26 replies to this topic

[JReigle]

But I would also check your local big box repair stores. A few days after mine arrived I was at Lowes picking up some other items and noticed their 50' 1/2" tubing was $39 plus tax. Which after tax was a couple bucks more than CopperTubingSales, but without the wait.

+1, I was able to find 50' 5/8" tubing at home depot for about the same price as 50' of 1/2" not including shipping from this website and their ebay store.

[Mudd]

Thinner wall = closer contact between wort and chilling medium = gooder.Thinner wall will not handle "high" pressure as well. But we are talking about next to nothing in terms for pressure.Get the least expensive and apply the money saved on other brewery upgrades, or buy zymot a nice birthday present, it is never too early. Your choice.You do not say what type of chiller you are making. But this looks like the first chiller post on the new blue board. Let me open a can of worms.IMHO: CFC, no reason to make it longer than 20-22 feet. The extra length will not get you more cooling power.If you are making an IM, larger is not automatically better. As you increase the tube diameter, you put chilling water father away from the heating surface, i.e. the walls of the tube. You are better off using a smaller tube and otherwise increasing the flow rate through the tube. Note increasing the flow rate through a smaller tuber could still be a lower "gallons per minute" rate than with a larger tube.On my last point, I welcome qualified opinions to support or refute what I said. I am doing this from memory and the concept is up for discussion. Any thermal engineers that can provide input on the dynamics of heat transfer as it pertains to cooling wort out there?zymot

IIRC: The length can vary depending on the amont of wort being chilled.I remember the post you mention, took me forever to go thru the math, but I think that the 1/2" tubing had the best heat transfer efficiency for normal use.Also flow rate will affect the cooling. If the water moves too fast to transfere heat, then the cooling time is longer.The tests done with the CFCs finally convinced me to try the lower flow.

[wengared]

Aaron's pricing varies almost weekly , he posts the current market price and boasts and I easily believe - he is the cheapest place in the USA . He is local to me and I have used him many times and our local club guys all call on him too. He also makes a number of IM chillers for some of the commercial HB sites. The one you see tied with copper wire , could have come from his workshop.I really would be surprised if the coil you looked at at Lowes was as cheap as you say, obviously i was not there at the time, but my experience has been they are 45% more expensive , maybe it was only 25 ft, but I'm not going to call you on it I have made 5 chillers in last 2 years - 2 for me and 3 for other people.

No i just bought a roll of 1/2" 50foot ref tubing at lowes yesterday for $38.39 + tax.

[wengared]

I know there's two schools of thought on wether to run the wort thru the tube in ice bath or run cold water thru the tube, sanitation is my number one concern,(cleaning inside the tube), is there any advantage to" in the tube"? cooling time?any comments? I haven't made any connections to my tubing yet so am wide open.

[HarvInSTL]

I really would be surprised if the coil you looked at at Lowes was as cheap as you say, obviously i was not there at the time, but my experience has been they are 45% more expensive , maybe it was only 25 ft, but I'm not going to call you on it I have made 5 chillers in last 2 years - 2 for me and 3 for other people.

6-12 months ago you would have been correct. But we aren't in the past, the fact is that copper prices have plummented recently. So yes "Aaron" may be cheaper if you don't have to pay shipping, but for the many of us that are not local to him the big box stores are about the same price.Feel free to call me on it, I'm itching for a reason to drive the 3/4 of a mile to lowes and take a picture.

[NWPines]

Just to add a data point, at the Lowe's by my house a 50' roll of 1/2" OD copper refrigeration tubing is going for $45.30 today. Coppertubingsales.com is $33.98 today.

[3rd party JKor]

Thinner wall = closer contact between wort and chilling medium = gooder.Thinner wall will not handle "high" pressure as well. But we are talking about next to nothing in terms for pressure.Get the least expensive and apply the money saved on other brewery upgrades, or buy zymot a nice birthday present, it is never too early. Your choice.You do not say what type of chiller you are making. But this looks like the first chiller post on the new blue board. Let me open a can of worms.IMHO: CFC, no reason to make it longer than 20-22 feet. The extra length will not get you more cooling power.If you are making an IM, larger is not automatically better. As you increase the tube diameter, you put chilling water father away from the heating surface, i.e. the walls of the tube. You are better off using a smaller tube and otherwise increasing the flow rate through the tube. Note increasing the flow rate through a smaller tuber could still be a lower "gallons per minute" rate than with a larger tube.On my last point, I welcome qualified opinions to support or refute what I said. I am doing this from memory and the concept is up for discussion. Any thermal engineers that can provide input on the dynamics of heat transfer as it pertains to cooling wort out there?zymot

Maybe if I have some time this weekend I'll do a quick theoretical optimization on the tubing size/chiller length.