Unused refrigerant heat exchanger?

[Facinerous]

So I have seen many things involving heat exchangers on HBT, but I have never seen anyone use a heat exchanger from a refrigeration system for cooling or heating purposes. They are essentially a counterflow system.

Anybody tried using one of these things in their system. Opinions.

Also any opinions on why one would not use one?

I'm asking because I found a few at the scrap yard today that were unused and picked em up for about 7 bucks a piece. Got four of em just for the heck of it. If I can't use them I can just scrap em again. No biggie. Just thought they would work well.

 

[Brumateur]

How about to post a couple of pictures?

 

[Rhumbline]

Is there some automated system that generates one of these threads every three weeks?

You're talking about using these as wort chillers? Go for it!

The sig line is appropriate.

 

[Indian_villager]

Have any ideas on build material or plate spacing?

 

[Facinerous]

I can see why some would think this a stupid question. And for the life of me I was wondering why I wouldn't use em.

I was more just seeing if anyone would respond with a "Don't do it because..." response.

They were from a company that went out of business and just ended up at the scrap yard. Never installed. Never had any bad chemicals flow through them.

I found that they go for about 40-50 bucks on ebay. So four for 35 bucks isn't bad. Especially if I get some decent heat transfer out of em.

One of them I intend for mash recirculation. I don't know if I would get enough using them as a chiller, but I guess only experimentation will tell.

 

[The_Bishop]

Since they're not made for food service, I'd be concerned about the purity of the metal used in the construction. Might contain lead, etc.

Also looks to be nearly impossible to clean, so sanitation would be an issue.

 

[Rhumbline]

If you can sell them on eBay you'd probably have enough to buy a decent chiller.

 

[Facinerous]

Thanks Bishop. Best I can say without calling the manufacturer is the tubing is copper as one would expect. The joints are brazed instead of soldered due to the higher pressures exerted in their intended use in a condenser refrigerant loop. Here is a exerpt from wikipedia on brazing.

Filler materials

A variety of alloys are used as filler metals for brazing depending on the intended use or application method. In general, braze alloys are made up of 3 or more metals to form an alloy with the desired properties. The filler metal for a particular application is chosen based on its ability to: wet the base metals, withstand the service conditions required, and melt at a lower temperature than the base metals or at a very specific temperature.

Braze alloy is generally available as rod, ribbon, powder, paste, cream, wire and preforms (such as stamped washers).[5] Depending on the application, the filler material can be pre-placed at the desired location or applied during the heating cycle. For manual brazing, wire and rod forms are generally used as they are the easiest to apply while heating. In the case of furnace brazing, alloy is usually placed beforehand since the process is usually highly automated.[5] Some of the more common types of filler metals used are

Aluminum-silicon
Copper
Copper-silver
Copper-zinc (brass)
Gold-silver
Nickel alloy
Silver[1][6]
Amorphous brazing foil using nickel, iron, copper, silicon, boron, phosphorus, etc.

 

[Rhumbline]

If you're not going to acknowledge any potential threat, then what are you asking us for?

Use them, drink the beer and share it with all your friends and loved ones!

someone has to be the warning to others! Drink it!

 

[brew_ny]

the outer tube is copper but the inner tube is red brass

http://www.packless.com/catalog/ItemView.aspx

 

[Facinerous]

Oh cool. Thanks for the link Brew_NY.

To Rhumbline, I'm not trying to be a nay sayer to others posting potential threats. All the comments which bring up points are being investigated. I wasn't sure about the metallurgy of brazing until I looked it up which I can thank Bishop for. And thanks to brew_ny for finding a product cut sheet.

Apparently Red Brass contains about 5% lead. Which is a shame I must admit.