Building a Counterflow Chiller

Monday, August 07 2006 @ 01:11 EDT

Contributed by: TexanBrewer

This article contributed by MopWater
A practical guide to show non-welders / non-solderers / non-plumbers (people like me) how easy it can be to build a counterflow chiller (CFC) and experience all of the efficient and time-saving benefits that CFC can provide.

What you need:

1 - 50' of garden hose (low-duty cheap stuff is fine)
1 - At least 25' of 3/8" copper tubing
6 - 2" to 3" pieces of 1/2" PVC pipe
2 - 1/2" PVC T-fittings
2 - 1/2" PVC end caps
4 - 5/8" minimum size clamps
1 - PVC glue
1 - Waterproof epoxy (I used a marine epoxy rated to 250f)

Tools you will need:

Drill with 3/8" bit
Regular head skrew driver
Base for curling copper (brewpot will suffice)
Hacksaw
Knife
Tape measure
Sandpaper / wire brush

Click "read more" for step-by-step directions.

Let's get started

The first thing that we should do is prepare the actual circulation section. We do this by combining the copper tube and the garden hose.

Uncoil the copper tubing so it is somewhat straight and measure out about 25 ft.
Using a hacksaw, cut the tube at that point (if you only have 25ft, then obviously not necessary)
Take your garden hose and uncoil it to the length of the freshly cut copper. NOTE: Keep in mind that the side you should be measuring is the end of the hose that would normally be closest to the faucet. In other words, start with the end that would typically skrew onto your faucet and measure out the 25 ft. Cut it at the 25 ft mark. You will have to trim it more later on anyway.

You should now have a 25ft piece of copper tubing and a 25ft piece of garden hose with the female connection attached.

Cut the female end of the hose off about 4 or 5 inches from the end and set aside for later.
Gently start sliding the copper tube into the garden hose.

Once the copper tube is inside of the hose, start coiling the two pieces back together. You can see in this picture that I used my brewpot (with a few gallons of water in it) as a template to wind against. Just for appearances sake, try and keep the coil nice and tight, as it helps the final product look better. (I'm not too good at that)

The finished product should look like this
You should now have a coiled copper tube wrapped in garden hose, a 4 or 5" female end of the hose and a 20+ft section of hose that was cut off while measuring the hose/copper. Put them aside and let's start on the actual plumbing portion of the project. Actually, go have a beer, you earned it.

The fittings:

With all of your PVC fittings (as detailed above) laying in front of you, let's start putting them together and making our end pieces.

Swab the inner portion of one of the PVC Tee's and the end of one of the 1/2" pipe sections with PVC glue
Join them by just sliding the pipe section inside of the Tee section. (as Happy Gilmore would say, "...just taaaaaap it in") There, you are now a plumber.
Repeat this process for all 3 branches of both Tee sections.
Using a 3/8" bit, drill a hole through both of the PVC end-caps. A note is to use some good pliers because once the bit cuts through, it can really grab a hold of the cap and want to twist.
Using the same glue procedure as above, join one of the newly drilled end-caps to one of the CROSS-SECTION ends of the Tee brace.
Repeat that procedure for the other T section you made and the other end-cap.

The end result should appear similiar to this picture. Now, go have another beer and get ready to finish this project up.

Putting it all together:

Putting it together is probably the easiest part. All you have to do is just slip the connections on, clamp them and glue the ends. Please note, though, that the glue is probably still wet, so it may be best to let it sit for a few hours to let the PVC blue cure.

Slide one of your circular skrew on clamps over the brass and onto the hose. Repeat this on the other side as well.
Beginning with the non-capped end of your connector, slide it over the copper tubing and feed the copper tube through the hole in the cap. It will be snug, so don't be shy about forcing it.
Feed the 1/2" PVC end right into the hose. Depending on the brand of hose, it may be snug.
Once it's firmly planted in the hose, slide your clamp down and skrew tighten it
Repeat this procedure for the opposite end of the CFC (yes, we can start calling it a counterflow chiller now)
Once the connector is squarely in place and tightened down, locate your waterproof epoxy and follow your directions for properly mixing it.
The directions probably say to wipe all surfaces with rubbing alchohol. I used a coarse sandpaper to score the surfaces of all area's where the epoxy would come in contact. Yes, that includes the copper.
After your epoxy is properly mixed, start applying it to the area where the end-cap meets the copper tubing. Be liberal, as we really want to make sure you have good contact and no holes to poke through.
Again, repeat this process for the opposite end of your new CFC.

Now, go to the beer fridge and grab a cold one. Your construction is pretty much complete complete. After about 12 or 24 hours the epoxy should be cured, dried and ready for a full run test.

Let's test it out

You should have two pieces of hose laying around. Let's put them to use.

Clamp the 4 or 5" section of female section in place
Clamp the longer drain section in place

Your end result should resemble this picture:

Hook up the water and let's see what happens.

If you have leaks, it will most likely be around the join of the copper tube and the end-cap. IF that is the case, just make sure the end is completely dry and apply some more epoxy to try and seal the leaks.

Final Thoughts

I have spent a lot of time WISHING that I had a counterflow chiller, but always thought it was too daunting of a task for me to try and make. I have researched many different designs and always came away with the feeling that, "oh well, I'll just buy one someday". But I just needed to try and do it for myself before I gave in and did that. It's a relatively simple thing to do, it was just the soldering or welding that I didn't feel qualified to do.

Truth be told, I spent a couple of days doing the solder route and decided that I was just not meant to do that type of activity. Solder one joint and then the other joint would melt and fall away. Solder that joint and the new joint would fall away. It just wasn't working for me.

I then did what I felt I should have been able to do in the beginning and make my CFC out of PFC and forget the whole copper/cussing/hacksaw/cussing/blowtorch/drinking-n-cussing/solder-on-my-finger-damn-that-hurts thing and do what I'm capable of.

I'm happy to report that I used my new CFC this past weekend and experienced something that I didn't think was possible. Not a single leak and my wort was draining in at 200f and coming out at 82f with only a 25 ft CFC.

Many folks are against CFC's because of the cold break that can wind up in the fermenter. For whatever reason, mine is cleaner that it would have normally been with just blasting the valve wide open and dumping it all in. Plus the efficency and time savings was remarkable. Many are also against them because of the added sanitary needs that come with them. I overcame this dillema by filling the CFC with a sanitizing solution for the last 15 minutes of the boil, as I would have with my immersion chiller.

I undertook this project because I had started doing 10 gallon batches and my immersion chiller was just not cutting it in these summertime temps. I was averaging around 60 to 90 minutes for cool-down of only 90. This is what worked for me. I hope it works for you as well.

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