How much does length impact CFC efficiency?

[DFP51]

I cannabilized my old IC in order to construct a CFC for my new Brutus 20 build. At the end of the day, I got about 16 feet of usable pipe before it kinked too badly to straighten. The question, then, is this a sufficient length for a CFC or should I buy a new coil of tubing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I cannabilized my old IC in order to construct a CFC for my new Brutus 20 build. At the end of the day, I got about 16 feet of usable pipe before it kinked too badly to straighten. The question, then, is this a sufficient length for a CFC or should I buy a new coil of tubing?

Thanks in advance.

16-ft is getting kinda of short. How cold is your tap/source of water?

I have a 2 CFC's. With a 23-footer CFC, in So.Carolina, with 60-ish well water, it gets me down to about 72-74F.

I added a secondary which is about 18ft. If I run them with divided flow (one single source of water split into 2), I can get things down to about 68F. If I run them back to back, where the water output of one goes into the second one's input, I can get things down to 66F.

You get to a point where you get diminishing results.

Don't forget that you can always slow down your output. [My tests were done at max flow, fyi].

M_C

 

[insurgus]

The longer the length of the CFC, the more contact between the cold water and hot wort. Typical CFC's are anywhere between 25 and 50ft. You'll find the shorter the CFC or even plate chiller, the slower you have to run your wort through them to achive the same temp drop.

It's a mix between water and wort throughput and both of their temps.

 

[JRems]

Can you cut the kinked part and solder it back together so it's longer? I think 20-25 ft is ideal.

 

[DFP51]

You know, I didn't even think about cutting the kink out and piecing it. Might give that a try. Thanks guys.