I have used mine once. I did the whirlpool and let sit for 10 minutes. I did a single pass to my plate chiller into the fermentor. As the wort level go really low, I closed off the valve a bit, as instructed. Then I lifted the guard up. I just kegged the beer from the fermentor yesterday. There was hardly any hop sediment at the bottom.
The design does suck a bit for whirlpooling. I seemed to keep hitting it, which would shift it back and forth. It did not seem to effect its job at filtering. It is definitely worth having. I think it is a bit overprice, but there really is not any competition out there. Like stated in the other thread a thinner disign would had been nice.
Make sure you whirlpool. Use a thinner stirrer, if you have a bulky one like I do. I had no issues at all with clogging of the plate chiller, so everything seemed to work as advertised.
