Maybe this is a dumb question, but I haven’t seen it addressed here before. Possibly because it doesn’t matter, but I’m curious. I just ordered an IC and was wondering if it matters to anyone in which direction the cold water flow should go, bottom up or top down. Does anyone have a preference or can anyone explain why one way works better than the other? Or does it not really matter?
I would guess from top down would be more efficient. The colder water getting to the hottest water which is on top first then the cooler wort coming in contact with warmer chilling water. If you went the other way the warmer water would be trying to cool the hottest wort. Not sure if this makes sense. But that’s my oppinion
Agree starting from the top seems sensible to me. I’ll have to take a closer look when I drag it out tomorrow. That said, if you purchased a pre-made chiller, it probably only has a hose fitting on one end anyway, so just go with it.
The one I purchased has a male fitting attached to one end & a female hose fitting attached to the other end of the the copper tubing. I already have braided (and color coded) washer hoses that I plan to use with it. They both have female fittings so I’m going to have to pick up an adapter anyway. I was thinking top down made more sense but I’m not sure and want the more efficient setup if there is a difference. Maybe I’ll try it both ways to see if there’s a difference. Thanks for the replies.
The stainless one I got from NB has the water in hose attached to the bottom coil. Not sure if there’s a reason for this or not though.
most of the IC’s I have seen has the supply water to the bottom but I don’t think it makes much difference.
Any difference would probably be negligible . I was thinking about using a small pump and circulating water from an ice bath through the IC. It wouldn’t waste as much water, you wouldn’t need to be near a faucet and it would chill pretty fast.
This is what I do.
Enough cold tap water to get the flow steady, and a 10-15lbs bag of ice. From boiling to pitchable in 20 minutes or less. Running a tap for that long feels unnecessarily wasteful. Now if only I could remember to just bag my own ice…
This is what I do.
Enough cold tap water to get the flow steady, and a 10-15lbs bag of ice. From boiling to pitchable in 20 minutes or less. Running a tap for that long feels unnecessarily wasteful. Now if only I could remember to just bag my own ice…[/quote]
What is the length and diameter of your chiller?
+1 That’s what I do.
This is what I do.
Enough cold tap water to get the flow steady, and a 10-15lbs bag of ice. From boiling to pitchable in 20 minutes or less. Running a tap for that long feels unnecessarily wasteful. Now if only I could remember to just bag my own ice…[/quote]
What is the length and diameter of your chiller?[/quote]
No idea. But it’s this one:
One correction though, I need more like 15-20 lbs ice.
Oh, and the pump end is on the upper coil.
