mid 20's to mid 10's maybe, and see how that goes. The prechiller will probably just sit in a 20 litre bucket with water and a few ice bricks out of my freezer, or a bag of ice.

First 30L or so gets run to buckets in the current setup, used for cleaning later on. Rest gets returned as its sitting at a pretty reasonable temp after 30L.
I've been using the IC to get to about 30degC, takes about 35mins for ~40L, and am happy to minimise the potential contamination time (Tropical Darwin) by maximising temp differential.

Next brew will be different (pump>Immersion Chiller until 70degC>Plate Chiller>Out), will be interesting to see how it goes!

 

[Happyrock]

Thanks for the replies everyone. That link was really helpful Judanero. Appreciate it. It actually never occurred to me to use a pre chiller for the water. I could just have a separate immersion chiller in an esky of ice water and put it in series with my wort immersion chiller to pre chill the mains water before it hits the wort chiller. That way I can just use mains pressure for the whole job. No need to the pump. I should have enough copper for the two coils. Ill pick up some clamps and bits from Bunnings and I'll be good to go. The setup will use a lot more water unfortunately but I guess that just means the lawn and garden get a good water once a fortnight or so.