Backflushing your Therminator: why bother?

wbutler · 01-28-2009, 03:02 PM

So maybe this is a naive question, but I was thinking about my new therminator the other night and the fact that I need to build a backflush hose for cleaning when I thought, "Why do I need to clean out the coolant side? Beer doesn't touch it, and it's just water anyway."

So why do I? Plenty of stores are selling those hoses for $19, so somebody must be doing something with them, but I'm damned if I can figure it out. It seems like I can just run hot PBW through the wort side in both directions and then just let it drain. As for the coolant side... why bother?

Buford · 01-28-2009, 03:06 PM

Backflushing isn't for the coolant side, it's flushing water through the wort side backwards to the normal flow to get any hop bits and trub out that got caught in the plates.

ScubaSteve · 01-28-2009, 03:34 PM

Yeah, what he said

Also, if you can manage to pulse the flow (like kink/unkink a hose) you'll probably get better results. That agitating motion has unclogged a lot of my gear when continuous pressure never could.

wbutler · 01-28-2009, 10:10 PM

AHHHHH it's so simple!!! Greatness, that sorts that out. Thanks for the tip on the agitation, that's a very clever idea.