Heat Exchanger in Ice Bath?

[AttenuatingCircumstances]

This weekend I made my first legal Alabama brew and used my new heat exchanger for the first time. I have the Midwest model that is comparable to the Therminator. I was able to get the temperature down to about 90 degrees fairly quickly and I probably could have done a little better had I had the cool water IN flowing at 100% the entire time. I slowly increased the flow just to make sure that I didn't have any leaks. My water was also a good bit warmer than it should have been considering that it was about 85-90 degrees that day. So anyways, I put my plastic fermenter into an ice bath and cooled it the rest of the way down before pitching my yeast. My question is, can I put the heat exchanger into an ice bath in order to cool the wort down or will that present a problem? I plan on turning the exchanger upright and keeping the fittings out of the ice bath with the lower portion of the exchanger submerged. Does anyone see any problem with this method? Temperatures get up to 100+ degrees here during the summer so my cooling water is not as cool as it should be and I want to find an alternate solution to buying a pump to use with chilled water.

 

[ACbrewer]

First let's talk sanitation. Once the boil is finished, everything that goes in the wort should be sanatized first. Well, almost. You can put hte heat exchangers (probably a copper wort chiller) in when the wort is hot, but after teh wort is under 140, you need to sanatizes before adding.

I think what you want is to put one chiller in line with a 2nd chiller, and put the first one in a bucket of ice water and the 2nd in the wort. Then when you run the house water throught this, you will cool your water more before you put it into the wort and heat it.

Or you could do something like this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/diy-wort-chiller.html

So to answer your inital question, you will have sanitation issues if you put your chiller in cold water and move it back. secondly, the massive heat exchange comes from the cold water going through it, so it won't gain you much.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

If you want to prechill the incoming water, try wrapping a few coils of the hose into a cooler filled with ice. That's what I'm planing to do next time with my immersion chiller.

 

[ACbrewer]

If you want to prechill the incoming water, try wrapping a few coils of the hose into a cooler filled with ice. That's what I'm planing to do next time with my immersion chiller.

this can work. The only draw back is that the thermal exchange into the hose is not as good as going through a something like copper ie using 2 wort chiller, one in ice and one in wort.

 

[hops2it]

If you can swing it, add a copper IC and submerge in an ice water bath. Doesn't have to be a pretty one. Homemade hand spun unit with hose connections on either end would do the trick. Unlike a regular IC, you don't have to be concerned with influent/effluent tubing being directed outside the boil kettle (to protect against leaks). If this one leaks a few drops back into your ice bucket its a non issue.

 

[AttenuatingCircumstances]

Thanks everyone! I have a stainless steel immersion chiller that I will set in an ice bath to chill the water before it goes into the plated heat exchanger.

 

[ArcLight]

I have a $20 pond pump I use after the wort is chilled to 90F. I connect the wort chiller to the pump, put the pump in a cooler filled with ice water, and recirculate the water back in. This rapidly chills the wort from 90 - 68. Just make sure to stir.

 

[bumstigedy]

I put ice in my sparge water kettle, fill it up with water, and then pump ice water through my Immersion Chiller. I chill the word down to about 100F using ground water first. I have found this to be a pretty effective way to chill. I can even get to 45F in the summer for lagers ( It takes some time and about 30 lbs of ice!!!) I'm actually itching to brew a lager again soon, but am going to try and hold off until the fall when it takes less ice.

 

[924RACR]

I have a $20 pond pump I use after the wort is chilled to 90F. I connect the wort chiller to the pump, put the pump in a cooler filled with ice water, and recirculate the water back in. This rapidly chills the wort from 90 - 68. Just make sure to stir.

Awesome idea, I've seen the pre-chiller setup but this sounds even more efficient!

 

[ArcLight]

This is the pump I use:

PP29105 : 291 GPH, Underwater,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006M6MTMI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It has a little moor power than the $15 and $10 pumps, so the cooler can be placed lower than the kettle (i.e. on the ground).