Immersion chiller question

[Chris_J]

So far I've bought two immersion chillers from morebeer. The first was the super efficient chiller for 5 gal batches. It worked alright for the past 2 or 3 years I've been using it but for some reason the way the hose fittings were, the "cold water in" would send water to the bottom of the chiller and "hot water out" would be coming out the top of the chiller. Am I explaining this well? Anyway it seems to me that I should have cold water entering the top of the chiller and working its way down. I never really got around to fixing it because it served its purpose but now I'm doing 10 gallon batches. It sucks at this scale. So I got the superchiller immersion chiller from morebeer and the hose fittings are oriented the same way. I'm going to take out my wrenches and swap the fittings this time around but what gives? Why would they do that?

[siwelwerd]

Why would they do that?

For the same reason a counterflow chiller works better than a concurrentflow chiller. Cooler wort should sink, so that's where you want the coldest water (remember Newton's law, the rate of change in temperature is proportional to the difference in temps).

[BeerPal]

I'm going to take out my wrenches and swap the fittings this time around but what gives? Why would they do that?

Ummm... no offense, but my guess is that MoreBeer knows a little bit about chiller design and that they build it the way they do because it works better that way.

[Frankenhop]

Why would they do that?

For the same reason a counterflow chiller works better than a concurrentflow chiller. Cooler wort should sink, so that's where you want the coldest water (remember Newton's law, the rate of change in temperature is proportional to the difference in temps).

+1

Exactly; the reason might seem counterintuitive at first but the physics is sound, don't mess with your chiller.

[Chris_J]

edited

The counter flow chiller comment clarified it for me. No offense taken and no equipment modified. Thanks guys

[mattman688]

you have 2 immersion chillers? connect your hose to the first chiller in a bucket of ice, then connect that chiller to the chiller in your kettle.... you will achieve faster results...(sorry not related to your actual post)

[Mylo]

Nah, Chris_J... I think that you have it right. It should be the other way. The coldest water should be in contact with the hottest wort. The coolant should enter from the top and exit from the bottom. You get the most cooling where there is the largest differential. I believe Jamil and or Doc have said it on separate occassions. In reality, it probably doesn't really matter that much at the typical flow rates that you are using, but it's quick enough to change it - if it bothers you. Mine is plumbed correctly on wortomatic.com.


Mylo

[siwelwerd]

Nah, Chris_J... I think that you have it right. It should be the other way. The coldest water should be in contact with the hottest wort. The coolant should enter from the top and exit from the bottom. You get the most cooling where there is the largest differential. I believe Jamil and or Doc have said it on separate occassions. In reality, it probably doesn't really matter that much at the typical flow rates that you are using, but it's quick enough to change it - if it bothers you. Mine is plumbed correctly on wortomatic.com.

Mathematically, the percentage difference is what matters (the differential equation gives an exponential curve for temperature change over time). Assuming for some scale your equillibrium temp is 0, it takes the same amount of time to cool from 200 to 100, as from 100 to 50. Changing equillibrium to 10 would increase the former by 8% and the latter by 17%.

I'm pretty sure I agree with you that at least on a homebrew scale, it doesn't really matter though