Homemade Hop Back SS vs Whole House Filter

Anyone have feedback or advice on using a SS (stainless steel) container or a whole house filter + housing and the advantages/disadvantages of using one or the other or building one or the other...

I want to construct a hop back for 5-10 Gallon batches and don't know which container i should use. I like the idea of fashioning a SS container where i can put one valve at the bottom and one at the top so i can drain the hop back if needed. With the House filter and housing the lines are both at the top and i am not sure how often i will need to change the filter (this system is also more pricey)...

Any thoughts, experience/ideas or suggestions on other material would be greatly appreciated...

Links to hop back systems
Filter Housing
http://blog.geirove.org/search/label/randall

Stainless Steel Cannister
http://www.deerislandbrewery.com/projects.html

For the whole house housing, you should not have the filter medium in place when using as a hop back.

Do u know if i need to use some sort of pump with the house filter to get the wort to move through and out the top line?

I will be transferring by way of valve and tube into the hop back and into another kettle...will that pressure be enough to keep the wort moving through?

From what I have seen you would have to midiofy the house filter housing with a central tube. And you would have to determine wort loss in teh housing and compensate by increasing your brew volume.

Regardless of having a pump or not.

You should also check the temperature rating on those filter housings, since you'll be putting (near) boiling wort through it...

Hopbacks don't have to be closed systems. I used my old 10 gallon Polarware kettle and made a hopback filter. in the top, out the bottom, adjust pump flow and out flow. Got the idea from Dave Pearce on U tube. Works great

They don't absolutely *have* to be closed, but there is something to be gained by going with a closed one. Part of the appeal of a hopback is that it keeps more volatile compounds that evaporate quickly at boiling temperatures in the wort, since it is chilled before they have a chance to evaporate.

With an open hopback, you might as well just throw the hops in at flameout.

I agree. If it's an open system, just toss in the kettle at flameout and that's one less pot to clean. The hopback concept requires the hot wort to hit the hops and then be immediately chilled to ferment temps.