Help Plate Chiller

I cant get my plate chiller to drain into my carboy. I have a keggle with dip tube i have the keggle higher the chiller and the carboy lower than the chiller. The wort will flow from the keggle to the plate chiller but wont come out of the plate chiller to carboy.

This continues to happen there has been a time or two in which it has work out just fine.

Any advice on how to get it to work everytime will helpful

Are you using a pump?

DubBrew said:

Are you using a pump?

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No pump

Which plate chiller are you using, hose I'd, and such? If possibld can you post a picture of your setup?

Before I used a pump, I had the plate chiller (Rebel ChillHog 4000) on the table, several inches below the valve and kettle bottom. I had the hose run into the fermenter from there. You want some slack in thd hoses, but not too much. If possible, have the hose going to the chiller ib side an arc (even flow) and then have the out hose from the cbiller always lower than that hose. Although with enough of a drop from the kettle to the chiller, and then from the chiller to the fermenter, it should flow easily.

Are you bagging your hops? Maybe the chiller is getting blockage from hop matter.

I use to gravity feed like that.

Plate chillers hate pellet hops and will clog. Do you have loose hops in the kettle?

I can't say I've ever tried a plate chiller without a pump. So I probably can't help. I would have guessed it couldn't be done or would be very difficult to do.

I'd imagine you'd have to have that keg up extremely high to get it to flow all of the way through the chiller.

1MadScientist said:

I use to gravity feed like that.

Plate chillers hate pellet hops and will clog. Do you have loose hops in the kettle?

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DubBrew said:

I can't say I've ever tried a plate chiller without a pump. So I probably can't help. I would have guessed it couldn't be done or would be very difficult to do.

I'd imagine you'd have to have that keg up extremely high to get it to flow all of the way through the chiller.

Click to expand...

I concur, plate chillers hate chunky stuff. It is definitely possible to gravity feed a plate chiller, that's how I do it. The trick is having enough drop from the chiller to the carboy to get a good siphon started. I want to say I have about an 8-9" drop from the chiller to the carboy. I haven't found the distance from the keg to the chiller to matter so much.

whirlpool heavily before you start the flow, and make sure no particulate matter enters the flow. Plate chillers have very low tolerance for anything other than clean liquid. This may mean disconnecting the dip tube on your boil kettle or fashioning a new one that stays away from center (where the whirlpooled junk goes), so you get a clean draw from the sides, and account for your volume loss when brewing.

I use a Shiron Plate chiller. I thought, that cooking it in the oven (as I've read on this site) and boiling would clean it well enough. Man, was I wrong. I bought some PBW and soaked it in a solution of 2 gallons of warm water and 6 (count em' six) tablespoons of PBW for 48 hours. The gunk that came out of that thing was disgusting. Wouldn't you know that my flow rate increased like it was new. Now, I use a submersible pump after every use, and pump PBW through it (15 Min each direction). Also, I now whirpool (2 dollar paint stirrer that I picked up at WM and use it with my drill) and use a hop spider (search it on this site). Now that I do all that, and with the use of my submersible pump in a tub of ice water, to cool the wort, I get from the boil to 60 degrees in one pass, with the valve on my brew kettle wide open.

here is a photo

That plate chiller has more "plates" than a shirron does, and I've mostly seen the type you have with a pump. Again, how many times have you used it and how do you clean it?

I would try having the chiller vertical with the wort in at the top.

used abouut 10 times now and is a special way to clean it

The bends in the hose coming off the keggle are part of the issue. Standing the chiller upright will eliminate that. I would also have the chiller and keggle a bit higher, so there's more drop from the chiller to the carboy.

Part of why mine drains so well could be because I also have one of the RebelSmart items on it. That allows me to control how long the wort stays in the chiller, as well as showing me what the temperature of the wort coming out is. You could build one yourself with a T fitting, thermocouple and ball valve. Or skip the thermocouple, and just install a 90 degree fitting and ball valve.

I put QD's on the wort side connections to help make setting it up easier. It also makes flushing it much easier since I put a QD fitting on the backflush hose. I can run water through the wort side in both directions, getting most things out of it on brew day. I then let it sit with PBW solution in it for a day, or two, to really break-down any remaining organic matter. Some good rinses removes that once it's done. I also sanitize it with a recirculation (before turning on the chilling water feed). Usually for at least the last 5 minutes of the boil. This is where having a pump is critical.

I've been using the stainless steel hop spider (only part that's not stainless is the bag) for the past few/several batches. Love the thing. Makes adding hops super easy, and keeps the particles out of the chiller and fermenter. :rockin: Mine has a 6" diameter opening, which is another reason it's easy to use. Plus, with it being stainless, I don't need to worry (at all) about how close to the boiling wort it gets.

I have tried stand it up and that doesn't work either.

Built a hop spider this afternoon hope I ope this will help

You probably need more height differences to get things to flow well... Or the chiller is plugged up from the hop matter that's been getting sent through it. Clean it out really well before you use it again, and try to get your keggle higher, as well as the chiller a bit higher, relative to the fermenter. I would also keep the tubing going into the fermenter closer to the top of it. If you submerge the tubing in the bottom, it will reduce the flow going in due to resistance. Besides, splashing at that stage is ok/wanted...

Thanks for all the ideas or help everyone