General Category > Equipment and Software
Is there a small, cheap, good quality glycol chiller out there?
jjflash:
I am suprised I can't find a small, cheap, good quality glycol chiller out there.
Was thinking of running glycol chiller in my Therminator instead of tap water with required ice bath pre-chiller to hit appropriate temperature. Tired of the pre-chiller mess and water hoses.
I have no great desire to build one from a refrigerated air conditioner/ice chest.
tschmidlin:
You can build one with a bucket of glycol in a fridge, a subersible pump, and some hoses. It's not ideal, but it works.
euge:
I don't think it will be nearly as effective for the use you are planning for.
tom:
--- Quote from: euge on November 25, 2012, 07:42:27 am ---I don't think it will be nearly as effective for the use you are planning for.
--- End quote ---
Why? A glycol chiller is basically a container of cold liquid and a pump. His ground water in New Mexico is probably pretty warm in the Summer so anything cooler than his fermentation temperature is overkill. I do well with a bucket of ice water with a sump pump and a second plate chiller in line when needed.
Of note, keep your eyes open for bars with those "chilled" towers. They use little glycol chillers for the faucets.
euge:
Well an ice-bath prechiller is very inefficient and a waste of ice. The ice would be better served being used once ambient tap-water temp has been reached in the wort. Then once that has been achieved, using the ice-water in a closed loop is extremely effective and efficient. So if the jjflash changes his method slightly he will achieve what he desires without buying more equipment- potentially expensive equipment with unknown efficacy.
My concern is that a glycol chiller would not be able to regenerate the cooling fluid fast enough if used. It might work better substituted for the ice-water recirc described above but I doubt it. I've only heard of glycol chillers being used to keep fermenters cool.
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