Comments

1. chris says

   September 6, 2015 at 1:46 pm

   Something is wrong with these measurements. I would recheck either your thermometer or the measured temperature of the groundwater during the trial.
   It is not possible that you cooled the wort to lower (67*F) temperaure than your cooling water temperature (72.6*F) during the No Pre-chill Trial .

2. Venu T. says

   October 12, 2016 at 6:06 pm

   In addition to the above comment, there is also the issue of how well the ground water is chilled inside the pre-chiller.
   Assuming the ice/water mixture is close to 35degrees inside the pre-chiller, you should be able to adjust the flow rate thru the pre-chiller to get the ground water to drop closer to 45degrees, at least 10 degrees better than the above example. This will cause the wort temperature to drop faster.

   Further, packing ice in the pre-chiller and letting it sit for a while so the coil is chilled before use can improve the performance as well.

3. Bryan says

   May 8, 2018 at 10:43 am

   While I agree with the two comments above, I am chiming in here more to say that using a pre-chiller is totally worth it. I also built one myself and it makes chilling my wort MUCH easier in the summer months. I prefer to pitch right after cooling, so it works out well for me.

   But like the others said, definitely want to recheck those numbers if you can.

4. Tg says

   January 25, 2023 at 7:02 pm

   My experience is that a prechiller is not very helpful in the initial cooling from boiling down to about 100 degrees F. However, a prechiller is very helpful in cooling the wort from 100 degrees F to pitching temperatures. This is especially true with cold water sources above 60 degrees F. If you live in an area where water source temperatures are below 60 degrees F, don’t bother with ba prechiller.