Electric immersion chiller

[floydmeddler]

Do these exist? I can use an aquarium heater and temperature controller for higher temperatures but is there something out there that does the opposite? Would be great to do lagers in my tiny flat. No room for a fridge as of yet!

[196osh]

I dont have a link. But somebody made a chiller from a flash chiller and some copper pipe.

I'm sure somebody will post it. Flash chillers arnt cheap though.

[Bobba]

I was going to make something but got given a fridge so no need. I certainly understnad your relucance to have a dedicated beer fridge.
You can't buy an immersion chiller, it's kinda strange when u start looking, but there isn't anything. Not without having a fridge-style condenser and a water pump.

My plan was to dismantle one of those small car/portable/mini fridges. They have a peltier inside which does the cooling. You could use all the electrics, heat sink, fan etc from the fridge. On the heat sink that attaches to the back of the fridge, a copper pipe could be attached, filled with water and sealed. This would then be an immersion cooler....the beer would warm the water, that would rise in the pipe and then cool on the peltier, making it fall again. That should work pretty well.

Instead of the water filled pipe, you could alternatively make a heat pipe instead (or buy a heat pipe http://www.cheresources.com/htpipes.shtml or http://www.quick-cool.com/index.html) which will transfer the heat from you beer to the cooler peltier MUCH faster and give you a much more efficient cooler. 23l of beer is a lot for a peliter, so having a very efficient way of moving the warmth from the beer to the peltier should really help here.

I've seen a few attempts at people making Peltier beer coolers without much success, but I think this way really could work. When I've got a bit more time I might give it a go....and report back of course!

[floydmeddler]

That all sounds brilliant but outside my comfort zone. I'd more than likely balls the whole thing up.

I do have a mini fridge. Could open it up and see what's inside.