Thoughts on this for conical cooling

[Deadserious]

So at some point in the future here I want to buy a Spike conical with the new temp control set up they have. I’ve been debating how to control the temp, SS unit, penguin chiller, large enough fridge or an AC unit glycol.

What I thought of was pick up a small cheap freezer, fill a glass large mouth carboy with the glycol mixture and drop the pump in that and cycle through that.

 

[NeoBrew]

This will definitely work. The trick will be to have enough liquid in the reservoir and also a good enough heat exchange between the glycol and the freezer.

The system will likely be somewhat less efficient than a dedicated unit would be at high loads. They optimize the heat transfer between the cooler and the glycol. In your case you will have to cool the air, then cool the glass, THEN cool the glycol. I'm sure someone on the forum is smart enough to calculate how bad all that is. (I'm not!)

This is exactly what I plan to do. I'm going to upgrade to a conical this summer and use my current fermentation chamber / chest freezer for the reservoir until I can upgrade to a dedicated glycol chiller. I'll likely use either a thin plastic tub or possibly something metallic that will transfer heat better.

 

[Deadserious]

This will definitely work. The trick will be to have enough liquid in the reservoir and also a good enough heat exchange between the glycol and the freezer.

The system will likely be somewhat less efficient than a dedicated unit would be at high loads. They optimize the heat transfer between the cooler and the glycol. In your case you will have to cool the air, then cool the glass, THEN cool the glycol. I'm sure someone on the forum is smart enough to calculate how bad all that is. (I'm not!)

This is exactly what I plan to do. I'm going to upgrade to a conical this summer and use my current fermentation chamber / chest freezer for the reservoir until I can upgrade to a dedicated glycol chiller. I'll likely use either a thin plastic tub or possibly something metallic that will transfer heat better.

So I’ve been thinking of what you said for the heat exchange. My thoughts on that, I have an extra immersion chiller, couldn’t the return glycol run through that in an ice bath or something along those lines to help chill it down a touch?

 

[NeoBrew]

I'm not sure I totally follow your proposal. I assume that you are talking about having a "tub" of water within the freezer, then put an immersion chiller into that tub? I believe that would just be creating one more thermal transfer into the process. It would allow you to use less actual glycol, but would decrease your efficiency to some degree.

 

[FunkedOut]

a keg would improve efficiency over a carboy (ss > glass).

 

[Deadserious]

a keg would improve efficiency over a carboy (ss > glass).

That’s true. I could spare a keg for that.

 

[Jayjay1976]

To improve thermal transfer from the glycol to the freezer you could use a large, inexpensive aluminum stock pot instead of the glass carboy. Aluminum is 200 times more thermally conductive than glass for a given thickness, and an aluminum pot will be quite a bit thinner-walled than a glass carboy, not to mention being shatter-proof.

Edit: An aluminum pot is cheaper than a SS keg, and 8 times more thermally efficient. Of course, a keg would be far more space efficient, if your freezer will be used for other things.

 

[burdbrew]

I have been trying to get my brain around how to get a chiller set up in a fridge that I could also carbonate and lager in. I could use a corny but I’m not sure I could get a pump in there. I could use my old 15 gallon kettle on a higher rack. Aha moment.

I have been making it hard and this thread slowed me down. Good thinking here.