I am currently using an immersion chiller and a sump pump for my wort chilling. I fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and put the pump in too. I let the water run through the chiller that is inside the boiling wort and exit into another bucket. Once the return water is not so hot, I then put big ice chunks into the water bucket and refill with water, then place the return hose into the bucket with the ice and pump. It takes time and I have to keep adding ice
But, this still takes a decent amount of time to get the wort chiller. My tap water is in the mid 60s. My last brew took near 45 minutes to cool. I know plate and counter flow chillers are faster but I don’t have the ability to use those at the moment.
I have recently come into possession of a lot of smaller SS coils for free. My idea is to chain them together, and place into a big igloo cooler filled with ice and salt water. Then I will chain this into the bucket of water with the pump, and feed the output of my immersion chiller through these new coils. Essentially I’m trying to save water and ice, and speed up the process, and I feel like these extra coils may help me get better water cooling while not melting the ice nearly as much. This will conserve ice and possibly require less water overall. Does anyone think this is even worthwhile, or am I just putting lipstick on a pig? I really hate how long the cooling takes, even with my current setup