TheWiggman
Haters' gonna hate
That thread will go on in history Stu. For the mathematically inclined, I did a post which describes what happens in circular pipes used for cooling. There's lots of good advice, but just as much misleading advice in there too.
One issue with your idea OP is that you are effectively warming the ice bath with tap water, just as you are cooling the wort with the water that comes out of the ice bath. You are adding energy into the system by the way it's designed, whereas you want to take it away.
The ice bath + pond pump idea makes more sense because energy is not being added to the system, it is equalising across the system. However this isn't a good idea until the wort is cool, otherwise it will equalise very damn quickly.
One issue with your idea OP is that you are effectively warming the ice bath with tap water, just as you are cooling the wort with the water that comes out of the ice bath. You are adding energy into the system by the way it's designed, whereas you want to take it away.
The ice bath + pond pump idea makes more sense because energy is not being added to the system, it is equalising across the system. However this isn't a good idea until the wort is cool, otherwise it will equalise very damn quickly.
- Don't bother with the ice bath until the wort has approached ambient temp, otherwise you're wasting energy warming up the ice when you start your cooling.
- THEN move to an ice bath and circulate between the two coils with the pond pump as suggested
- Move BOTH coils around as suggested above, or circulate liquid
- The cooling liquid needs to be colder than your target temp if you want it to drop. If the cooling liquid doesn't come out out very cool (i.e. 8-10°C for a lager) then you need more ice