Beer Forum

I am considering building my own immersion chiller and I have a question that I was hoping someone might be able to answer in regards to immersion chiller design.

Why do all the immersion chillers available online have the same verticle side profile and not a staggered profile? I made a crude sketch and posted it online hoping to explain myself better, it can be found here: http://www.blackmarketbeer.com/chillers.jpg

I am just guessing, being the furthest thing from an expert on fluid dynamics, but wouldn't the staggered design shown on the left be more efficient design? I have seen folks slosh their chiller around in the kettle while its cooling to create some convection and to dispurse the cooling wort. With a staggered design I wonder if it would make better use of the little realestate I would have in my kettle. The ss kettle I purchased is only 10" in diameter, which appears to be the same size diameter as most of the immersion chillers for sale and I would prefer to have some room between the kettle wall and the chiller.

Please let me know what you think. I'm worrying already, and can't even relax and have a home brew yet...

The vertical profile is simply for ease of construction. Generally you make one of these chillers by coiling it around a form such as a corny keg or something. Trying to do the staggered coils involves a lot more hand work, especially if you are trying to make it look nice. Since you are doing it for your own use rather than for sale, you can go for it but I don't think you would see much difference in cooling. The one design thing that would help the most would be to spread the coils at the bottom so that the top of the chiller is just below the top of the wort and so that there is more of the coils in the top half of the liquid than the bottom half. You will get more efficient cooling that way.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

+1 to boog.

I have tried many chiller styles, by far the best thing I have tried is JZ's whirlpool method. If you don't have a pump, and can't get one. Then I suggest getting as much copper as you can get in the brewpot. 1/2" works great, but may prove to be difficult for you to bend to fit your 10" diameter pot. When forming it you may have luck feeding it into a cylinder. I use a five gallon bucket to form mine. I get better looking coils like this because the copper is supported on two sides while forming instead of one. I also make rigid copper risers instead of connecting to the maluable copper.

-Christian

Hammer wrote:I have tried many chiller styles, by far the best thing I have tried is JZ's whirlpool method.

+1... Without wort movement - it doesn't matter what configuration the coils are in. Add the pump and the return, a la JZ - and you can chill 10 gallons in 15 minutes, like me. Anyone want to buy a CFC, slightly used?

http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/Mylo ... -O-Chiller


Mylo