CFC V2, All Copper Edition

[JohnQ]

Every new System needs a new chiller, AKA...when pressure testing the check valve installed on the old system, and you have water trickling out of the wort line you know you have some kind of hairline fracture between the chambers...bad news, time to start again!

So here it it...

[JohnQ]

3/8 copper inside 5/8 copper
16' long (allows for 3 from a pair of 50 foot rolls)

Did a test run with new system.
200 Degree water entering system
Timed 5 gallons of water, chilled from 200 F to 74 F in 4 min 31 seconds...then I realized the cooling water wasn't at full flow, so likely could improve on that significantly...just wasn't going to heat up the kettle again to find out.

Throttling the hot side flow out of the march pump provided 62 F output with a small decrease in flow rate.

Other mods... will be permanently installed to water supply and to drain, with a check valve to ensure no drain backup into the chiller, as well as a diverter so the waste cooling water can be sent back to the HLT for a subsequent batch.

JQ

[Chris Craig]

Awesome.

[brew]

as well as a diverter so the waste cooling water can be sent back to the HLT for a subsequent batch.

I like it - so you can do TWO 20G batches per day - awesome! I like the way you think man...  

[chrismccull]

Nice John.

[JohnQ]

Small problem with CFC V2, now on V2.1...

After doing a couple of test batches I quickly realized that although the shorter length will work fine for gravity feed and cool 5 gallons in 15 minutes, when you hook up a march pump to that length of CFC and start pumping 15 gallons through, surprise! Not enough cooling capacity, unless you throttle the March Pump output to the same speed as a gravity feed...what the hell's the point of that! Sooo.....

Today, I doubled the length of the CFC to 32 feet and ran a test...

Incoming hot water from Brew Kettle, 200 F (93 C),
Incoming cold water for cooling ~50 F (10 C)
Set March pump to unthrottled full flow...
Outgoing Cooled Water from Brew Kettle, 55 F (12 C)
Outgoing heated cooling water 100-130 F (38-54 C) depending on throttling of cooling water.

Time to process 14 gallons of Hot water down to below pitch temp, 15 min, 45 sec.

That'll do...

JQ