how long is too long cfc?

[sKafifer]

went to lowes yesterday and purchased the materials to make my counterflow chiller...50' of 3/8" copper tubing and a 50' garden hose...

is it too long? will i lose heat transfer towards the end of the run or will it continue to work anyway?

is there no such thing as too long of a cfc?

also, is it just gravity fed out of the spout through the chiller or does it need to be sent through a pump?

i also thought about just making 2 25' ones and running them in series...this would also introduce cold water again at the 25' mark and get rid of the hot water....

thoughts?

thank you...

dan

 

[Huaco]

Since you live in the HEAT, you may want to consider doing what I plan to do here in N.W. Texas. In the summer our tap water is probably in the 80's. I plan to use my DIY immersion chiller as a "Pre-chiller" for my counterflow. I will run the tap water into the immersion that is ice-bathed and then run into my counterflow, up and out to the yard...

I made my immersion out of a 20' length of 3/8 coiled tubing. I plan to make a 20' or 25' counterflow with some garden hose I got on clearance at Lowes. 30' for only 8 bucks!

 

[JollyIsTheRoger]

Most people just do 25', but as long as you can get the beer through it, 50' would be ok. You can gravity feed them, but again 50' may make that more difficult. Cleaning is also going to be fun. IMO there isn't enough benefit to 50' for the added work/risk of clogging. Maybe you can use the other 25' as a prechiller?

But overall do what you want to do and have fun with it.

 

[Homercidal]

It's a counterflow, so you are already introducing fresh, cold (well, kind of cold in AZ) water at the END of the CFC. No point in running series.

In a CFC the HOT wort flows DOWN from the top, while COLD water flows UP form the bottom. You'll always have the coldest water at the output (If it's built right).

You will never get your wort colder than the temperature of the water, but 50' should get you close. If you need for the water to spend more time chilling you can always restrict the output tube on the wort and slow it down.

Some people in hot climates use a pump and ice water to finish off the chill. In this case you might benefit from building two 25' chillers and using the second one as a recirculating ice water stage.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I recently tested the following.

I have a apx 25-ft CFC, and a apx 20-ft CFC.

Tested with boiling water:

I ran the 20-ft first, and got down to 72F.

I ran the 25-ft second, got down to approximately 70F.

I ran both, back to back, using a divided stream of well water. Got down to 68F.

I finally ran both, back to back, using a single water source, and fed the water output of one into the other's input, got down to 66F.

So back-to-back and using one water line got me the best results.

M_C

 

[JRems]

I used my cfc for the first time last week. Mine is 25ft 3/8 copper. I gravity drained it thru. Went from boiling to 58 degrees with 55 degree water with one pass.

 

[LandoLincoln]

I tried to make a 50' CFC. I couldn't get all of the copper into the garden hose. I got about 45' in. So yeah, I can tell you that my 45' CFC definitely cools better than the 20' CFC I built. It takes me about 23 minutes to gravity feed 6 gallons through the CFC.

 

[outside92129]

I have two 25's of 1/2" coiled and soldered together to make a 50 footer. I can run the pump at full blast and have it come out in the 70s.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I tried to make a 50' CFC. I couldn't get all of the copper into the garden hose. I got about 45' in. So yeah, I can tell you that my 45' CFC definitely cools better than the 20' CFC I built. It takes me about 23 minutes to gravity feed 6 gallons through the CFC.

Lubrication is important. I used vegetable spray for this job. (ahem).

M_C

 

[sKafifer]

thanks everybody for the input! i really appreciate it! the father-in-law is coming over today and we're gonna sweat some copper!