Tubing For Herms

[technocat]

Hi Fella's

I have been trawling the net for 10mm - 12mm S/S tubing to make up a coil for a HERMS to fit to my Brew Tree but haven't had much success. Does anyone know where I can source this item from and is it malleable enough to form a coil or can it be bought already formed. Has anyone had any experience with S/S coils. I have various short lengths of S/S tubing different diameters but it is damn hard and could not be bent. I intended to use an old corny keg as a container for water and set a coil up with a heating element through the centre.
I am in half a mind to revert to all copper as it is more user friendly but would prefer to stay with stainless as is the rest of the rig.

Cheers

Brian

 

[Justin]

Hey mate. How's life down the channel? Miss getting down there to grab some scallops, rock climb at Conningham and fish a Margate and a few other spots. Nice area.

The standard advice I'm sure you will get is to just go for copper. It's cheaper, easier to coil and has better thermal (heat transfer) properties than stainless so you can essentially get away with slightly shorter length. Personally I'd go for copper as you can easily coil it yourself to suit your vessel, the stainless you would probably have to get fabricated into you coil by someone with the gear to do it (I could be wrong though).

I can't advise on where to get the stainless though sorry. Good luck.

Justin

 

[Ash in Perth]

Gday

I found mine on ebay. the guy was selling it as a chiller for kegged beer. the type you put in an ice eski and run the beer through to the tap. cost my very little for what it was and works great as a mash heater now.

Ash

 

[mash head]

Do you have a spitwater agency down there? The bloke from spitwater adelaide came to us and installed our boiler for the honey plant and ever bit of tubing in there is stainless with some bends in it. Dont know how you would get on with making a coil though. So imo they would be a good start.
Cheers Greg

 

[masculator002]

I used to do a lot of stainless work. look on the net for a company called fagersta. the tubing is not cheap and you will not find stainless tubing without a seam that is affordable. most readily available is 304 grade, which is declared food grade however most breweries etc. would go for 316. You will not find that it is malleable enough to make into a coil with limited tooling and would have to be coiled by someone with a tube roller that would be able to do it. as already stated copper would be be cheaper and easier to work with, however buy the stuff in coil form not straight lengths as the coiled stock is far more malleable. Also stainless would haved to be argon purge welded if joins were necessary where as you can simply silver braze copper pipe. Also the seam in stainless pipe would mean that you would have to use some pretty harsh chemicals to keep it sanitary. also copper in rolls comes in 18 metre lengths (I think) and you can easily cart it in your car where as stainless would only come in a maximum of 6 metres thus you would probably have to get several lengths welded together and transport becomes an issue.

Hope this helps in your decision making Travis

 

[technocat]

Hey mate. How's life down the channel? Miss getting down there to grab some scallops, rock climb at Conningham and fish a Margate and a few other spots. Nice area.
I can't advise on where to get the stainless though sorry. Good luck.

Justin

Life is pretty well much the same down here with winter approaching things are slowing down scallops out of season ATM but the fish are bigger.

Greg
I note Spitwater were taken over by Onesteel who are in Hobart. They could be worth a try.

Masculater002
Thanks for the info, it will help in coming up with the right stuff.

Ash
I have been looking at Ebay but haven't turned up anything. I guess you have got to be lucky at the right time


I have had a PM from a member who has been looking for the very same thing and has been able to source some coils this just might be what I am looking for. Anyway thanks for your help fella's.

Brian

 

[reg]

In the retail shop section of this site there is a topic on stainless steel equipment, have a look on the last page the guy makes coils out of stainless.
Get in touch with him about prices etc, he also does cnical fermentors.

You could also give DickoACT a pm he has coils for sale from time to time.

Hope this helps

Reg

 

[technocat]

Yeah Reg I have been in touch with DikoACT and he could probably come up with something in the near future. Another problem solved hopefully.

Cheers