Wort chiller efficiency

[Beer-lord]

With my wort chiller in my kettle and the false bottom I have, I have a few 'curls' of the chiller that is never immersed in the wort so the cooling efficiency is lost. This is not a big problem in the cooler months but now that we are in hell, I'm looking for a way to bring the coils closer together. I've tried putting something heavy on it for a bit but that didn't work. I want to try to tie them together but other than copper and stainless, which I don't have, I don't know what I can use to do so while chilling the beer.
It's not a huge problem as my pump works well with ice after I get it down to 100 with ground water but surely have about 1/4 of the coils above the wort line is not allowing it to do it's best job.
Come on Borg engineers, give me ideas. I'm sure my tired brain is missing something but I don't know what is safe to tie them together with.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Brew more volume of beer!DUH!

[Beer-lord]

Only if you come to town to help me get rid of it.
I know this isn't really a problem, just a tweak as I head into lots of summer brewing. The good news is that I'll sweat all the liquid out of my body and have to replenish it with beer I guess.

[Whamolagan]

Zip tie the coils together

[John Sand]

I second zip ties. Sanitize first, of course.

[Beer-lord]

Zip tie the coils together

Wham, with what? I'm not only worried about contamination by doing that but it would melt. I put my chiller in with 20 minutes left in the boil to kill off any possible bacteria and I'm sure thinking regular zip ties will not work.
I may just go search Lowes for copper tie wire or stainless tire wire. I know Amazon has it as well but I'm not sure how malleable it is.

I also saw this: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=189682

Hey look, just tried Lowes.com and lookee what I found for $4.58. I thought of this before but was too sleepy this morning to think to even look there.

008236181579.jpg (504.44 KiB) Viewed 795 times

[Whamolagan]

that wire will work, and cheap. I doubt the zip ties would melt but the wire is the way to go. Do you have any leftover house wiring laying around? you could strip the plastic off and use that, or take some from your neighbors house

[Beer-lord]

that wire will work, and cheap. I doubt the zip ties would melt but the wire is the way to go. Do you have any leftover house wiring laying around? you could strip the plastic off and use that, or take some from your neighbors house

Actually, they are remodeling a house 2 doors down that was nearly destroyed in a fire and there's been electrical company trucks there the last few days. Maybe I should go see (after dark of course)

[Whamolagan]

Go ask the electricians, they usually have small scraps around they would probably give you for a pint

[Inkleg]

I've found beer is great for bartering. The guys at PaxAir will swap out expired Co2 tanks for home brew.

[DjPorkchop]

I pondered having a guy take some copper strips and soldering mine together with some room in between coils for cleaning. My chiller is HUGE. I got it from KNeace over at MBF years ago for like $40 to my door! Yeah buddy! But it is huge and a quarter of it sticks oout of my boils easily. I think it is a full 50' coil if I'm not mistaken. I can't recall how much copper I bought for him to build it for me.

*EDIT*
And I failed to mention the old dropping it in the boil to sanitize is all but nil due to how much sticks out so I soak it in starsan for as long as I want then drop it in the boil with around 15 minutes to go. Im not dropping it in the boil without a soak first as that much exposed and not sanitized ... Nope.