Winegrowers Supplies  -  Internal Snakes, Plates or Coils, for cooling or heating

  Recommended cooling surface area vs volume.

Snakes: a very popular alternative to plates, you feed the snake through a hole (at least 35 mm diameter) in the lid so that it hangs vertically down.
They can be used also with fixed capacity tanks or wood barrels.

They can be used for cooling or heating. For heating a longer snake can be used, which coils around on the bottom of the tank, with the heat rising upwards.

      

Tube-within-a-tube:-

0.6 metres long, effectively 0.11 square metres,  £123
1.5 metres long, effectively 0.25 square metres,  £136
2.5 metres long, effectively 0.40 square metres,  £170
3.5 metres long, effectively 0.55 square metres,  £195
5.0 metres long, effectively 0.75 square metres,  £237
8.0 metres long, effectively 1.20 square metres,  £318

Choosing the appropriate size depends on the temperatures you want to reach and on the temperature of the liquid.
For 500 litres I suggest using 3.5 metres and for 1000 litres I would use 5.0 metres.

The flexible/corrugated tube-within-a-tube is made from AISI 316 stainless steel.
Water or 30% glycol/water solution is pumped into the outer tube and flows out through the inner.

The inlet thread is at 90 degrees and the outlet is straight. It's very important that these are connected correctly.
The inlet has ½" female bsp thread (except for the 8.0 metre snake which has ½" male bsp thread) and the outlet has ½" male bsp thread.

I can supply adaptors from ½" to ¾" bsp in order to use ¾" bsp female hose-tails for 20 mm internal diameter hose:-
adaptor to fit on the outlet, ½" female to ¾" male: white polypropylene or stainless steel, £4.90,
adaptor to fit on the inlet, ½" male to ¾" male: white polypropylene £1.90 or stainless steel £5.90.
You always need to wrap ptfe tape around the bsp threads when fitting.
Then to connect you use white polypropylene hose-tail-connectors, with rubber seals, ¾" bsp female to 20 mm (or 13 mm) internal diameter hose.

     

A special black plastic fitting is available to go in the tank lid, in addition to the normal air-lock fitting, so that the snake can be used during fermentation, £9.50.
A hole of 2" / 51 mm diameter needs to be cut in the lid. New Variable Capacity tanks can be supplied with the hole cut in the lid, £19.50 for each hole.
To go into the black plastic fitting there is a special silicone-rubber bung, with a very large hole to push the snake through and then hold it in place, £19.

For fixed capacity tanks, a stainless steel attachment is available to fit on the DN50 air-lock point, which allows a cooling snake and air-lock to be used together, £59

Or flexible cooling tubes:-

     

Single flxible tubes: ½" male bsp threads,
the total length is twice that shown below:

1.0 metres long, effectively 0.14 square metres,  £108
2.0 metres long, effectively 0.28 square metres,  £134
2.5 metres long, effectively 0.35 square metres,  £146
3.0 metres long, effectively 0.42 square metres,  £160
4.0 metres long, effectively 0.56 square metres,  £185
5.0 metres long, effectively 0.70 square metres,  £210
7.0 metres long, effectively 0.98 square metres,  £255

   Plates:               Seals: 

  Italian plates: 370 mm wide x
                    600 mm high,  £140
                    800 mm high,  £159
                  1000 mm high,  £177
                  1200 mm high,  £195
                  1400 mm high,  £214
                  1600 mm high,  £233
                  1800 mm high,  £250

1+1 mm AISI 304 or on request AISI 316.

The length of tube above the top of the plate is 175 mm until the thread starts.
The thread is 100 mm long and is ½" bsp.

The plates are double welded at the seam and at the edge: there are no gaps where the two SS sheets are welded together. This makes them more secure, and there are no rough joints or sharp edges. They are electrolytically polished after completion of welding operations, resulting in an extremely smooth surface (easy to clean). They are pressure tested at 8 bar - operating pressure is up to 5 bar.

The plates are normally installed into lids of variable capacity tanks. For each plate, two holes 21 mm diameter need to be drilled in the lid, at 290 mm c-c. No welding is needed.
Special seals (photo above) for where the plate goes through the lid @ £6 per set of two; a stainless steel nut (½" bsp internal thread) with s/s washer and a silicone seal; photo above.
A stainless steel ½" bsp bolt can be used in place of the above fitting, to seal the hole after the cooling plate is removed.

Inlet/outlet pipes have long ½" male threads, with adaptors this can be increased to ¾" after installation:-
    ¾" hexagon male-thread with ½" inner female thread @ £6 each; two needed per plate.

The additional weight of a plate is such that a small winch may be necessary to lower and raise the tank lid; hand-operated winches are available from many sources.

Two plates can be fitted to one tank lid, for greater cooling. With 2 plates it is worth fitting a strengthening/bracing sheet to increase the rigidity of the lid.

The cooling liquid can be cooled water. For a much more efficient method then a closed circuit system using a glycol (antifreeze) solution recycled through a heat exchanger, enables the water-mixture to be cooled to a much lower temperature. A low speed pump is needed for circulation, with controllable flow rate to enable the temperature of the fermenting juice to be adjusted.
The ideal is, once the fermentation has started, to reduce the juice temperature to just below 10 °C, which should enable the fermentation to last 3 to 4 weeks.
Tartrate crystals precipitate on the plates but these would precipitate anyway, during the winter, on the tank walls.

Heat Exchanger coils:

   Stainless steel (AISI 304, V2A) tubular spiral, ¾":-

0.6 square metres, 270 mm diameter,  600 mm high,  £280
1.1 square metres, 270 mm diameter,  990 mm high,  £420
1.7 square metres, 370 mm diameter,        mm high,  £588
2.2 square metres, 370 mm diameter,        mm high,  £774
2.8 square metres, 370 mm diameter, 1630 mm high,  £928
3.3 square metres, 370 mm diameter, 1930 mm high, £1060


Cooling/heating temperature controller:- £195
           

Prices shown are exclusive of Vat.
Delivery will need to be charged at cost.

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