In the construction of my nano-brewery, a chiller was the next element on the bill of material that can be used at my present brewing stage (extract and speciality grains) and that still will be used when I will be ready for all grain. Presentely I brew 25 litres (5 gal.) at max but i build my equipement for brewing all grain in 50 litres (10 gal.).
First step, buying material:
Getting everyting out of bags, I realise that I have two female hose conectors. My installation require one male and one female.
And on top of it, I needed to assemble 3 connector to be able to connect the chiller to a garden hose.
I was also asking myself questions about the flow of a 3/8" external diameter pipe, will it be enough to cool 50 litres in summer?
Since I had to change a connector anyway, I took the occasion to change everyting. The 1/2" pipe is more expensive (39$ CDN instead of 14$) but I will use only 2 connectors instead of 6. The 1/2" X 30' chiller cost finally only 10$ more than the 3/8" X 25'.
This time I verified all connectors before quitting the store but at the last minute I changed those that where loose for others in bags thinking it will go faster at the cash, I take one in each of the box that i spotted before... Arriving at home I find myself with two female connectors again! I returned a last time to Home Depot and found that many connectors where in the wrong boxes.
Second step, roling the pipe in a coil:
Before rolling the pipe you have to take mesures to check the maximum diameter the coil may have without having touble to get in and out of the boiler and leaving enough space between the coil and the flank of the pot. I checked first the 20 litres pot that i use now and also the 50 litres keg I will use when I go all grain. In my case a diameter of 27 cm (10 1/2") is perfect. I found a pot that will give a 26 cm diameter.
You can see here that I cut a piece of the pipe, this piece will later be welded with a 90° joint on top of the coil to make the connexions to hoses easyer.
When I finished to roll the coil, I calculated the length of the second piece of pipe for the connectors. You have to take the length L of the first piece you cut and add the heigth H of the coil.
Take care, when you roll the coil, each spires are close one to the others, the higth is at a minimum. If you decide to leave a certain distance between each spires to better spread the higth of the coil in the heigth of the wort in your boiler, you have to do it before mesuring the heigth H.
In my case I thinked to spread the spires after and we see on the final product that the two connectors are not at the same heigth. For as long as i use a 20 litres pot I can leave the spires close one to the other but for a 50 litres keg I will have to spread the spires to get a better heat absorbtion. Also the keg have a verry high rim and I may have to change the small pipes at that time.
You can see here the first verification to see the gap between the coil and the wall of the pot.
No welding assembly to check what it will look like.
Detail of the assembly of the two pieces of pipe with the coil. We can see that the bottom spire was curved a bit more to let the straigth piece of pipe pass inside the coil.
Third step, welding:
I never did any plumbing welding before, only done a few electronics weldings. I didn't expect to get professionnal results but it will be a goog pratice if I want to install a shop sink in my future nano-brewery.
Final result, we see that by spreading sligtly the coil spires the two hose connectors are not at the same higth. We can also see that the welds are not verry nice, I will have to do a bit of sanding after testing them for leeks.
Last step, checking the welds (I tougth):
At the hardware store, I checked the fittings on a garden hose, I screwed it two turns and all seemed to fit correctly. When I tried to connect the hose to check leaks, I couldn't do more than two turn.
Going back (again) to the hardware, I learned that the threading on a garden hose is not the same than the one on standard plumbing fittings, this because they don't wan't people to use garden hose to replace a coper pipe since hose are not made of food grade plastic and may contain germs.
You can see on the photo up here that I had to buy two pairs of connectors, first a connector to weld on a side to 1/2" plumbing thread and an adaptator 1/2" plumbing thread to garden hose thread, the garden hose adaptors in male and female version.
After having unwelded the two connectors, I wanted to weld the new ones but my gaz bottle was empty...
Fifth trip to the hardware store for this projet (and in bus since i don't have a car), I get back with a new gaz bottle and make the lasts weldings.
This is the final product, don't you think that he have a small familly air with the robots in Farscape?
The hoses adaptors are not welded but screwed, do not forget to put some tefflon tape.
Last step (finaly), check weldings :
To check weldings, I put the chiller in my pot and plugged a hose at one end and a garden hose gun (closed) at the other and opened the tap. The pot was ther to collect water from leaks, I didn't want to spray water all over from leaks that i was sure to find. Even if it was my first welding, I didn't find any leaks (beginners luck). I only have to sans the weldings a bit and clean the chiller with some vinegar before the first use.
PS: After first use I can say that it works great.
Last update of this page : 2005-09-25