Garden Hose Issues on Immersion Chiller

[BPal75]

So I have an immersion wort chiller that has the male and female garden hose attachments directly on the coils (rather than having vinyl tubing run from the coils to the garden hose hookups). I've had a lot of trouble with the heat from the chiller (since it sits in boiling wort for 15 minutes prior to chilling) screwing up my garden hoses. Just today the hose blew off the crimping and I had water gushing everywhere during my chill. Tons of fun let me tell you. I also had a hose warp once near the connection because of the heat.

Anyone else had this issue and overcome it? Anyone have any thoughts on how to keep this from happening again? I've also noticed that in the early stages of the cooling process, I get a fair amount of drip from water in hookup. I'm wondering if this is heat related because the drip seems to stop once the wort temp gets below 120. This is also quite annoying because I don't like unboiled water getting into my post-boil wort. I have to be really careful to position the coils just right so that the drip falls outside the kettle. Does the heat seem the likely culprit here? Any suggestions on how to beat the drip?

Thanks in advance!

 

[MaxStout]

Sounds like the inlet & outlet tubes are too short and conducted heat passes to the fittings. The fittings shouldn't be so hot that the garden hose melts off.

You might need to remove the fittings and solder some extensions of copper tubing, then re-attach the fittings. Bend the inlet and outlet tubes into an inverted-J, so that any water leakage will not run down into the wort.

 

[Bobby_M]

For one thing you can stop putting the chiller into the boil so early. I don't know how it got started but you don't need to boil these things for 15 minutes. It's fine to just drop the coil in the moment you turn the flame off.

 

[b-boy]

Try picking up some washing machine hoses. They'll handle the heat better than a regular hose. You can attach the regular hose to them.

 

[ImNoExpert]

I had the same issue of constantly melting my hoses.

On my old 3/8" IC, I used 3/8" compression to 1/2" NPT fittings and then added 1/2" to 3/4" garden hose fittings. To this, I got some (cheap) brass garden hose disconnects from the pressure washer aisle at Menards. Slap a couple of those on there and match the in/outputs and you can drop your chiller in with the hoses disconnected and then, when the time is right, quickly attach your hoses without melting or burning yourself.

 

[Hammy71]

Try picking up some washing machine hoses. They'll handle the heat better than a regular hose. You can attach the regular hose to them.

Dat's what I do. +1

 

[car421]

+1 on putting it in at flame out, that's what I do after a quick dunk in Starsan.

 

[nthammer]

On my old 3/8" IC, I used 3/8" compression to 1/2" NPT fittings and then added 1/2" to 3/4" garden hose fittings. To this, I got some (cheap) brass garden hose disconnects from the pressure washer aisle at Menards. Slap a couple of those on there and match the in/outputs and you can drop your chiller in with the hoses disconnected and then, when the time is right, quickly attach your hoses without melting or burning yourself.

I pretty much did this also and am happy with it

also, i think youre putting it in there for too long

this is what mine looks like and i put it in the boil with 5-10 minutes left with no issues, I dont connect the hoses until chilling time though

 

[MaxStout]

I put my IC in the kettle for last 5 minutes of the boil which is plenty of time for it to sanitize. I don't connect the hoses until just before I turn on the water and start chilling.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Put it in at FO - anything that was on it will be dead within seconds of being in 212F liquid.

 

[BPal75]

Thanks these are all great suggestions. I shouldn't have any troubles with this going forward now!