Disappointed with JaDed Hydra

[vance]

I used it for the first time today in brewing. I know part of this is ground water - it's been hot in central OH so it's not optimal, but still.

The time was decent, nothing amazing - it got down to 95 in about 15 minutes. I'd already used 40 gallons of water though, and water efficiency was the biggest reason I shelled out for an expensive chiller like this. At that point I didn't want to waste anymore water so I just put it in my bucket and left it to chill, covered overnight.

Is there anything I can do to optimize my process? I was expecting 15-20 gallons to cool it all the way down to pitching temp, but it probably would've taken 60 at least.

 

[OzzyBrew]

Do you know your approximate ground water temp? Are you stirring continuously while chilling? I have cold water, so my jaded IC can chill quickly, but I do have to stir the whole time.

 

[PGEduardo]

Have you read and did you follow the directions on their website? I'm pretty sure they guarantee their chilling rates, when you follow the directions. Their advertised max chill rates are based on time efficiency, not water efficiency.

If you want to conserve water, you can still recirculate into a cooler or something but you should still use a high volume pump from what I understand. I'm sure they'll chime in here, but I do not own one of these (yet)...

 

[mongoose33]

Typically what they say is that you need a high rate of water flow. You need the highest contrast possible between the water in the chiller and the temperature of the wort. A slow movement of water will heat it up and then it's not doing anything at that point.

Further, you cannot just leave any IC chiller in place--you have to either stir the wort or swish the chiller around (what I do).

I'd kill for one of those Hydra chillers. I have a silver serpent from northern brewer so it's hard to justify a new chiller, but if I had one, I'd expect to cut my chilling time in half--and I'd probably use the same or less water.

 

[Bobbybob]

Water here in Portland is pretty cold I can with whirlpooling get it to 75 ish in under 10 minutes.

 

[vance]

I was stirring a little bit, but not continuously no. I'm not 100% sure of my groundwater temp - will sticking my thermometer under my spigot give me a good idea? Like I said it's been in the 90s here lately so I assume it's fairly warm. I knew I wasn't going to get the efficiency listed on the website, but it still seemed a lot.

I figure flow rate is a lot of it too. Shorter hose maybe? The shortest I could find at the store was 50 feet, even though my brewing area is only maybe 20 ft from the source. I suppose I could play with the height too - take my kettle off the burner and set it on the concrete to give a little bit of a height boost to the flow.

 

[Paps]

There is a thread on here somewhere where the guy uses a deep freezer filled with water kept at 33-F and pumps it through his chiller and then recirculates it to the deep freezer. That would indeed conserve water as it gets returned to said deep-freezer. Dude also uses it for his ferm chamber. Perhaps you can find the thread and implement a similar process.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Your tap water is likely way too warm to get decent performance from any type of heat exchanger chiller.

Temperature of the chilling water is more important than the configuration of the chiller.

If you are looking for fast chilling, you will need to add ice or cold water to your process.

 

[vance]

15-20 minutes is plenty fast enough for me, I was more just looking to be efficient with water - 40+ gallons is more than I want to use chilling a 5 gallon batch, and I guess I was under the impression with the hydra that even with lukewarm ground water (~75-80 degrees), I could at least get it down to under 90 using sub-30 gallons.

 

[The_Bishop]

You need to constantly stir the wort so there's a steady exchange of heat. If you just drop it in there, it's going to take a long time to cool. Stirring, either with a spoon or the chiller itself, is necessary.

 

[h22lude]

Water temp, hose length, stirring and flow rate will all affect chilling time.

You obviously need a lower water temp for any chiller to work. If your water at it's coldest is still too warm, you may need a prechiller.

The hose from the faucet/spigot needs to be as short as possible.

You either need to constantly stir the chiller or use a whirlpool arm to get the wort moving.

Flow rate may be the biggest. Your flow rate out of the faucet/spigot needs to be at least 6gpm to get the times they state on their site. 4gpm will work but it will take longer.

 

[vance]

Water temp will be better in a few months when it's not hot as hell outside. Next batch I'll try stirring it and see what happens.

 

[mongoose33]

I was stirring a little bit, but not continuously no. I'm not 100% sure of my groundwater temp - will sticking my thermometer under my spigot give me a good idea? Like I said it's been in the 90s here lately so I assume it's fairly warm. I knew I wasn't going to get the efficiency listed on the website, but it still seemed a lot.

I figure flow rate is a lot of it too. Shorter hose maybe? The shortest I could find at the store was 50 feet, even though my brewing area is only maybe 20 ft from the source. I suppose I could play with the height too - take my kettle off the burner and set it on the concrete to give a little bit of a height boost to the flow.

You have to pretty much stir or swish constantly.

Back in February and March, when my water was cold, I could chill a batch in 8-9 minutes (silver serpent).

Recently I'm more like 15 minutes. I use a hose connected to an outside faucet and a couple batches ago I took the temperature and it was 67 degrees. I don't know how much colder it was in February, but I'm guessing it was low 50s.

I used to be able to get the temp to about 68; now the lowest I can seem to get it is maybe 76 degrees. Fortuantely I have a ferm chamber to get it the rest of the way down to fermentation temps, and I can pitch at the 76 degrees, but chilling is just slower.

I'd still love one of those Jaded chillers.

 

[jmos]

In the summer my water supply temp is about 80deg, so obviously I'll never get my wort down into the 60's with just a chiller, no matter how efficient.

Once I get the wort cooled to within about 20deg F of of the water supply temp the rate of cooling slows quite a bit. Then I switch to a small aquarium pump and put it in a pot of ice water (lot's of ice). Once the water temperature out of the chiller is below the temp of the water out of my tap I just move the hose and let the water from the chiller go back into pot of ice - recirculate. It saves a lot of water. As the ice melts, add more. I'll usually go through about 12 lb of ice to get the wort down to 66. The larger pump you use, and the more water you can circulate, the faster it will cool. The pump I bought is pretty wimpy (only $15) and it still does a great job.

You could use ice water and a pump to cool your batch from boiling and it would cool a lot faster, but it would take a lot of ice.

I had been using a second coil in an ice bath to cool my tap water, but the aquarium pump works much better, and eliminates the need to move two coils around.

 

[Vandulus]

While I don't have a Jaded, I stayed in a Holiday Inn...

Seriously though I'm in Central OH and use a 25' copper immersion cooler. The secret is to keep the wort in constant movement around the chiller, otherwise thermal pockets form. My neighbor, a physical sciences teacher, turned my on to moving the chiller up and down in the wort and my chilling times dropped in half. Also the groundwater temps have been much higher due to the hot summer. Just wait until winter when the water is below 50F!