Building a wort chiller for ~ $25

Here is a coil of 3/8" copper tubing.  Mike said it was $20.  He went with the thicker tubing, while mine is only 1/4".  It's up to you.  The thicker stuff might cool faster, but I think it is a little more of a challenge to bend into the correct shape.

The vinyl tubing was also 3/8" and you can see the clamps and garden hose/laundry sink adapter.  All of this stuff was about another $5.

He had the idea to create the vertical extension you see here at the TOP of the coil.  Then he maneuvered the other coils around it until it was at the bottom.  He knows more about this stuff than I do and he thought this would work better than trying to pull the it up from the bottom, and through the inside.

You can see in this picture about where he ran into a little bit of trouble.  He got a few kinks in the wrapped-around tubing, but nothing too bad.  Water still flows through it just fine.  But because of the thicker tubing it was a little bit tricky.

Like I said, the vertical piece that you see extending through the inside to the bottom actually started at the TOP of the coil.  You can try it that way or maybe another.

We boiled some water and after dipping the tubing into it, it slid onto the copper pretty easily.   Then he clamped it down.  You can see the garden hose adapter has been clamped on too.

Here is another look at it.  You could bend it to look more uniform if you wanted, but this baby will cool down wort just fine.  We tested it and it didn't leak.  He'll take it for a test run with water sometime soon.

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