My first counter flow wort chiller

[fakr]

Only one piece was missing from my brew setup....a decent wort chiller...so I gathered all the parts last night and started at it.

Parts list:

1 x 25' 3/8" copper spool
1 x 25' 5/8 heavy rubber heater hose
2 x 1/2" copper Tee
1 x 12" 1/2" copper pipe
1 x 1/2" copper end caps

for those who've made one, the parts list is probably the exact same.

Got all the parts and was back home at 8pm.  by almost 9:30pm I was done.  I couldn't believe how easy it actually was.  Very excited to try it.

One little piece of information I'm missing though...how the hell do you use it?!   What water source are you using?what hookup are you using form your kettle to the small copper tube that carries the wort?  hoses?  clamps?  quick disconnects?  

In my setup, my kettle and burner are in my detached garage with no water source.  I did buy a impeller pump just like a march pump and thought maybe I could fill a big rubber maid garbage can with cold water and pump the water through the hose and into another garbage can of equal size....I really don't know.  Right now, while the weather is good, I can hookup a garden hose, but I can't really run that in the winter months....Also, carrying 23+ liters of boiling wort into my house and up the stairs into the kitchen isn't really an option either.

Any help appreciated.

oh, and here are a couple of pics of the chiller.  By the way, thanks to JohnQ for showing me his and planting the seed that I could build one myself.

[fakr]

parts

[fakr]

finished product.

[fakr]

another

[fakr]

one small thing I forgot to mention...I mixed up a very soapy water solution and poured it in the rubber hose before inserting the copper tube, and I also used a keg to coil the finished product up into a nice neat package.
AND I had a buddy with me to help slide the copper through the hose.

[Richard]

How much that cost you in parts? Would like to grab the same and do a run myself

Also a total n00b question: what solder / iron do you use for that? I assume lead-free and any old iron will do?

[fakr]

I'll grab the receipt and let you know, but to be honest, I didn't spend long shopping around for deals on each of the parts.  I went to kent's.  the copper was $1.59 a foot, so about $40.  I got the heavy rubber heater hose that was $1.59 a foot as well...but could have gone with the $0.69 standard hose...but I wanted black and not see through green.  The Tees were somewhere around $1.50 each, and the 2 feet of copper tubing was $6, when I only needed 1 foot.  The end caps were about $0.50 each...all together with tax was about $110 taxes in.  Like I said, I could have easily reduced that down to about $80 easy, and if I had have shopped for the copper spool, could have maybe made it for $65-$70.  

I used a propane torch...which is the only way I know how to solder copper.  I used lead free silver solder, but because beer doesn't touch a solder joint, you could use any type of solder.

If you don't have silver solder, flux, or a torch, I don't mind loaning you mine for a couple of weeks, not a problem.  

Honestly, I think now that I did the job once, this could be done in under an hour for sure.

[Richard]

I'm considering reverse-engineering my immersion chiller to get at the copper in that, rather than buying new stuff. Will have to measure how long it is...

... I don't have any of those things, no; could you bring them to the meet perhaps and give me a real quick demo? That would be most awesome.

[fakr]

Sure, I can definitely do that.  I can even buy the 2 Tees and two end caps you'll need, give you the 1 foot copper pipe I have left over, and we can solder up the hardware ahead of time.  all you'd have to do is buy some hose, slide your immersion chiller copper in, coil it up and you'll only have 2 solder joints to solder yourself.  like I said you can borrow my gear to do that and I'll pick it up next meeting.

I think the two Tees, and two end caps will cost about $5-$6 bucks.

[Richard]

Bloody excellent mate... I'll go grab some hose from Kents later this evening

[fakr]

I got one more thing to add to my chiller...I picked up a 12V impeller pump from princess auto for $69.  it's the same as a march pump, but not too sure it can handle high temperatures so going to stick it on the end of the chiller and use it to pump cold water from a large bucket.  
I guess why spend $125+ on a pump if its not going to be used for hot stuff.  This also resolves my issue of no running water in the garage.  
I made a 15V variable power supply back in my electronic engineering days so I'm going to use that to regulate the flow of water though the chiller.  Worst case, the pump doesn't like variable DC, I'll find the sweet spot for the cold water temp and adjust with ice.

[fakr]

another pic.

[fakr]

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[fakr]

its rated for 240 gallons per hour.

[JohnQ]

Excellent work fakr, very impressive package. Bring it along on Saturday, would love to see it.

JQ