For many years, I used an immersion chiller with reasonable results. (i.e. it took about 30 minutes to cool a 5g batch down to pitching temperature.) The problem was that it took about 30 minutes to cool the wort, and if put the beer on ice, it developed a severe chill haze. As I drink my beers (usually English Bitters) at 55 - 60 degrees, the chill haze never appeared in my beers, but a number of Americans who insist on putting the beer on ice had the audacity to complain!
In spite of this, they are basically a good bunch of guys, so I decided to invest in a counterflow chiller in order to improve the chilling performance, and hopefully eliminate the chill haze. So far, I have only made two brews with it. One is in the primary, and the other in the secondary, so I don't know if it cured the chill haze, but the following is a summary of the advantages/disadvantages versus the immersion chiller.
Immersion chiller advantages.
As you only have to clean and sanitize the outside of an immersion chiller, it appears to be easier to clean and sanitize. I cleaned by rinsing in the kitchen sink, and sanitized by soaking in a bucket of Iodophor.
Drain straight from kettle to fermenter. I have a false bottom and a spigot on the kettle, so with the immersion chiller, I just run a small hose from the spigot to the fermenter. Providing the bottom of the kettle is higher than the top of the fermenter, this works well.
As the immersion chiller cools in the kettle, much of the break material is filtered out by the hops (I use whole hops) lying on the false bottom. This results in a very clear wort being transferred to the fermenter.
Disadvantages of immersion chiller.
30 minutes to chill.
Chill haze?
Advantages of CFC.
0 minutes chilling time. (The wort is chilled on the way from the kettle to the fermenter.)
No (or less) chill haze?
Disadvantages of CFC.
Necessary to use a 3 level set up. The bottom of the kettle needs to be higher than the top of the chiller, and the bottom of the chiller needs to be higher than the top of the fermenter. <EDIT. As Yuri pointed out. This is B.S.>
The cold water connections for the CFC are a pain.
A lot of break material is discharged into the fermenter (but this could be considered as an advantage as it is a yeast nutrient).
More difficult cleaning and sanitizing. To clean, I rinse out kettle, and then drain hot water through CFC until it comes out clear, then fill kettle with a solution containing PBW, partially drain to fill the CFC with cleaner, wait for 30 minutes to let PBW to do its magic, then drain, and rinse well. To sanitize, I first rinse by draining a few gallons hot water through the chiller, then use the bottling bucket filled with Iodophor or Star San to sanitize. When draining the kettle, I wait till wort starts to flow before directing the outlet to the fermenter. (This probably wastes about 2 cups of wort.)
I wouldn't use the CFC without a secondary because of all the break material that gets into the primary. The faster chilling undoubtably reduces the chance of infection prior to pitching, but I never suffered this problem for the 14 years that I used the immersion chiller. I'll have to wait another month or so to see if it cures the chill haze problem.
-a.