Price: $40.00
Pros: Was cheap (2nd-hand), and works efficiently in most weather
Cons: Really need a pump to get "full value" of a CFC, I don't have one
Recommended? Yes

Comments: Let me start by saying that this is my ONLY chiller, I do not own an IC. I wish I had an IC for things like Pale Ales or IPAs where you want to "lock in" your hops.

I picked up my Phil's CFC on consignment for $40, and have been fairly happy with it so far. I do not own a pump, so I do "one-pass" cooling - that is to say, I turn off the burner, turn on the garden hose, and then use my ball valve on my kettle to regulate the wort flow so that the cooled wort is at the temperature at which I want it to be. "One-pass" cooling works fairly well for me as long as the outdoor temperature is below 95*-100*F. At those temperatures, the ground water starts to get warmer than I prefer it to be, and I do not currently own/use a prechiller for the ground water. If you live in a hot climate, you may want to investigate a prechiller before you purchase a CFC.

My only major gripe with my Phil's CFC is that the zip-ties that hold the coil together are not very good at keeping it "straight". I plan to fix this by going through and using short zip-ties to attach neighboring coils together, two at a time.

Also, a little annoying to clean post-use because I do not own an air compressor. In the past, I've just filled the entire coil with StarSan and capped both ends. I do not know if this negatively affects the copper.

But all in all, for a $40 second-hand product, I have gotten good use out of my Phil's CFC.

Edit: One more thing, throw away the white plastic Quik-Clamps, and put some real S/S Hose Clamps on this puppy! Otherwise you may find that the garden-hose fittings start to spray water after a couple uses!

Price: $64.95
Pros: From boil to low 70's in about 5 minutes
Cons: Cleaning/drying. Cold break in primary
Recommended? Yes

Comments: I bought this chiller to try to eliminate chill haze. My previous immersion chiller took about 30 minutes to cool to pitching temperature, and I always got a chill haze if the beer was put on ice.
I've now done four brews with it.
Brew 1 has a fermentation problem. It's still fermenting very slowly in the secondary, but tastes good - so I'll just be patient.
Brew 2 was a stout. Not good for checking for chill haze
Brew 3 has just been bottled. I chilled one, and it is crystal clear.
Brew 4 is still in the primary.
Mine is a bit different than the picture. The extensions for the water hoses are much shorter. This doesn't affect operation at all, but does make it much easier to store.
It's slightly more difficult to use than the immersion chiller requiring short lengths of garden hose that have to be connected and routed to run without kinks.
Sanitation is trivial. I start with a bottling bucket of Iodophor or Starsan, and drain it through the chiller into the primary; sanitizing the chiller and the primary in one step.
Cleaning after use was a bit of extra work, but I rigged up a short length of hose from the kitchen faucet to the outlet, and reverse flush with hot water for a minute or two. Draining all the water out of it is a pain. I think I'll make a couple of adapters, and blast it dry with the air compressor.
It does leave a lot of cold break in the primary, but that gets left behind when I rack to secondary.

All in all, I am very pleased with it.

-a.