WTB...Immersion Chiller

[Mark Goodin]

Hi all...

Im getting towards the end of my build...dont ask for any pics its a fairly ghetto 3v AG system with stuff I had lying around the house and a few things I've bought...however I've been on a pretty tight budget as I am getting married in Feb '12..Its hard to justify to the mrs that my brewing hobby is just as important as the forthcoming date. In my head it is...but thats another story.

I digress...I am now wanting to buy/build an immersion chiller to chill my wort. Now I am two minds...buy second hand or make my own. I've been keeping an eye on TM but not much on atm...I have heard that the seller 'Brass123' is one to keep an eye on for reasonable priced copper tubing.

I am assuming there are peeps out there who have upgraded from their immersion to plate chillers or gone down the no chill method, therefore wanting to know if anyone out there has an immersion chiller laying around that they may wish to sell.

Or do I just wait a little longer, and make my own...

Open to suggestions : )

Thanks
Mark 

p.s. Im in Hamilton the city of the future if that helps.

[AndyG]

Hey Mark,

Yeah, I picked it up off a previous thread on the forum. [e-mail]

Andy

[Kelly Milligan]

Well, got my copper from Brassman123 and heres my first jab at an IC! A few little kinks here and there getting the top bits done, and went a little bit over the top with my zip-ties ;P but yeh! happy as larry! $65 of copper, and just need 5m of garden hose + 2 hose clamps. Cheaper than $10 worth of ice each batch (until I get the water bill...)

[Mark Goodin]

Nice work...I will be ordering from this guy shortly. Looks like you have same/similar Kettle to me too. I have the 51Lt pot and am now set up to do 20Lt batches, with my HLT and Chilly Bin Mash Tun. Good work. I will chuck up a pic of my IC once I get the brass and get round to making it! Let me know how yours works!

[Kelly Milligan]

Awesome man, sounds like a rad set up. Same pot we were discussing in the 'Pot quality' discussion, really happy with it now. After the faffing getting the right size (ended up with 51L now instead of 31L since they sold out of the 31L) it's a really good pot for the price :) I'm keen to get a chilly bin mash tun going too, tried BIAB a couple weeks ago and it went ok, lost so much heat through the stainless steel pot though, even if its wrapped in a blanket.

The IC works a treat, cooled my batch on saturday down to about 24c in ~15 minutes. Makes clean up a breeze too, I've got a big 150-200L plastic storage bin thing, fill that with all the water and dunk away!

[Mark Goodin]

Here is mine...Copper turned up this week and made this at lunch today...

Looks like we have the same Pot and IC...what kind of burner are you running Kelly?

[Alan Anderson]

Nice work guys, Yea I got my copper tubing bout a week ago and used a pot shape the coil.  Didn't want to kink the pipe so got a spring pipe bender from Bunnings ($8).  Worked pretty well but took an age to twist it off once I had made the bends.  Ended up using the whole length of tubing (sorry Mark) as am intending to upgrade my kettle to a keggle and hope this IC will do the job.

Anyways, used it to cool a batch of Pale Ale the other day and it worked a treat!  Told the wife we should use the expelled warm water to fill up the bath for our 6 month old.. then I could justify that my brewing helps out round the house!  Anyway here is a pic.

[Boon]

Hi Alan,

Did you have any trouble finding the spring pipe bender? I've been to Mitre 10 and Bunnings in Dunedin and both have only had large 'pipe bender' hand tools. I looked closely through the plumbing section (with a guy from Bunnings) and still couldn't find anything. He said that if Bunnings stock it anywhere in NZ then they should have it - You don't happen to have the barcode/product code etc? 

I'm not quite sure where else to look for one. Thanks. 

[David Wood]

I just carefully wraped my copper around a corney keg. looks good and works great. Just be slow and careful.

Dont be drinking any home brew.

Dave

[Alan Anderson]

Hey Boon,

 

Sorry bout the late reply, I got the pipe bender from Bunnings in Australia as am over there a bunch with work. Hope you managed to track something down

[Sam]

Hi Boon, 

Do you know any electricians, quite a few of them have bending springs for installing heat pumps. Not to hard to find in Wellington but not sure what stores you have in Dunedin. I ordered mine through an electrical wholesaler - might be worth a try, or stores that supply heat pump installers etc, I can't remember the name of the air-con shop I went to but some of them will let you borrow a pipe bender for a couple of bends

[Boon]

Hey all,

Thanks for your replies after asking around I didn't have much luck with a spring pipe bender but I managed to borrow a full on pipe bender from work for the 90° bends. The 'coil' section ended up being pretty straight forward as I borrowed a corny keg to wrap it around. There is a little bit of rippling and some kinks on a couple of the 90° bends but overall i'm happy. 

I just need to attach to the hose to it (I think i'll use a sleeve) and then i'll be good to go. 

Cheers all for the help. 

[Druid]

Spring benders can be found at Lims HVAC in Auckland.

http://lims-hvac.co.nz/products-page/tube-benders/9d-spring-style-t...

For the refrigeration copper tubing from Brassman (1/2" OD), you'll need the 1/2" model.

They will also do the same 1/2" OD coils of copper but from memory they were marginally more expensive than Brassman.