water based chiller instead of glycol

[bmason1623]

I was curious if anybody uses or has used a regular air cooled chiller that run water instead of glycol. I know that glycol allows you to get down to temps below freezing whereas water chillers have a lower limit of about 45F. Wouldn't a water based chiller work but it would just take longer to cool wort or fermenters? Thoughts?

[NHBrewer23]

The quick response is that you live in Chicago which has some really cold winters. You do not want your cooling lines to freeze and rupture. Glycol can be mixed at various concentrations to offer freeze protection.

[bmason1623]

True, but if you use a portable air cooled chiller and store it indoors (like I do with my plastics process chiller) then freezing shouldn't be a problem.

[dfalken]

True, but if you use a portable air cooled chiller and store it indoors (like I do with my plastics process chiller) then freezing shouldn't be a problem.

For filtration you want to chill the beer down to around water's freezing level you won't be able to achieve that with water.