Hose Barb or Male NTP Fittings for a Plate Chiller?

For those who havent read my post on my conflicting choice on buying equipment. I now have another conflict if i choose to buy everything on one order, I need a plate chiller and Golddiggie told me of duda diesel wort chillers and im planning to get one if i go all out in my investment but i am conflicted between hose barb or NTP fittings could anyone explain the differences between them and their pros and cons?

Duda diesel
beer wort chiller | biodiesel supplies

My post
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/big-investment-conflict-290843/

Personally I would go NPT fittings. NPT is a threader fitting, hose barb is just that. Meaning you can thread a NPT x hose barb fitting to the NPT chiller but also hard pipe it / camlocks / other disconnects / etc. With the hose barb chiller you are stuck with just hose barbs and nothing else. Hope that made at least a little sense

+1. But get the male NPT. Easier to clean/smooth internal wort path.

(oh and the duda's with the back mounting studs are cool for mounting. But they protrude past the back of the chiller, so laying flat on it's back is an issue.... so, choose your mounting style first and know that whichever mounting style you go with you will have to remove the plate to hand drain after brewing so no water festers.... that's where the mounting studs come in handy with 2 thumb screws).

i just bought one and had the same decision to make. I went with NPT so i could have the flexibility of changing fittings in the future, though i'm standardized on 1/2" camlocks.

Any thoughts on getting a plate chiller with all 1/2" NPT fittings vs. 3/4 Male NPT for water and 1/2" NPT for wort?

Advantages/disadvantages?

squash1978 said:

Any thoughts on getting a plate chiller with all 1/2" NPT fittings vs. 3/4 Male NPT for water and 1/2" NPT for wort?

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I have the Duda Diesel B3-23A 30 with 1/2" and 3/4" NPT. I like having the different sizes because it helps to prevent plumbing mistakes, although you can still mix up in and out if you're not paying attention. Note: I'm less concerned about cross-plumbing wort and water together as I am about backflushing the correct side of the chiller.

The different sizes might not help though if you're planning on using quick disconnects. And you now have to buy and keep track of 2 sizes of connectors.

DontFearTheReefer said:

I have the Duda Diesel B3-23A 30 with 1/2" and 3/4" NPT. I like having the different sizes because it helps to prevent plumbing mistakes, although you can still mix up in and out if you're not paying attention. Note: I'm less concerned about cross-plumbing wort and water together as I am about backflushing the correct side of the chiller.

The different sizes might not help though if you're planning on using quick disconnects. And you now have to buy and keep track of 2 sizes of connectors.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I ended up getting a chiller with all 1/2" NPT fittings. I wanted to fit the chiller with camlocks and realized that it would be easier just to have the same size ports for wort and water. I was originally worried that having 1/2" fittings on the water in/out ports would restrict water flow but after using it for the first time I found out that water flow was just fine.

Out of curiosity, what is the "correct" side for backflushing the chiller and what's the difference? I ended up flushing from both the wort out and in sides the first time I cleaned it.

squash1978 said:

Out of curiosity, what is the "correct" side for backflushing the chiller and what's the difference? I ended up flushing from both the wort out and in sides the first time I cleaned it.

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Yeah, you'll want to flush both ways on the wort side. For whatever reason, I usually get more out going from the output to input. My theory is that stuff gets wedged in going forwards.

As for the "correct" side, I was referring to making sure I was flushing the wort side. With all the same size connectors, I could see myself getting in a hurry and flushing the water side.