[lewbrew]

So I've decided to build a copper CF chiller.


I have a 50' roll of 1/2" tubing and a 50' roll of 7/8", but now that I have these I'm worried that it would be as efficient as the commercial copper CF chillers that use convoluted copper. 

What are your thoughts on making a 50' CF and can anyone tell me how quickly it could theoretically cool boiling wort?

[beer_crafter]

It all depends on the temp of the tap water and the amount of wort movement during cooling.
I have a 50' immersion cooler that takes 10+ gallons down to the 70s in about 20 or 25 minutes this time of year. 

[yaleterrace]

you're gonna need to just do it to find out the chilling time, since your OG, water temp and total wort volume will be variable.  i think your concern about convoluted interior tubing vs "untwisted" coils is valid, but probably negligible for anything less than 10 gal of wort.  do make sure that you can very easily sanitize your tubing however you construct it... would be a shame to catch a bug after everything else.

[rabid_dingo]

One thing you can do is just carefully put some minor incomplete kinks in the tube. Or aim for some ball peen dents
 here and there it is just to disrupt the flow a bit and create some turbulence in there. It wont get anywhere near the
twists that convoluted copper gets but you start heading in that general direction. It's kinda the reason I am not
gentle with my IC. It has gained its green badge of courage a couple of time. Plenty of dents and what no on it.

[hankus]

large diameter convoluted Cu tubing is great and U don't need much length.I own a Cu in Cu CFC which happened to cost less on eBay than the Cu tube by itself.If I had to build one,it would be NON smooth-convoluted or crimped/dented within a garden hose.The outer Cu tube is not that important-50 feet is more than adequate.I would use a large diameter outer hose