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Author Topic: Recirculating wort chiller  (Read 2026 times)

Offline scorpion

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Recirculating wort chiller
« on: November 01, 2018, 02:15:00 pm »
Hi,

I am working on making a new wort chiller for my home brew. I want to recirculate the water from a ice tub instead of letting the water go. I am thinking of using a submersible fountain pump for circulating water. I am not sure about the capacity of the pump. I bought a 300gph pump from home depot. Is this pump enough or do I need to get a pump with high capacity? Also, do you know how long it takes to chill the wort with these pump? Can any one help me deciding this. Thank you very much for your information.

Thanks,
Naresh

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Offline ynotbrusum

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Re: Recirculating wort chiller
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2018, 03:48:52 pm »
330 gph is 5.5 gpm, which is pretty fast.  I know my house hose bib doesn't go that fast wide open.  Consider a pump for your wort and recirculate the wort with a simple wort return tube attached to the chiller  and directing the wort against the outside of the chiller coils - the immersion chiller will work plenty quick that way (especially when coupled with a Jaded Hydra or similar.)
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Offline Robert

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Re: Recirculating wort chiller
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2018, 04:12:45 pm »
I use such a fountain pump for draught line cleaning.  They move a lot of water, but they are only made to raise water to a certain height, meaning they'll only overcome a certain amount of back pressure.   Make sure your chiller system does not provide more restriction than the pump can handle.
Rob Stein
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Offline Richard

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Re: Recirculating wort chiller
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2018, 04:32:13 pm »
If you already bought the pump, connect it to your chiller and see how much water it pumps. I have a submersible pump rated at 920 gph, but only for a lift of 10 ft. My chiller coil presents enough resistance that I don't get anywhere near 920 gph through it. I get maybe 1/10 of that, which is enough to cool down 5 gallons in about 20 mins. What you get depends on the diameter and length of your chiller tubing, how tight the coil is wound,  and the lift capacity of your pump in addition to the gph rating. Although it is possible in principle to calculate all this out, experimenting is the only way to be sure.
« Last Edit: November 01, 2018, 04:44:57 pm by Richard »
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Offline yugamrap

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Re: Recirculating wort chiller
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2018, 01:54:44 pm »
Depending on the time of year, my tap water ranges from around 40 F to 75 F.  When it's at the warmer end, I've used tap water to chill down to around 90-100 F and then switch to the recirculating ice water with a fountain pump.  While using the tap water, I run the discharge to a lawn sprinkler and water my lawn and garden.  When I'm done, I save the recirculated ice water in milk jugs and freeze those to make the next batch of ice water.  I break up the frozen gallon ice chunks with a 3-pound hammer.  Even in the summer, I can get from boil down to lager fermenting temps (48-50F) in around 45 minutes.
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Offline scorpion

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Re: Recirculating wort chiller
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2018, 09:50:10 am »
Thank you guys for your helpful responses.

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