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Been using the ol" Ice in the pot method for my cooling basin. Its getting old fast and is the bane of my existence when it comes to stabilizing my system ,unstable coolant tempreture,.
Anyone out there use any gizmo they"d like to share? There"s always the "Drill a hole in the mini-fridge" options from the computer cooling days, but I"m hoping to find a less cumbersome solution.
Any ideas?
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What do you mean by 'unstable' Are you having trouble keeping the fluid cold for the duration of the process? The multiple frozen soda bottle approach seems to work well for some, but if you're looking for a method to force-cool your water, it's going to have to involve lots and lots of surface area.
Basically, the more surface area your heat exchanger has, the more heat will be exchanged through it. Air is a good insulator, so, in order to overcome that, you have to spread out the heat loss across a larger area. This is why radiators and heat sinks have lots of spikes or fins. I saw an expensive wort-chiller at a homebrew shop one time that worked on this principle. Basically, it
was a stainless steel block about 1'x8'x1.5' with two holes in each end forming two channels through the block.. Each channel went through an intricate internal series of wards designed to facilitate heat exchange between the two. Then, they were run in opposite directions through the block. One channel was the hot wort, the other was cooling water.
I suppose you could do something like this with copper and some peltiers if you had the time and patience to cut all of the necessary pieces and wards.
You could also get a cheap mini-fridge and hack out the freezer section cooling element and simply immerse that in your cooling reservoir.
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A system based on compressed Freon was more what I Was looking for ,like the freezing element you mentioned,. Was hoping there is something out there that"s already designed for liquid cooling in a more compact manner. The heat sink brick is far too much work for someone that doesn"t have access to a metal shop, and as good as metal heat dispersing is, it will not keep water ice cold.
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To the best of my knowledge, there is no such dedicated product & you will have to cannibalize the pieces necessary. Walmart has a Haier 1.8 cu. ft. Compact Refrigerator listed for under 70$. That's probably about as good as you're going to get new. I've no idea what constant work will do to the motor, though, and you'd probably want to rig up a thermostat to keep it from burning out on you.
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Don't discount thermoelectric cooling, though. Pipe the water through a couple of these in series, but with their elements reversed. I'll bet that does a number on keeping the incoming water cool.
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There"s always heat sinked copper coils I guess. I"ll look at the specs and outputs of these mini fridges and see if I can convert one without burning it out.
Thanks.
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I bought an Via Aqua 2300 which pumps 0 to 609 gallons per hour through its adjustible flow valve. It's just like the one that MileHi and Brewhaus sells except it has the capasity to push twice as much water. I use two igloo coolers. The first is filled with cold water which is pumped through the Via Aqua 2300 into the columns and the condenser then out to a second igloo cooler that is filled with ice water and has my wort chiller in it. The hot water goes through the wort chillers copper coils in the ice bath and is then deposited back into the first cooler which stays nice and cold through the entire run. A bit of overkill? Maybe, maybe not. All I know is that it works.
The Via Aqua 2300 sells on eBay for $19.95. The Igloo coolers were $14 each at Walmart, and the wort chiller I made myself and have used for years making beer. Throw in some hoses and fittings and you're done. So basically the whole system cost around the same as a couple of liters of rashig rings. But, like rashig rings, it's a one time investment and with the cost of water where I live paid for itself the third time I used it.
I don't know if this is helpful to you or not, but it seems easier than trying to deal with freon and mini fridges.
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Hey, if it works, it works!
I'll give it a go, thanks.
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