Therminator ?

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seansbrew

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Oct 12, 2005
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Location
Mesa AZ
Hello all, this is my first post here, I am looking for any real world feedback on the Therminator. Who has one and how do you like it? advantages/disadvantages? Since I have no way of trying one out before I buy, I want a little feedback. Thanks all.
 
Here is a picture of it.
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I heard its pretty good but the price has always scared me away.

A new one has recently hit the market with a nicer price tag. Supposedly the Shirron heat exchanger cools 5 gallons of wort in 10 minutes, so the Therminator sounds more efficient--but man is that a lot of dough.
 
90 bucks, thats not bad at all. I will have to look into this if it actually works. Seems like it would be pretty easy to use/clean.
 
I've heard they rock, but are a PITA without quick disconnects and the "backflow" cleaner thingamajig, which will both add to the bottom line.

Of course to cure your sticker shock, all you have to do is look here.
 
I cured my shock with $25 worth of copper refrigerator line and $2-3 of fittings. Granted, it takes at least 15 minutes and doesn't work as well in the summer. I would consider $90 for a device that would cool wort to pitchable temps in 15 minutes a good price point, however, just for saving my time.
 
Chill water is one of my biggest problems when it comes time to cool my wort. Here in Mesa, AZ the ground water is on the warm side, even in December. So I always need a prechill and even that is not that effective. I have a decent counter flow chiller right now, but it takes forever to collect the wort. I want something with more volume.
 
I would pre chill the water using an old 3/8" chiller submerged in ice and then go from there to the 1/2" imersion chiller that was submersed in the wort. I think the wall thikness of of the 1/2" chiller is thicker than that of the 3/8 chiller because It doesn't get that cold.
For my most recent batch I used my 3/8 pre chiller in ice and a 3/8 counterflow chiller. The wort went in at 260 f and came out at 60 f . The problem is the flow is slow and it takes a while to collect 12 gallons. I want something with more volume. Plus the counterflow is kind of a pain in the ass to set up. I am using one of these .
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