Stainless Steel Tube

[Hoops]

After the Brisbane get-together there is a few guys looking at getting a coil of 10mm x 1.6mm thick Stainless Steel tube (for CFWC's)
It is going to cost $5 per metre plus $50 to roll it therefore the more tube done in one hit the cheaper it will work out.
Anyone else interested?

Hoops

 

[Justin]

What's do you think your heat exchange capabilities are going to be like for a stainless CFWC?

My understanding is that it is inferior to copper by a long, long way. I reconfirmed this just the other night when I was doing some copper and stainless soldering/brazing. The copper tubing was stinking hot quite a distance from the work site while I could grab the stainless as little as 30cm away pretty much instantly. I'm tipping for the same cooling effeciencies your going to be needing a longer CFWC, plus with the added problems of working the stuff and TIGing the joins. For the same price and less hastle I would think you could land one of those flash more beer chillers like Batz has. Don't mean to dampen your enthusiasm but that's just my thoughts. Sorry.

Cheers, Justin

 

[PostModern]

Stainless would be fine for the outer coil but you'd want copper between the wort and the cold water.

 

[Darren]

Sanitising and cleaning would be a bonus. Simply run caustic through it. Can't do that with copper

 

[Justin]

That's a good point PM, but you wouldn't really be gaining anything by using stainless on the outside. They are talking about 10mm so that's internal tubing for the CFWC.

Darren, yep another good point, however if you build an all copper CFC you can just throw the whole thing in the oven to sterilize.

Justin "buying shares in copper mine " D

 

[Hoops]

Justin

One of the main reasons I was looking at SS was for cleaning and sanitising so that I could use phos acid/caustic solution and clean everything in one hit. I have a TIG welder handy here in Toowoomba so that part is not too much of a concern. (It looks like it would cost around $6/m). Was thinking of about 10m for the CFWC. How long are the copper ones?

Hoops

 

[Justin]

I'm not exactly sure how long they are as it's pretty deceiving how much tubing goes into a coil. I don't have a CFC nor have I really researched them that much so I'm not really in the position to comment. I was just thinking that you might end up spending the $$ to get a chiller that doesn't cool enough (I'd hate to do this, that's why we ask questions here eh ) or ends up that you have to drain it really slow, but I reckon 10m would cover you (no experience with that last comment). So I'm just hoping that the transfer of heat is good enough for your given length because once it's through the chiller you can't cool it anymore really unless you throttle back the flow even more.

Where you planning a copper outer pipe?

I've been tossing up the idea of a CFC, no real reason, just need something new to build, but my brewery doesn't really allow it because of the height of the kettle. I do plan to drop to a single tier or 2 tier and incorporate a pump in the future so I'll revisit the CFC idea then.

Good luck with it. And $6 sounds like a pretty good price

Cheers, Justin

 

[sosman]

How long are the copper ones?

Checkout brewery.org in the chiller section. Someone has worked out the theoretical minimum assuming you achieve turbulent flow.

Having said that, a surprising number seem to be 6m long, it is no coincidence that a role of copper is commonly 18m long.

 

[Hoops]

Checkout brewery.org in the chiller section. Someone has worked out the theoretical minimum assuming you achieve turbulent flow.

Have you got a link? Can't find the "chiller" section you talk of.

Hoops

 

[Jethro]

In the wine industry we use stainless heat exchangers quite effectively and I guess from experience I would choose stainless as it is easy to sanitise and will not react with acid or caustic. However maybe copper has greater heat conductivity but copper disolves in wine and causes a haze ( can this happen in beer ) Cheers Jethro

 

[Hoops]

Thanks Jethro, that gives me a bit of reassurance.

Justin, I did a bit of surfing and found some equations comparing Copper to SS with didn't fill me with confidence. I might try a small setup and compare the two to test the different performance.

Hoops

 

[Hoops]

Checkout brewery.org in the chiller section. Someone has worked out the theoretical minimum assuming you achieve turbulent flow.

Sosman I found the info you were talking about here and it eludes to the fact that with turbulent flow, heat exchange is very similar between copper and Stainless Steel, but with normal heat transfer copper is 7 times better!

"The actual bit of metal (if its under 3mm) contributes much less than 10% to the "overall coeficient of heat transfer". "

We are now getting 12mm tubing at $5.50/m + $50 for coiling and there are 3 of us getting 10m which will cost $72ea ($7.20/m)

No-one else interested? 1 more person would cost $6.75/m 2 more $6.50/m etc.

Hoops