Glycol Chiller

I build a glycol chiller from a window air conditioner for cold crashing my home brew

[@kevinholbrook7174]

Great job on your build! I was trying to figure out how to chill my water and keeping it at moderate temperature. I would like to see a step-by-step video on how you built yours and including the wiring instructions. Thanks 🙏 and hope you have a blessed day!

[@87jdm350z]

Really liked your video I am thinking about building one of these myself.

[@knowyuhgrow420]

Thanks for sharing I trying to build on for my rdwc system

[@homebrewingtips6029]

Great job, I am sure that it was a "oh SH#%^T" moment when the copper tube cracked! Nice to have the skills to recover from that. Our setups are now about the same, I have my chiller connected to my Spike CF10 so I am a shade smaller. I have 10G of Pilsner just finishing up now, and my glycol chiller has kept the temperature right where it needed to be. Thanks for sharing your build, and again, congratulations! -DT

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

Thanks for your video that gave me the idea to go that same route instead of paying 1500 bucks for a pre built chiller. I have a 5 gallon IPA I am dry hopping right now. I read that dry hopping at 50 f can speed up the process and help avoid dry hop creep. I am very pleased with how well the chiller keeps the beer in the conical fermenter cold! Cheers. Shawn

[@homebrewingtips6029]

@@CanadianBrewingChannel I am doing my dry hop differently these days. Here is a link you might find interesting (in that short video there is a link to a longer one that goes into the setup in more detail). Great job again on the chiller project! -DT

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

Glad it worked out for you!

[@shaneballard2915]

Could you go into detail on the wiring for this unit. I have an old AC just like this one. The panel died on me and want to use it for a glycol project but have yet to find a wiring diagram that will work for jumping it over.

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

Hi Shane! I meant to go into more detail on the wiring but things got busy. I will do a video soon on how I wired my A/C to run without the control board. I am in the middle of selling our home and just bought a new house so things are a bit crazy around here right now lol. Thanks for watching. Cheers

[@Crashboy450]

I really like this build. I'm hoping to build one of my own later in the spring. I also saw your CIP setup. Would you mind sharing more info about that? What pump, CIP ball, etc? Thanks!

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

Here is the link to the CIP i bought from Toronto brewing supplies. You can find these CIP balls anywhere. torontobrewing.ca/products/1-5-tri-clover-stainless-steel-cip-spray-ball . I use the CIP with a 90 degree 3/4" barb fitting that I slide silicone tubing over. That connects to a sump pump. (no float). I built an extension onto the outlet of the sump pump out of copper tubing and added another 3/4" barbed fitting for the other end of the silicone tubing to slide onto. Sump sits in my sink and I sit the conical beside the sink so it can drain into the sink. I remove and hop and yeast debris first. I then run hot water through it for 5 min. I then run hot water with PBW for 20 min. I then run warm clean water through it for 5 min. Last I run star san through it at 50% concentration you would use for regular sanitizing. for 5 min. ( 0.5 oz for 5 gallons- very little) Disassemble and let dry. Cheers.

[@Crashboy450]

@@CanadianBrewingChannel Awesome! Thanks for the info! I'll get it with my next order.

[@cadillacescalade1]

Good work I advise you to use aquarium mini pump to keep glycol circulating in the box for better cooling distribution. You dont need to use glycol Just water is ok

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

I like to use the glycol so I can get it down to well below freezing. It makes for a quick cold crash and less tine cycling off and on. Thanks for watching!

[@parthiban517]

​@@CanadianBrewingChannel How much percentage of glycol you have added with water to maintain sub cooling temperature?

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

@@parthiban517 I use a pre mixed solution that I bought from a home brew supply shop. Cheers

[@parthiban517]

@@CanadianBrewingChannel Thankyou for your immediate response ...

[@FallLineJP]

Trying this for a DIY ice rink chiller, from a 28,000 BTU unit. Curious about the idea of bending the evap coil flat. Since the outlet back towards the compressor is at the top of the coil, I would think that gravity normally helps you separate the gas from the liquids. Laying it down flat might increase the chance of it ingesting liquid, no?

[@FallLineJP]

Nevermind, i re-watched that part and figured out the orientation you wanted to put it in. Might have worked well since you have multiple “bottoms” for the liquid to sit in while the gas flows up the tubes. Too bad the coil broke. Another thing I saw others do is to rip all of the alum fins off and just leave the bare copper exposed. It would probably be better for glycol flow in the tank and increase the effective surface area since glycol probably can’t flow effectively through the tiny fins optimized for air. Your final bare copper coil is doing basically exactly that, looks great!

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

@@FallLineJP I would have been in trouble if I wasn't a refrigeration mechanic lol. System works great and yes, having no fins works much better. Cheers.

[@scoobytj1]

hi. nice work. can you share a diagram of the copper coil how is the conection

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

I used 50 feet of soft drawn 1/4" OD AC/R copper. I cut it in half and spliced the 2 25' lengths together with a T for better refrigerant flow. I used a copper T and a union to fit the coil onto the existing piping. I rolled the copper around a 10" pipe to achieve the diameter I needed to fit into the cooler. I brazed the copper together with Sil-Fos 15 brazing rod. Melting point is around 1200 F. The refrigerant charge I used was 404a.

[@nathansherrer6293]

How do you know how many pounds of refrigerant to add back to the system, and does it change when you changed the original evap coils to the new coils you made?

[@shawnrobinson3483]

Great question!. I estimated how long the tubing was in the original coil and figured that the 50 feet of replacement tubing was pretty close. I changed the refrigerant from 410a to 404a. They are both similar and same amount of refrigerant was weighed back in as per the air conditioners data plate. Also I monitored it as it was being charged to see if I saw any signs of liquid flood back. All is good. Cheers!

[@danschaefer6124]

Shawn where do you buy your glycol ! Where r u located Ontario because I cannot find glycol for the money you said approx 15 per gal.. Nice info nice explaining..

[@shawnrobinson3483]

Hi Dan! I miss spoke in the video. I paid $40 per gallon. I bought it from Toronto brewing supplies in North York. Thanks for watching! Cheers.

[@krmcc01]

Do you think that this would cool good enough to condense alcohol vapor into alcohol on a 15 gallon still ?

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

More than likely. I tried building a crude distiller once and used ice. Ice melts at 0 Celsius. The glycol in my chiller I keep at -5 Celsius. You can adjust the glycol bath to what ever temp you need. The only question I can think of is if this air conditioner is big enough (BTU) to condense the alcohol vapors down which depends on how fast you are circulating in the collector tubing. When I use this system for chilling beer, I use it to cold crash 10 gallons of beer from 22 Celsius to 3 Celsius. This system does that easily in about 1 hour. Then it just has to hold it there. When you are distilling you are constantly passing vapor at min 50 Celsius and up to 80 Celsius if I recall. I do believe that a glycol chiller could do it but again it would depend on how many BTU's the air conditioner is. Mine is 8500. Interesting question. Cheers

[@krmcc01]

@@CanadianBrewingChannel Yeah you start getting alcohol vapors at around 173 F , but the thing about it is it sometimes takes 4 to 5 hours of running before you shut the still off so you will have a constant 173 degree F circulating back into the reservoir. It would be interesting if it would keep up. Thanks for the reply from Tennessee.

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

@@krmcc01 Your welcome.

[@dwaynegordon9647]

@Canadian Brewing Channel . Fellow Canadian here. Great job! Where did you find Glycol at $15/gallon? Thanks

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

Hi Dwayne, sorry I spoke incorrectly on $14 a gallon for glycol. I wish! lol. I paid $40 a gallon. I bought it from Toronto brewing supplies. I just checked and it is now $50 bucks a gallon. We can thank Covid for that. Cheers!

[@dwaynegordon9647]

@@CanadianBrewingChannel Thanks for the reply. I knew it was too good to be true. lol. TB is where I currently get it too, which is the cheapest I found. Too bad I am on the West Coast. Cheers

[@1975mtl]

Do you see any reason not to use swimming pool line antifreeze? Supposed to be non toxic and is around $20 a gallon.

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

@@1975mtl I guess as long as it can be mixed to handle the temp you are going down to and it doesn't react to copper and stainless steel.

[@geronimoelindio9641]

This one can work to chill from the boil to fermenter?

[@CanadianBrewingChannel]

I don't use it to cool down from the boil but I guess it could. I don't want to put 212 f wort in my fermenter is all.