HERMS COIL OPINIONS

[SoCal Surfer]

I have a 25' x 3/8" copper coil for my herms coil I do not like the flow rate and am stepping up to 1/2 x 25' or 50'. Is 50' better because it's longer or am I just taking up space because all of the heat that has transferred be done in 25'. I recirc constantly and use a bucket heater to keep my HLT at a constant temp. I'm sure 50' will work but will 25' work just as well? I am doing 5 gallon batches. What works for you?

[Charlie]

I'm running 25 feet of 1/4 inch ID soft copper in a dedicated 4 gallon stock pot heated by a hot water heater element. With my March pump running unrestricted I get about 1 GPM through the coil, which I heard was about the right flow rate.

To hold the mash at 152F I set the stock pot at 154 and run the pump 10 minutes on, 10 minutes off. On cold days I might kick the stock pot up to 156 degrees. My mash tun wears a quilted jacket which insulates it some.

The 1/4 ID tubing works pretty well, so I think your 3/8 is fine unless you need a higher flow rate.

Charlie

[Charlie]

I see that I didn't address your question. There's a couple of ways to look at it:

* The smaller the tubing the higher the surface area to volume ratio.
* Faster flow (lower dwell time) means less opportunity for heating.

Long story short, I don't really know. I get adequate heat input using my 25 ft of 1/4 ID and a couple of degrees differential, so I think 50 feet is overkill.

Charlie

[Charlie]

The issue with my current HERMS is that I can't figure out a decent way to automate it. I'm thinking about going with the following system to save space and maybe get it under automatic control.



Sorry about satch bombing your thread.

Charlie

[SoCal Surfer]

maybe I am trying to solve a problem I don't have. I am pretty sure I have 1 gpm. I'll let it be for a while. But I'm not one for diagrams but this is what I did.
My pump runs constantly. As a result, my beer has been much clearer and my conversion has been great. I did an iodine test and was floored as to how well it converted in comparison to what I have done before.
The heater in my HLT is controlled by an ultrastat IIA with the temp sensor in the mash tun.

My mash temp is pretty rock solid. Maybe I don't need more flow at all.