Counterflow wort chiller issues

[GrizzlyBier]

My new all copper CFC is having trouble chilling my wort adequately. My cooling water is from an indoor faucet which I measured at around 70F. I can't get it below 80F, and if I turn the wort flow up past the tiniest trickle it jumps to 90-100F. It is hot inside my garage (~78-80F), so I figured it couldn't get below room temp. So I put the chiller in an ice bath. It made NO difference. I was kind of shocked. Has anyone experienced this? With 70 degree tap water I wouldn't expect to be able to cool down to 70, but 80-100???

 

[imasickboy]

Recirculate back into the kettle for about five minutes to slightly cool the wort, then try cutting the wort flow on the way to the fermentor?

 

[dyqik]

Two key things have to be right:

Firstly, the chiller has to be hooked up the right way round. Cold tap water goes into the end that you want cooled wort to come out of. Hot tap water comes out the end that hot wort goes into.

Secondly, the chiller has to be full of water, with no air pockets, or there's not as much contact between the cooling water and the inner pipe as there should be. The best bet for this is that you have the water outlet at the top, with the chiller sitting on its end, so water pushes the air out the top.

At reasonable flow rates, you should expect a 10-20F difference between the cooling inlet water temp and the outlet wort temperature. If you want less difference, you need to slow down the wort flow rate. Then if you want better efficiency in water usage, slow the water flow rate until the outlet water is close in temperature to the inlet water temp.