Super-Chiller

[Vino]

I made a new immersion chiller this weekend from a spare 50 foot roll of 1/2" copper tubing and then attached it to the outlet of the wifes Polaris pool sweeper (1 hp) to circulate cold pool water through it.

Boiled a batch of Sunsplash Golden Ale (clone), shut off the burner, turned on the pump and WOW! 5 minutes and 53 seconds later I had a 73F wort.

No wasted water...wife initially frowned at the idea, but was ok after I put things back as they were.

 

[osluder]

5 minutes and 53 seconds later I had a 73F wort.

Cool! That's Therminator territory. ;D What was the boil size? I have the standard 3/8" diameter chiller albeit 50 feet, but even with a pre-chiller in ice water the best I manage is just under 10 minutes to 80°F for a 5 gallon full-wort boil.

Northern Brewer sells a 1/2" chiller for large batches, but it runs $128. What were your material costs?

-- Olen

 

[Vino]

5.5 gallons at the end of the boil, the difference was the use of the 1HP booster pump from the sweeper...I used a full 50 foot roll of 1/2" diameter copper tubing that I shaped by wrapping around a corny, then attached one end to the hose on the sweeper output...water in the pool was around 45-46F...I turned on the pump, hit the stopwatch on my iTouch and then just gently stirred the wort...I check the temp every 30 seconds of so until I read 73F...hit stop on the timer and it read 5 min 53 sec.

I'm gonna hate it when the pool heats up in the summer...but for now I'm luvin' it.

I'll post a picture or two this weekend.

50 foot rolls around here run $86.00...I have a couple of rolls that were given to me last year...so the price was right.

 

[osluder]

50 foot rolls around here run $86.00...

Hmm, looks like a trip to the hardware store is in order. -- Olen

 

[Vino]

Well I'm finally getting around to uploading a picture...you can see it hooked up to the pool sweeper outlet, other than that it's pretty typical for a homemade chiller.

http://tinyurl.com/the-chiller