CPVC Counterflow Wort Chiller

I know I know...another counterflow chiller. I'm hoping that mine shows a little more affordability than even some of the cheaper versions out there. There were few things that I wanted to do with this chiller

1. Not solder anything
2. Use as little expensive copper as possible
3. Use or re-use as many materials on hand as possible (cheap)

So that being said, here is my material list:
1. Used 5/8" garden hose with both ends in good condition $0.00
2. 20' 3/8" OD soft copper $25.86
3. A few inches of 1/2" CPVC $0.00 left over from mash manifold build
4. 2 CPVC 1/2" t's $.50
5. 2 CPVC 1/2" compression sleeves, not sure what these things are for but they have a hole in the center that is 3/8"...perfect $.50
6. 2 part Epoxy $3.50
7. CPVC glue $3.00
8. 4 stainless clamps $4.00

If I didn't have to by glue, this would have been dirt cheap.

The first thing I did was glue the compression sleeves into the cpvc t's.


Then added a couple short pieces of 1/2" cpvc stubs from the t's


I cut about 6" of hose off with the fittings and sleeved it right over the stub outs. It fit perfect.


Then I measured out about 19.5' of hose and cut that to sleeve the copper into.


Then started shoving the copper down the hose. This was way easier than I was anticipating.


Once that was done I secured one end of the copper to the fittings I built with the 2 part epoxy. Leaving about an inch and a half to slide hose over during transfers.


Slid the hose over the end of the fitting and clamped it down.


Now the fun part. I used a 2 or 2.5 gallon bucket to coil the hose around. I had my daughter stand on top of the bucket, shes roughly about 55 pounds, and I had my wife hold the beginning of the coil with her foot. I zip tied every 3 coils together on 3 sides all the way up. Overlapping ties.


Once it was all coiled up I measured how much hose I needed to cut off to get the correct amount of copper exposed before I installed the last fitting.

After I made the cut I slid the fitting over the copper and compressed the hose so that about 3" of copper was exposed. I coated the copper with epoxy and let the hose push it back into place, so that only an inch and a half was showing. And clamped it down.


Closer view, you can see the epoxy is pooled around the fitting well. Hopefully it won't leak.


And here it is completed. I left the plugs that the copper came with in place to protect it. Any reason I couldn't fill it with star san and store it that way with the caps on. How does copper react with that sanitizer?


I think the whole build would have cost about $30 if I didn't need to buy the glue and epoxy. I'll be brewing this week some time and I'll let you guys know if it leaks and how efficient it is.

I only see one pic. Ah, that's better. Nice build.

NivekD said:

I only see one pic.

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Sorry about that...I fixed all the images. They should display now.

i see them all...looks good.

The problem is that when you pass hot wort through the copper it will expand and potentially crack the CPVC/epoxy.

When I read the title of the thread I was worried you were actually going to make a CPVC Counterflow chiller...

It looks like it will work fine but keep us updated if you do find any problems with it after a bunch of batches.

alien said:

The problem is that when you pass hot wort through the copper it will expand and potentially crack the CPVC/epoxy.

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I wasn't aware that would happen...I hope it doesn't.

Just see how it goes for a while. At the worst, it will leak coolant.

For the record, a better bet for joining PVC and copper to use a copper female threaded fitting and a PVC male threaded fitting, or a no hub coupling.

You don't want to store star san in copper, anything that is a "soft" metal you don't want to store star san in it.

I can appreciate and understand your desire to cut costs, but I question the long-term durability of the PVC.

For an extra $5-$10, you could have gone with copper 1/2" Tee's and reducers, sweated it all together and be done forever.

HDIr0n said:

You don't want to store star san in copper, anything that is a "soft" metal you don't want to store star san in it.

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Starsan contains phosphoric acid and reacts with copper, aluminum, etc.

I left some copper and brass parts to soak in Starsan for a few days and they came out nice and bright, even more so after brushing! The metallic odor was also very prominent. Not a good match.

For cleaning I would circulate hot water and PBW through the line, followed by clean water and maybe another round with Starsan. Now getting all the Starsan (or water) out of the coil when done is a different story.

I use a similar method for my plate chiller, but since it is made of stainless I do store that filled with Starsan. Then before the next use, I purge it with water and recirculate hot wort through it to sanitize.

If there has been a long time since the previous brew, I circulate PBW through it first, followed by a water rinse.

Copper is naturally anti-bacterial. I have a copper CFC and at the end of brew days I backflush it with water in both directions and then drain the water. On brew days I run boiling hot wort through it for a minute or two to sterilize the inside.

Star San is not a storage solution.

I will definitely not be storing the chiller with star san in it. I'll just wash really well on brew day and sterilize with boiling water. I figure I can use a compressor and blown air to get any moisture out of it when I store it. Thanks everybody. As you can tell I'm a total newbie.

davsow said:

I will definitely not be storing the chiller with star san in it. I'll just wash really well on brew day and sterilize with boiling water. I figure I can use a compressor and blown air to get any moisture out of it when I store it. Thanks everybody. As you can tell I'm a total newbie.

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I use an air compressor to blow the water out of my counterflow chiller.

I'm relatively new to all this. Whats a good order to cleaning my equipment? Wash, scrub, sanitize? What are good products, or cleaners in the house I can use?

davsow said:

I'm relatively new to all this. Whats a good order to cleaning my equipment? Wash, scrub, sanitize? What are good products, or cleaners in the house I can use?

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"Clean" = free of foreign matter that can be seen with the naked eye.

"Sanitized" = free of foreign matter that can be seen and nearly all of foreign matter that's cannot be seen with the naked eye (such as bacteria, mold spores and wild yeasts).

"Sterilized" = free of all foreign matter.

All equipment must be clean.
All equipment that touches the wort / beer after the wort has been boiled must be sanitized.
The only times that things have to be sterilized in the beer brewing process is when you're working with yeast cultures and growing yeast strains, so beginners don't need to worry about this level of clean.

Fragrance-free Oxyclean is good for cleaning pretty much all brewing equipment, but you might need to be careful with aluminum. It's cheaper than PBW (which is a brewing-specific cleanser made by Five Star Chemicals).

Bar Keeper's Friend is a good abrasive cleaner for scrubbing out beer stone from the bottom of boil kettles. Again, you might not want to use this with aluminum.

My personal favorite for sanitizing is Five Star's Star San. It doesn't need to be rinsed, it doesn't stain clothes or surfaces and it can be put in a spray bottle to spray things down as you use them.

I would offer a minor tweak to the statements of LoL, above. Everything else I am in total agreement with.

"Clean" = free of foreign matter that can be seen with the naked eye.

"Sanitized" = Whether present or not, most micro-organisms on the object have been rendered inert.


"Sterilized" = Whether present or not, all micro-organisms on an object have been rendered inert.

A heat source such as an autoclave can sterilize an object whether it is physically "clean" or not.


As a practical matter, it is often difficult to sanitize an object that is not already "clean".

Thanks for all the great input on cleaning equipment, I took all the suggestions int account when cleaning up after yesterdays brew day.

I thought I would share the results from my first use with the chiller. 1st of all check out my gangster set up!

Then check out the results. 66 when it hit the fermenter!

I couldn't be happier. Nothing cracked either and I followed the sanitation procedures posted. Not bad for a cheapy counterflow.

How long did it take to chill, and how many gallons of wort?

SavoryChef said:

How long did it take to chill, and how many gallons of wort?

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5.5 gallons of wort. I'd be lying if I said I timed it, but it was around 5 -10 minutes.

davsow said:

I couldn't be happier. Nothing cracked either and I followed the sanitation procedures posted. Not bad for a cheapy counterflow.

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Good job, man! I hope it lasts you for many a brew day!

Great job!

still working for you without issues? thinking of going this route myself.

jlb307 said:

still working for you without issues? thinking of going this route myself.

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Yes its still working great and it seems to be incredibly efficient. I may just have really cold ground water though.

What I've seen done if you have warm ground water is to take a 25'-50' section of your hose and coil it up in an ice bath before it hits the chiller. It would help chill the ground water at least 10 if not 20 degrees Fahrenheit...

Great write up. I will be making one of these tomorrow

I just trimmed too much off a CFC I bought from a fellow brewer, so now I am off to lows to use this method to salvage it.

EDIT: So my 3/8 copper will not slide through the 1/2 CPVC