While the SS wire may stand up to the heat and weight strain, it's stealing probably close to 40% or more of your burner's heat. I think you'll see a dramatic increase in propane use unfortunately.
So you do not strain out the pellet hops? How long does it take to chill 10 gallons?
2 brews ago I did an APA and used 3 oz. of pellets. I just tossed them right in. I did a good whirlpool at the end, let them settle, and drained to the chiller. That was a 5 gal batch, and it dropped to 75-80 as fast as I could drain the kettle. It chills the wort immediately, you're just limited by how long it takes to fill the fermenter. It gives a hellaciously strong cold break, about 6 inches off the bottom, and that settled into a solid cake with the trub. I did use a highly flocculating yeast though. The beer had the best hop flavor I've had in my beers...I never realized how much my hop utilization suffered with paint strainers.
Now that I've actually clogged the chiller, I can see it has limits. I'd put some sort of coarse strainer in, but wouldn't worry about particulates.
Now, back to the rig !
I DID in fact have some big trouble with the shelving...more to come on that This build has gone in a slightly different direction...more pics to come
It gives a hellaciously strong cold break, about 6 inches off the bottom, and that settled into a solid cake with the trub.
I was stunned by the amount of cold break since switching from an IC to a plate chiller! Even after settling awhile, it goes about a third of the way up the carboy. But like you say, it eventually settles down almost completely.
Must be the speed...instead of chilling the whole kettle volume slowly, you're bringing a small quantity of wort (that within the chiller at any given moment) down to cold temps very quickly.
__________________ FERMENTING: Members Only Maibock, Apfelwein KEGGED / BOTTLED: Düsseldorf Altbier, Honeydripper Hefe, High Yellow Strong Belgian Ale, Irish Red Ale, Canned Heat Wee Heavy ON TAP: Ó Flannagáin Extra Stout, Squeeze My Lemon Summer Blonde, Apfelwein ON DECK: Munich Helles, Ó Flannagáin Extra Stout, Cold Shot ESB
You'll have a lot easier time with it if it's electric (assuming you know how to wire everything). A lot of my headscratching came from mounting burners and putting in heatshields.
Yup - I followed your other thread pretty closely. For what it's worth, I thought you were pretty crazy making a propane/NG brew stand out of wood, but hey - we brewers aren't always the sanest bunch.
Yup - I followed your other thread pretty closely. For what it's worth, I thought you were pretty crazy making a propane/NG brew stand out of wood, but hey - we brewers aren't always the sanest bunch.
Not to take this off-topic but my understanding is that there's no issues with having the cold break in the primaries (6 gallon carboys) correct? I swear I read that somewhere here. If yes, and the cold break compresses nicely over time, why do some people try and keep the cold break out of the fermenters?
So, I've done quite a bit to the rig in the last few months......I added lots of awesome diamond plate! It's actually aluminum, 1/16" thick. I would have liked to have SS, but am pretty satisfied with it so far and it's really machineable which was a HUGE plus. You ever try to drill SS?
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This build has gone in a slightly different direction...more pics to come 
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