Recirculating chill water with cheap pump: worth it?

[paulw]

I use a 50 ft immersion chiller, and I hate how much water I have to run through it, especially for the last few degrees of chilling. I'm thinking of getting a relatively cheap utility pump and use it to recirculate my chill water through a bucket of ice water. Would this be worth the effort and expense? Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[b-boy]

It will work to bring down your wort the last few degrees. But, if you try to use it for the entire cooling cycle, you'll go through a lot of ice. I'd say run it the regular way and capture the heated water for cleaning. Then switch to the recirculation with ice for the last 20 degrees.

 

[Bobby_M]

It's only worth it if you want to chiller faster for your own time benefit. Even if you make your own ice, it's likely more expensive than the water you current use.

 

[JaDeDBrewing]

If you are looking to reduce your ice usage as well as decrease your chilling times, you should use a garden hose spigot for your chill water until you are 10 to 20 degrees above your tap water temp. Then switch to ice water. This is the most important part:

DO NOT RECIRCULATE THE ICE WATER.

We can not emphasize this enough. When preparing the ice water, you can add 2lbs of ice per gallon of 80 degree water, to lower the water temp to 40 degrees. (1 lb. of ice decreases 1 US gallon of water by 20 degrees Farenheit) With this ice-to-water ratio, the ice will be mostly gone but this is fine since you are not adding warmer (recirculating) water back in. Just add the ice and give it a few stirs every now and then and let it sit for a few minutes. Also, the ice should be in cube form or crushed in order to speed up the heat transfer from the water. It's a popular belief that larger chunks of ice, such as frozen gallon jugs of water are better to chill since the ice lasts longer, but this is wrong. The large chunks last longer because the transfer heat slower.

 

[lmd]

Why not but a whirlpool arm and recirculate using a pump through the whirlpool. That should work.


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[Photopilot]

I do a load of laundry while i chill. The initial chill water goes directly into the washer and load is started the end of the chill cycle goes into buckets to be used for the rinse cycle.

 

[SeeMont]

I brew in a shop with no running water. Here is my solution, I have a 35 gallon clean plastic garbage can, I freeze 4 to 8 quart plastic milk cartons of water, Picked up a $20.00 irrigatation / pond pump from Harbor freight. I leave the tub about 2/3 full, when cold outside I wheel outside over night, Or I put 8 jugs of ice when I first start the brew session. I use a 20 foot x 3/8 inch coil and I can shill on about 20 minutes. With your 50 footer, you would be to 75 degrees in less than that. I use the first hot 5 gallons for clean up and the second for a rinse. So I add about 10 gallons each brew day. Between days, I add a splash of bleach and snap on the cover. Hope this helps.