A Heat Exchanger I Can Clean

Hi, I have a chill wizard with a brazed plate hx. Don't feel like I can really clean it that well since the plates are fused together. Tons of people recommend circulating the boiling wort through it for 5-10 minutes to kill bacteria, which I did the last few times, but I'm still getting infected. Are there any small plate chillers that can be disassembled? A bit mystified about what's happening.

hb

Basic answer is no there are not and small heat exchangers that can be disassembled. I would run PBW through the chiller multiple times for abut 30 minutes each time until there are no hop particles coming it of the chiller. Then I would pack it with starsan solution and cap it and left it sit for a few minutes drain and store. On brew day I recirc starsan from my HLT through all my hoses, pump, and plate chiller then I recirc near boiling wort for a few minutes for good measure.

Put your plate chiller in the oven at 450 for a half hour to an hour. Then rinse water through it and any trapped bits will be flushed out. Plus the heat is guaranteed to kill everything.

won't heating the plat chiller with rubber gasgets inside (don't they have them?) cause the gasgets to deteriorate?

There aren't any rubber parts inside these plate chillers. If the model has garden hose fittings on the water side you have to remove the o-ring inside the female coupler...

Cheers!

But won't the extreme heat cause the brazed steel to expand and crack? I read post where one guy suggested putting the hx in a pressure cooker and packing it with water. Wasn't quite as hot as 450 but do you need that kind of heat to kill everything?

Thanks,

HB

Mine has been through the oven at 450 and hasn't broken, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

"A Heat Exchanger I Can Clean"

Immersion chiller.

I wouldn't run wort through the chiller only for the reason that you're adding more break material, which will just make it harder to clean. I back flush mine for at least ten minutes as soon as i'm done and soak it in PBW for a while. I would guess since you have the chill wizard, you really can't soak it though, maybe you can just pump it though and recycle the water.