The pre-chiller is recommended for areas with warm tap water, or to simply increase the efficiency of a wort chiller. If your tap water is 80°F (27°C), you will never be able to use it to chill a wort to 75°F (24°C). The solution: a pre-chiller placed in a five-gallon bucket with a bag of ice to dramatically reduce the water temperature before the water runs through the wort chiller. This will increase the efficiency of the wort chiller. The chiller is 10″ tall, 7.75″ wide, and 3″ to the top of the coils.
The pre-chiller is an addition to a wort chiller, not a substitute. A wort chiller is still required. The pre-chiller comes with a female garden hose fitting on the inlet side and a male garden hose fitting on the discharge side that fits the inlet side of most wort chillers and plate chillers. Add the kitchen sink adapter to hook up the pre-chiller to a kitchen sink faucet.
An ice saving tip: If using the pre-chiller with an immersion chiller, run the chiller for 5 minutes to bring the wort temperature down before putting the bag of ice into the bucket with the pre-chiller.
How does a pre-chiller work? Check out this diagram.