Immersion Chiller with Power

Northern Brewer General
1

I asked my good friend, fellow brewer and refrigeration/AC expert if we could build a new immersion chiller that will circulate refrigerant driven by a compressor. We gonna do it.

We’ll source the parts from a Refrigerator, window ac or spec parts and buy them. Not sure yet.

What length would you go on the copper tubing? Anyone ever do this? I was afraid of wort freezing to the coils but he says he’ll size it and can adjust with the charge.

We live in Florida and hose water can be really warm. I’ve also done the pre-chiller in ice bath thing which works ok but really want to do this!

I have a refrigerator in my garage I want to get rid of. Its a smallish apartment size frigidaire. That might be a candidate!

Any thoughts, concerns, or experience?

2

I wanted to do this, but have never found it economical.

3

Saw this idea a while back on another forum, this guy did some pretty interesting experiments:

4

Interesting link. Looks like too big a unit and freezing the coils isn’t really a concern.

I definitely wouldn’t do what he did. It would attach to the immersion coils and no solder point would ever touch the wort.