Plate Chiller questions

I have a repurposed Plate Chiller (hot wort goes in one side, cold water goes in the other side) that seems to work great chilling the wort. At the end of my last brew session I noticed something odd.
At the end of the wort drain into my fermenter, I disconnected the wort hose and just let it drain as I was doing something else. The water was still connected and running. After about 5 minutes I could attend to the chiller and noticed that water was comming out of the wort out hose. I didn't notice any coming out of the Wort In port. (I'll check this out tomorrow on my next brew.)

Now the questions; Why? Is the water somehow getting into the wort and diluting it? Is it supposed to do this? I'm not a newbie at brewing but has me stumped. If it's constructed with either Stainless steel or Copper and there is no sign of damage, leakage between the two channels shouldn't happen.

Anyone have any idea's?

Hecliff

You must have a hole in one of your plates. No, it's not supposed to do that.

Well, your plate chiller isn't magically making water....... so it has to be coming from somewhere. There are 2 potential sources:

1) the plate path is quite convoluted, it is possible that the last little bit of wort hold-up in the exchanger was slowly working its way through the plates making it look like it is leaking...

2) through a manufacturing defect, or damage from harsh cleaning chemicals or abuse, there is a leak from the cooling side to the wort side.

To rule out a leak, I would put tap water on the cooling side and pinch off the outlet so you pressurize the cooling side, then see if the wort side fills up.

If there is a hole, I would be more worried about contamination than dilution...

Well, lt's unaminous. It Broke and It need to be replaced it. Thanks and I appreciate your help.

hecliff