Plastic underfloor pipe for wort cooler?

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J

jug55

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Hi guys,
I asked my local plumber if he could make me a wort cooler from a diagram I left him. he turned up today with a cooler made from plastic underfloor heating pipe. Has anyone tried this or can advise on its suitability?
 
had to check the date , its not April 1st again already is it??


lots of warning bells ringing..
the obviouse being is it a heatsafe &foodsafe material for acidic conditions over 100C , and even if it is if its a compisite material any such assurances will apply to the core alone..

then there is the mater of conductivity, copper is 40x more conductive then SS and is why most coil heat exchangers are copper, So how long do u want to spend stirring the kettle over a placky heat exchanger 1? 2? hours or more?

** edit u sure its not plastic coated copper? if so peel of the placky
 
Hello There.
Under floor heating pipe is made from cross linked polythene. This should withstand the temperature and is food safe.

My sceptism is the plastic would act like an insulator and not work very efficiently compared to copper.

The latest efficient hot water cylinders have "Stranded coil" heat exchangers in them. ie. rather than a big coil it splits into four coils of small bore tubes. A mathmatician could explain the increase in surface area doing this.
Wickes sell 10 metre coils of 8 mm bore copper for £20.00.
 
The plumber thought he was doing me a turn by saving me money. I had left him a pic of a copper cooler but needed some info from the forum to say why I wasn't going to use it. Didn't want to hurt his feelings!

George
 

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