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Pump w/ immersion chiller

Northern Brewer General
#1

Sanity check please…

I’m considering an immersion chiller. So far I have not gotten one because it cannot really hook up to my sink. (It’s one of those “pretty” faucets where the whole head pulls out to be a spray nozzle; no threads)

So I’m thinking I could fill a “homer” bucket with ice and water, and use a craw-space, submersible pump to force water through the chiller. I’m thinking I may need to drain some of the water, and add more ice at least once through the process. Since the water never actually touches the wort I’m not too concerned about the basement pump contaminating the wort, but I may run some soapy water through first, just to clean it…

Has anyone tried something like this? does it sound like it would work?

#2

It is possible that there is a faucet under the sink you can put a hose on?

Otherwise, I might be inclined to fill the bucket from the faucet and run the pump from there. At least until you get the wort temp down to ~100. Then move to adding ice and recirculating.

Cut’s the cost or time needed to make enough ice.

#3

I use a set up like that in the summer, when my tap water is around 65. I chill down to 90-100 and then hook up the pump. Your arrangement would work, but you will need to be able drain some of the water, because you’ll definitely need to add ice.

#4

I tried various ways of cooling and none of them brought the wort temps down fast enough, and, since I’m cheap and had heard of others using a pond pump, I decided to go with this from Harbor Freight.

I put the output hose into a 5 gal bucket with the faucet running cold into the left sink until it no longer outputs hot water. I turn off the pump and faucet to empty the bucket then repeat. Usually only requires a couple of buckets. I mention this as I “have” forgotten to watch the bucket and got a wet kitchen floor. Wife wasn’t too happy.

When output is cool I place the output hose into the left sink along with the input hose and fill it with ice cubes and/or ice bottles and recirculate the water until done. I whirlpool the wort gently from time to time to cool faster.

I also place the chiller in the boil for the last 20 minutes to sterilize it.
Works for me…

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