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Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2021
The tubing integrity was compromised in the bends to include the large radius portion of the coil upon receipt. I thought this would be a highly manufactured product upon review and purchase; however, it wasn’t. I would have returned it but would have to pay shipping… seller did return $20 to me, which covered shipping and a little. Wish I had not bought this thing. Very disappointing…
C.N.
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2013
I opted for this stainless steel wort chiller instead of copper because copper tends to oxidize over time, which may add off flavors to your beer, and copper is much softer than stainless, so it may get bent by accident. The steel tubing is well coiled, it looks just like the product photo, and the 90 degree bends are very well done. As several other reviewers stated, I also had leaking problems with the included hose clamps. Go buy 2 extra 3/8" hose clamps so you can use 2 on the intake and 2 on the output, or it will probably leak water into your wort! Be sure to tighten the heck out of them too! Minus 0.5 stars for that, since they should really include 2 more hose clamps, but at least they're cheap and readily available.They include a note saying you need to use a cleaner called TSP to clean manufacturing residue from the chiller before you use it, but I couldn't find TSP at any hardware stores. I used simple green, rinsed it, then used a d-limonene based citrus degreaser, and rinsed it again. I think that did the trick, but since they recommend an exotic cleaner, it would be far easier if they cleaned it before shipping it to you. Minus 0.5 stars for this.Otherwise the wort chiller works as advertised. Cools the wort quickly! It brought a 6 gallon pot of boiling water from 212F/100C down to 80F/27C in 10 minutes flat, with 56F/13C tap water. Much faster and less hassle than dealing with making an ice bath for your wort. The construction seems like it will last a very long time. My only other caveat is to make sure the vinyl tubing doesn't rest against your hot wort pot, since it will melt.Overall, I would buy this again, it makes wort chilling easier and much faster, but be sure you have the appropriate cleaning products and 2 extra hose clamps before you buy it.
J. Mark Lane
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2012
There's not much to these things. Just a coil of metal tubing and some hose attached to it, and a faucet fitting. But they sure do change the experience of brewing. I brewed 4 or 5 batches without one, using all kinds of makeshift methods to try to cool the wort as fast as possible. Ending up pitching the yeast at higher temps than I would have preferred, just because I ran out of time waiting for the wort to cool. With this thing, on my last batch, for example, I went from 186 degrees to about 86 in less than 12 minutes. I had my 7 year old stirring it, which helps. But it was awesome how quickly it cooled. Was able to pitch at 70 degrees less than 20 minutes after I turned off the burner. Whether the beer's any good remains to be seen, but if not, it won't be because of slow cooling or pitching too warm. As for this particular unit, it's great, just as advertised. I chose the SS over the copper because I felt it would be easier to maintain and maybe last longer. If there is any loss in efficiency, it can't be much, and it certainly does the job. I rinse it after each use, and put it in the brew kettle to store on the shelf. Before each use, I just rinse it well with hot water. The heat of the wort kills any remaining stuff anyway when you immerse it. My only caution, the tubing/hose connection can be a little tricky. I got a couple of extra hose clamps and doubled it up, after it leaked the first time I hooked it up (test run, not while brewing). I had to get an adapter to connect it to my kitchen sink, but that's expected, it comes with the connector for the larger utility style faucets. Overall, a great product and a good price.
Greg
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2011
Well, after much debate on my part I decided to purchase this stainless stell wort chiller. I read many posts by home-brewers for and against the use of stainless chillers for home brewing. The primary fear was that stainless steel would not be able to chill as quickly as copper tubing. I was finally able to test it out a couple weeks ago and I am happy to say that it worked just as well as the copper chiller that I have used in the past. I was able to cool from boiling to 80 F in 15 minutes using ~60 F tap water. The chiller was shipped quickly with plenty of communication from the manufacturer. The single garden hose inlet attachment worked fine for me, plus you get a 12' length of tubing that you can adjust the inlet and outlet lengths as you want. The hardest part was finding the correct adapters to go from my kitchen sink to the garden hose fitting. My advice on that is skip the big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes and go to a good local hardware store. They have many more fittings to choose from and are generally more knowledgable. I also doubled up the hose clamps since leakage at the hose connection is pretty common for this kind of setup. The one red flag with this product is that the instructions tell you to to clean the entire chiller prior to the first use with a cleaner that will remove the manufacturing oils used to shape the stainless tubing. They suggest a TSP (Tri-Sodium Phosphate)product, which seemed to me to be some kind of concrete cleaner that is not sold in most stores. I saw some available online, but it didn't really sound like what I needed. It also has to be safe for stainless steel. After a lot of looking around and confused looks from the sales staff at several home-improvement stores I finally settled on a citrus-type foaming degreaser. Kind of left me hoping that it did what I wanted it to, but the chiller didn't really seem that oily to begin with. Overall, I am very happy with this wort chiller. Hopefully the stainless steel construction will hold up a little better than a copper version.
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