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Water temp. Requirements for chillers
I am looking in to purchasing a wort chiller and have some concerns about the AZ Summer tab water temps. I just have a hard time believing that the insanely hot AZ tap water can cool down anything. Does anyone know that the water temp. requirements are for counter flow and plate chillers to be effective? Does anyone have any recommendations as to what type of chiller would work well for me?
Wort chillers are only going to chill your wort to the temp of the water being pumped through them. The amount of time it will take varies on the water temp and efficiency of your chiller.
If you're worried about your ground water being too warm then you can use a pre-chiller. I'm planning on getting a new chiller and using my old immersion chiller as a pre-chiller . I plan on hooking it up to the hose and sticking it in a bucket of ice so by the time the water hits my wort chiller it'll be nice and cold.
hey, I had the same worry and heres what i did:
Got a 6 Gallon bucket and bought 20 foot of 1/2 inch soft copper plus some odds and ends to make connections and made a coil to fit the inside of the whole bucket. hose connection from city water at the top of the bucket and outlet to the chiller on the bottom of the bucket.
now to chill the water and this is necessary as regular ice wont work cause it melts to quickly is fill 2-3 milk gallon jugs with water and freeze them. on brewing day a few minutes before chilling get yourself a razor knife and slice both sides of the milk jugs and smack it with a hammer to get the plastic off the ice. after that smack the ice to make 3 or 4 large chunks of ice. fill the 6 gallon bucket with water and get as many large chunks of ice in that bucket as u can and put the lid on.
on brewing day with my immersion chiller it chills the water down to 80 deg in 10-12 minutes.. will cost you some money (roughly 70 us dollers to make my immersion chiller and the ice bucket) for the copper and extra parts such as adaptors and such but was well worth it. for connecting to the immersion chiller which from the bucket to the immersion chiller i used plastic tubing and only roughly 6 foot of tubing to avoid the water warming up before it gets to the chiller.
next best thing i would guess would be a counterflow or plate chiller which would prob work fantastic with the ice bath. would probaboly instantly chill to 80deg or below ( havent tried it yet but am looking forward to trying in the future)
hope this helps you out and gives you another option.
FirePitBrew wrote:
I'm planning on getting a new chiller and using my old immersion chiller as a pre-chiller . I plan on hooking it up to the hose and sticking it in a bucket of ice so by the time the water hits my wort chiller it'll be nice and cold.
that's my basic set up. had a 25' immersion chiller, but since moving to FL the tap water wouldn't cut it in the summer.
i made a new 50' IC and got the right clamps, hoses, etc. to use the old one as a pre-chiller in a 6 gal bucket. i either freeze a bunch of plastic cups full of water the day before to have big chunk s of ice (like amfg mentions) or if i forget to do that, i can get by with a bag or two of ice in the pre-chiller bucket.
the two biggest keys i've found are finding the right flow rate for the water, and stirring while chilling. if your flow rate is too slow or too fast you won't be effectively chilling, or you will be wasting water. And stirring every few minutes will greatly cut down your chilling time.
for a counter flow or plate chiller, i imagine you'd just have to worry about getting your pre-chiller working well and you'd be set. you should be able to buy all the required equipment and make one for 30-40 bucks max. worth it if you are already spending the cash for the counter flow or plate chiller, and want it to be effective.
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