worm question

[trigger985]

hey all,

I am in the proccess of getting all the things i need togeather for my first build. I will be using a 15.5 gallon ss keg as my boiler, coming up to a 2" pipe with easy flang, reducing down to 1" then to half inch for my worm. now one thing i have not found out for sure is how long a length of copper i will need for my worm and how tight or loose it should be wound. as it stands right now i can only get 10' lenghts of copper pipe and am wondering if that is enough. i understand with enough water flow through my flake stand barrel cooling the worm it can be any length but where i live it is not possible to have alot of water flowing out onto the lawn from the shed, people are way to nosey. so for a slow replacement of water how long should my worm realistically be and how large should the turns be (could i wrap it around a 6" dia pipe and have a a smaller dia worm but it be longer ect). any help would be greatly apprieciated, I tried a google search on this site and came up with nothing other then a worm should be made from half inch for best results. thanks

[Dnderhead]

"i can only get 10' lenghts of copper pipe"
is this "hard copper"?
most hardware has soft "under the bench" or "out back"

[trigger985]

ok i should have clearafied that, for half inch soft copper the shops around my town only bring it in in 10' (coiled in the box), i asked and they said they would need to special order it as people usually dont ask for more then that. I can get 20 feet of 3\8ths but not 1/2".

[Alberta Shiner]

I run a similar system and reduce down to 1/2" copper refrigeration coil, that should come in 30 and 50 foot stretches.

[TOAD]

You should be able to work with 10', just make sure the full 10' is submerged and you may want to figure a way to cool your water to reuse it. Your cutting it really close though, 10' of 1/2" is IMO the Minimum for a worm.

[rtalbigr]

For the size of your pot 1/2 inch is the smallest you should go for your worm, but 10 ft will work. Since you don't want water flowing out into your yard look into a way of recirculating the water in your flake stand. It really doesn't take that much water, you could have like a 15 gal reservoir to recirculate very slowing, some ice, and you are good to go.

I have a 5 gal pot and a 4 gal flake stand. My cooling water input is at a drip. The top water in the flake stand will get hot but at the bottom of the flake stand it is always cool. That's all you need to accomplish.

Big R

[trigger985]

thanks for the responses, I was thinking that 10 feet would be the bare minimum I could use. I will try to make a run down to the city at some point but that's more then a few hours away so I just wanted to make sure. hopefully I can just order some in and they wont ask what its for. downside to living in a smaller town everyone wants to have their nose in your business, so discretion is a must in my case.

[Dnderhead]

" they wont ask what its for. "
its XXXX water pipe,what do you want???
a big ole pot..its to cook in,,,NO???
a burner its to heat the big ole pot so you can cook for a big Barbe q

[rager]

why not use a liebig? the out put shouldnt be much more than a thin stream of water , and you can run into a sink or a bucket with with a pump?

[redmud]

Can you just buy a 1/2" coupler and solder 2 10'x1/2" lengths together if you need to. I used a 3/8" x 10' soft copper pipe in a five gallon bucket for my 6 gallon pot with success just took a 1/8" steady stream to cool it.

[trigger985]

I was thinking about a liebig but this being my fist build i wanted to keep it simple, though not having to worry about flat spots and perfect downwards coils is starting to sound nice..... some more research and endless roaming around tthe hardware store is in my future i see

[RonH3154]

I was thinking about a liebig but this being my fist build i wanted to keep it simple, though not having to worry about flat spots and perfect downwards coils is starting to sound nice..... some more research and endless roaming around tthe hardware store is in my future i see

I've given a lot of thought to the worm vs liebig and finally decided that I think the liebig is ultimately easier. The most difficult part is getting rid of the ridge in the tee so the pipe will slide through. However I decided that would be easier than making sure there are no flat spots in the worm.

[UtahViking]

I have a very similar setup from what I can tell except I have 10' of 3/8 coil as my worm. Honestly the 3/8 works great for me. Mine was the per coiled in a box as well and I just carefully rewound it around about a 10" pipe then put spacers in between the coils and mounted it in a 5 gallon bucket. I use a small fountain pump to circulate my cooling water. Works excellent.

[TOAD]

3/8ths copper works, im not surprised. We say 1/2' in minimum, because if we dont, its only a matter of time before someone sais "if 3/8 works, 1/4 should work. And 5/16 aint much smaller. Its what i have." then we get to hear about some poor basterds blowing them selfs up.

[redmud]

Yes I would stick to 1/2" or better for a 15 gallon boiler. I don't know the math but you just don't want any back pressure to blow things apart all that alcohol vapor in the air at once would be bad with an open flame

[trigger985]

yeah thats the very first thing i picked up on when starting to read here is when working with propane or wood flame, or any heat source for that matter, the last thing you want is any sort of back pressure which was why i was leaning way towards 1/2''. but after a night of research and alot of back and forth on this single matter i think i am going to use a liebig. I can get those large blue plastice 55 gallon drums for $20 a peice from my local grenhouse so with that and a small pond pump I can recirculate as much water as needed with no need to let it flow out onto the lawn and it should take awhile for that much cold water to warm up.

does anyone have the link to the liebig calculator to see how large you need it to be? i saw it once on here and now cant find it for the life of me. thanks alot

[lickermaker]

buy two rolls and a coupling! 20' should be plenty sufficient so long as you maintain the downward spiral and keep it all cool