Stainless Conical Budget of £500 to £800 Best One

[DaveSmith]

I got interested in the idea of conicals but after research realised that I be a complete idiot to buy one without any cooling jacket.

[chris2012]

There are alternatives, such as adding an external/internal cooling coil

[darkonnis]

Aye, I'm trying to do it on a budget. Having very mediocre success. Though richs ideas should help quite a lot!

[barneey]

barneey how will you use the coil for both heating and cooling? You going to put that RIMS element (+pump) in series with the cooler and just wire the controller up to each?

Still working on the finer details + will have to ask a few more question but basically a low wattage Rimms tube (towel radiator) and a couple of pumps / switches to control things / ATC or similar to control, a copy of Wallybrews design.

If that doesnt work i still have a 20m coil of soil heater in the spares box waiting.

When I get the hot side built again thats the next job.

Sometime ago there was also a post by Kev888 regarding trying to flatten pipe, (which you can buy at £££££) although the most adventerous idea was a clothes mangle.

[darkonnis]

Haha I was just going to get my blacksmith on and bend it with a tube bender, then hammer it down and tighten it up (it wont be that easy.) but if rich is having success then I might not even bother doing that....
I think its going to work better with the CIP having the coils on the outside aswell as being easier to manage once its going.

a 20m cable in the spares box! If you can find it, I imagine your spares box looks like this:

[barneey]

Nope just bought it when fortex was selling off all their stock

[bigrichlock]

Chaps,

Well i must be an idiot because i bought a conical without a jacket however on the scale we are talking its more important to have good insulation around the cooling/heating coil on the conical than having a big surface area that a commercial style jacket will provide, big volume big surface area yes, looking at ratios on a small volume, the large cooling surface area is not needed, and the fact i can get to 2deg proves this - good insulation is more important especially in hot weather.

Here is my effort for the cooling coil and the heating cable



The above is wrapped in Aemaflex 19mm insulation

I'm that confident that this works i have just ordered 2 x 170L SS conicals using the external coil and heating cables, pics to follow once they have been fabricated by Elite Stainless.

Rich

[Belter]

Can you get aftermarket jackets? I was planning on buying one of the Anerican spun conicas but they don't come with a jacket and I don't want to be... An idiot

[chris2012]

Did you get your conical from Elite Stainless Rich? Can you say how much they cost out of interest?

[barneey]

Chaps,

Well i must be an idiot because i bought a conical without a jacket however on the scale we are talking its more important to have good insulation around the cooling/heating coil on the conical than having a big surface area that a commercial style jacket will provide, big volume big surface area yes, looking at ratios on a small volume, the large cooling surface area is not needed, and the fact i can get to 2deg proves this - good insulation is more important especially in hot weather.

Here is my effort for the cooling coil and the heating cable

[Rich

[bigrichlock]

The above conical is from Morebeer and cost a small fortune by the time i paid Vat and import duty, the chap who bought barneeys got a bargain!

However it works a treat so not complaining good service, good product.

The conicals from Elite stainless - yet to get a price but not cheep comparable to Willis - ish? but will be a guaranteed product with backup from ES unlike the Willis.

Rich

[darkonnis]

The conicals from Elite stainless - yet to get a price but not cheep comparable to Willis - ish? but will be a guaranteed product with backup from ES unlike the Willis.
Rich

Aye, Willis have pretty much ruined their rep on the small scale side of things. Speaking of bargains Deller also got a bargain with the one he bought, been quite a few recently!

I do like though how we're all idiots for buying conicals without jackets! I do see myself having to construct a similar jacket to yours rich.

[chris2012]

Even the blichmann ones don't have jackets....

[barneey]

What will be interesting, is another member has already taken delivery of a "sample" conical "very" similar to the willis ones from China, apparently there are only a few manufacturers of these items. So there may well be another supplier soon with a very much better approach to customer service.

[Belter]

Lard