Stainless Heat Exchanger / Chiller for FV

[barneey]

Hi All,

Here goes, I am hoping to build a stainless heat exchanger / chiller for a 100lt ss pot. The appearance of which will be losely based on this photo....


The idea is to buy a cornelius 10m coil (or make similar), clad the coil in a fully welded stainless jacket with inlet out outlet feed. Drill a small hole in the jacket, fill void with gycol + bung hole thus enabling a good conduction of heat between coil / jacket and wort. The chiller will then be suspended in the FV and powered by a standard beer maxi cooler.

The reason behind the jacket design rather than a coil of stainless is for ease of cleaning.

Before this chiller is made can anyone see any problems?

The majority of the work on the build (welding and fabrication) will be carried out by a fellow forum member. My welding skills are non existant.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers

[Aleman]

Why fill with Glycol? why not just have 3/8" inlet and outlet into the jacket (with one going to the bottom) and run the coolant into the jacket . . . that way you can have the jacket sealed

[barneey]

Thanks for the reply, I think I might have been over complicating things a little, trying to channel the glycol around the chiller plate. Whereas your solution would seem the most practical / easiest solution to the design + already have both 1/2 and 15mm ss pipe (inlieu of 3/8)

V Appreciate the suggestion.

Cheers

[boingy]

If you are fabricating stuff, why not go the whole hog and add an SS cooling jacket onto the outside of the FV? Or wrap the SS coil round the outside then clad in your timber. That way it just stays in place and there is no cleaning effort at all.

One other thought. Do you need the ability to heat the FV as well as cool it?

[barneey]

If it was me doing the fabrication I certainly would have a go at making a stainless jacket for the fermenter, unfortuately me and welding is a no go, its realatively ease for me to post small bits of stainless to the other forum member but not too sure on transporting large pots + cost of the fabrication work.

I`ve always promised myself a pot clad in timber (the material I do know ) so was initially thinking about a copper coil around the pot then clad in timber. Due to the timber available I was able to fabricate enough timber for two jackets, the internal jacket diameter being approx 510 to 520mm ish, this can be used to clad either a 100 or 70 litre pot. The 70 litre pot being of 450mm diameter will leave enough room for any pipe work / insulation required, the 100 litre pot maybe possible but might be as tight as a gnats chuff to fit, hence the idea of the stainless heat exchanger. Out of the two options I would perfer everything to be on the outside of the pot for ease of CIP.

As for a heating source, I`m still open to suggestions, soil heater or similar? again any suggestions appreciated.

Cheers

[Blackaddler]

As for a heating source, I`m still open to suggestions, soil heater or similar? again any suggestions appreciated.Cheers

Here's what I use under my 100L pot. It's a 19" x 22", 50W heated tray, from www.twowests.co.uk.

They even made it in thicker aluminium for me, at no extra cost. [Contact john.boultbeeATtwowests.co.uk for info.] Postage was £4.99.

Not the cheapest option to buy, but it's cheap to run, and there's no fitting or cleaning to worry about.

I'm very pleased with it. It works well in my brewshed, even when it's freezing outside.

[barneey]

Thanks for the link, I`ve emailed John, who can make one for me to a size of 19 x 19 inches so although square, will fit into my round timberclad.

I also want to explore the soil heater option, but a few wedsites mention about not placing them in an insulated medium?

Cheers

[barneey]

I was bored at work this afternoon so have now made a mock up (out of a shredded wheat box) of the chiller unit, basically 3 pieces of stainless.

The main piece being bend as highlighted in pink, one bottom piece welded on to the box, one top piece with holes being welded to the box once again + 2 lengths of pipe passing through the holes and welded in position.




Sorry for the poor quality photos (blackberry).

Is this the simplest way of making this item?

Cheers

[unclepumble]

I don't understand why you just don't buy a stainless plate chiller for 60-70 quid off ebay?

And run you coolant through that, it would seem a lot less hastle and cheaper to do that to me.

UP

[barneey]

I don't understand why you just don't buy a stainless plate chiller for 60-70 quid off ebay?

And run you coolant through that, it would seem a lot less hastle and cheaper to do that to me.

UP

Hi Up,

Its for a FV not for coiling the wort.

Cheers

[unclepumble]

I don't understand why you just don't buy a stainless plate chiller for 60-70 quid off ebay?

And run you coolant through that, it would seem a lot less hastle and cheaper to do that to me.

UP

Hi Up,

Its for a FV not for coiling the wort.

Cheers

Whats the Difference? apart from copper is not very good in contact with yeast for a long time. If you buy a repackable stainless chiller you will have no issues. it will work no worries.

UP

[barneey]

Why fill with Glycol? why not just have 3/8" inlet and outlet into the jacket (with one going to the bottom) and run the coolant into the jacket . . . that way you can have the jacket sealed

I followed Alemans advice on this idea, gave up on the box design and went for a tube instead, going cheap on fleabay 140mm dia x 420mm high + pipework.

A very big thanks to "gnutz2" for fabricating the two for me and producing a quality product , finally got them today.

A few pics of one. The stapler in one pic is for scale. Now to try them out at sometime....

[Highlander]

Thats some lovely workmanship.
You should sell the designs to Blichmann.

[gnutz2]

A very big thanks to "gnutz2" for fabricating the two for me and producing a quality product

Thanks.

So when's the next brew day to test them out

What do your fermentation temps get up to in the height of summer (what summer ).

[barneey]

God knows when the next brew day will be + need to trial the conical in the fridge first.

In the meantime I intend to start a few experiments with them to see how they perform in the timber clad pots