dissapointed, and shocked, by my immersion chiller

[nico soze]

So I bought an I.c. ob Craigslist last week, and I was amazed at how innefective it was. Yeah. 212 to 120 was like 10-20 min. But 100-70 was like 2 hours. Wtf

[bwarbiany]

Simple: groundwater in SoCal this time of year is NOT cold. I'm surprised you got it to 70 at all.

Two things will help with it.

1) Swirl the chiller around in the water on a regular basis -- the chiller only chills the water close to it, and it's quite easy to not have efficient chilling because it's barely coming in contact with hotter wort.

2) Recirculate ice water through the chiller after it gets down to that 120 deg range. You don't need a $150 March pump to do this, a simple submersible will work. However, for a chilling application I'd try to buy the highest gpm output pump you can get -- the faster you move the cold water through the chiller the better.

Those two improvements will dramatically reduce the time to pitching temps.

And if you want something quicker, you can always buy this: http://www.brewcommune.com/forum/viewto ... =13&t=2082

[jward]

While I can't rule out that the chiller you picked up sucks, I can say chiller efficiency has a lot to do with the difference in temperature between your wort and the water you use to chill. What is the temperature of the water you are chilling with? My so called cold tap water was 80F+ this morning. In the Summer when my tap water is warm like that my chiller sucks. I use the tap water to knock the temp. down preferably below 100F and then recirculate iced water down to pitching temps. Some 'pre-chill' where they use a second IC in a bucket of iced water to cool the tap water or add fresh tap water to the ice and pump that instead or recirculating. I recirculate because I find the water out of the chiller is still cooler then the tap water.

[nico soze]

I've been instructed on the opposite. You want to move water through the ic very slowly, because faster moving water will flow through without fully transferring heat.

[nico soze]

I didn't think of that. Of course the temp of the tap water matters. Duh. Didn't even cross my mind that it would be above 70. Might explanations why it wasn't at temp until long after sundown

[jward]

I've been instructed on the opposite. You want to move water through the ic very slowly, because faster moving water will flow through without fully transferring heat.

You should get better water use efficiency with slow moving water but not time efficiency. To save on water I'll keep the first hottest water for cleaning and the rest waters plants.

[bwarbiany]

I've been instructed on the opposite. You want to move water through the ic very slowly, because faster moving water will flow through without fully transferring heat.

You should get better water use efficiency with slow moving water but not time efficiency. To save on water I'll keep the first hottest water for cleaning and the rest waters plants.

Yep. If it's your hose water, you probably have the capability to push water WAY faster than necessary. But for a pump/recirc setup, you'll want to set the flow rate as fast as the pump will support.

[nico soze]

What if I just filled my bottling bucket w ice water and hooked it up to the ic? (half joking) you know, just gravity fed? Maybe hook the ic up to my auto siphon. I feel like a cheapskate. But my paycheck can't keep up w my hobby. The list of gadgets I need keeps growing.

[Brewfoo]

For us small time brewers, I stick to the $2.00 per 20 lb bag of ice at Costco. Keep it small and simple. An ice bath will do for us, Nick. You've seen it.

[dhempy]

Save your 1/2 gallon cartons from OJ, Milk, whatever and fill / freeze a couple of them before brewday. When I was using my IC, I would first send hose water through (and water plants ad Jward suggests), once at 100, I would switch over to my $40 Harbor Freight pump in a 6 gallon bottling bucket. 3 crushed cartons and a couple of gallons of water was usually enough to take 10 gallons to ale pitching temps ... another crushed carton or two would get me to lager pitching temps via recirc-ing through the bucket. I also added a wort recirc tube and would pump wort and have it whirlpool over / through the coils ...seems like chilling was never longer than 20 -30 minutes and I usually got a pretty good cold break.

Dan

[nico soze]

While I do occasionally visit Costco, I sneak in and use a friends club card. I can't put my finger on it, but something really bothers me about paying to pay. Same reason I'd never own a condo. You have to pay annually for the privelege to shop there? And the selection is TERRIBLE. One brand of everything, and all savings is lost when you consider the waste from unused portions. I mean sure, the honey is only 3.60 for a lb and a half. But you have to buy 3 of em. I want one. More isn't always better. I'm just.upset because I had this false idea in my head that buying an ic would, by itself, cut my brewday un half.

[jward]

I'm just.upset because I had this false idea in my head that buying an ic would, by itself, cut my brewday un half.

Nope, owning one isn't enough. If you want it to chill faster run your cold water faster. Like you said it's not as efficient. Give it a try. It's got to save you lots of time.

[BrewMasterBrad]

Somehow I think this thread may be related to the "alcoholic" philosophy thread. Don't always go with your great drunk ideas - they don't always work out so great once you sober up.

Chilling quickly is not just a way to make your brew day shorter, it also makes for better finished beer by getting a better cold break and stopping the production of DMS.

[lexuschris]

+1

My IC using gardenhose water takes it down to about 120-F in the first 10 mins, and then about 100-F in the next 10... it is diminishing returns from there... but after 25-mins I'm usually at 90-F. I then transfer to the fermenter, and place it in an ice bath whiile I prep my fermentation chiller & yeast starter for the pitch. I'm usually at room temp by the time I pitch.

Then kicking on the Ferm Chiller, I get down to my fermentation set-point shortly thereafter.

Sure beats the crap out placing the boil kettle into the sink with cool tap water only... that used to take like an hour to get down to temp...

--LexusChris

[DrDually]

When I was using an IC, tap water would take down to 100-105 with run off going into pool. Then switched to a fountain pump (approx $19 at Loews) attached with some washing machine supply lines. Temp would reach 70 in about 20 min using large chunks of ice made in butter containers.
Setup did not look fancy, but it did work and making ice was free

Since building new system, a plate chiller now takes boiling wort and chills to 75-80 depending on water temp.

Yes I know, all this costs money...just my .02 worth