HUGE Plate Chiller

http://cgi.ebay.com/Outdoor-Wood-Fu...ltDomain_0&hash=item35a4c9e506#ht_2961wt_1137

This thing is 12" x 4.25" x 3" in size with 50 plates.

If my math is correct this thing is about 17.7 ft^2 of cooling area making is almost 3X the size of the Therminator and 7.35x the Shirron.

Am I missing something here?

It's $196 shipped and is 316 SS which is great.

It has 1" MPT fittings so I would need some reducers.

But otherwise this seems like the ultimate. I would think I could chill down to like 1-2F above water temps with this thing at a decent rate. If my water temps are 55F, could I get down to say 62F at full throttle of wort flow?

No I do not work for this company.

I am just trying to decide on a plate chiller and this thing seems amazing.

You can get one like that for cheaper. Check out this guy's site.

You shouldn't need 50 plates, by the way. Unless you have a HUGE flow rate, or really warm tap water. YMMV.

Save the money and get a shirron for half the price! There is more than enough contact area in a shirron for our purposes.

I don't think this would chill any faster, you'd just have a faster throughput....but that would still be limited by the diameter of your ball valve on your vessel.

That being said, with the increased cooling area, you have increased crevices to clean.

If you're deciding between this and a Therminator, you can't go wrong....but I'd go Blichmann if you're looking for bling. PLUS, it'll retain mega resale value in the brewing community. Not so with an off-brand chiller.

I am well aware of his stuff.

Actually none of his have the same cooling area as the one I linked except for a $1350 model he has. The next closest size he has is 14.3 ft^2 and its $262.50 plus shipping and is only 304 SS.

I am aware that the one I linked may be overkill. But for the money it cannot be beat.

I am actually very much considering one of his. BUt all the bigger ones (Therminator type chilling capacity) are with weird fittings like barbs or pipes that have to be sweated/welded.

The Shirron does not seem like it would be sufficient for me unless you want to the flow to be super slow. I doubt I can chill down to 65F unless I am doing real slow like .5 gpm or something. I don't want my hot wort sitting there for 15 minutes at near boiling temps for that long. Or am I mistaken? My ground water is 58F right now.

ghart999 said:

I am well aware of his stuff.

Actually none of his have the same cooling area as the one I linked except for a $1350 model he has. The next closest size he has is 14.3 ft^2 and its $262.50 plus shipping and is only 304 SS.

I am aware that the one I linked may be overkill. But for the money it cannot be beat.

I am actually very much considering one of his. BUt all the bigger ones (Therminator type chilling capacity) are with weird fittings like barbs or pipes that have to be sweated/welded.

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I'm not sure why you're so fixated on that enormous cooling surface area. What's your tap water temp? I assume you're flowing at most through a 1/2" ball valve, likely even a 3/8" ball valve. In all probability, you don't need that extraordinarily huge surface area. But, hey, if you want to spend twice as much as you need to on a plate chiller, that's your prerogative.

As far as the chillers from dudeadiesel, they don't require sweating, as a good friend of mine purchased one from him and the fittings were threaded, NPT. We just picked up a few bucks worth of hardware at our local hardware shop and were set to go.

I personally don't prefer plate chillers, and I love my CF chiller. But that's a whole other (beat to death) topic.

Good luck with your purchase, whatever direction you decide to go!

Sorry if this seems like a hijacking of this thread, but what size/plate count does everyone who orders off the duda diesel website usually get?

I am interested in upgrading to a plate chiller but funds are tight now.

Thanks for the help.
Redbeard5289

I don't know if there is a "normal" size that people get. It's better to look at the specs and see the surface area for heat transfer.

I found this handy chart on mastmaster.com that shows specs of mashmaster's chiller compared to the shirron and the therminator.

Duda Deisel has a lot of chillers that match the price of the shirron, but have 2x the heast transfer area.

(note: the prices shown are in Australian $'s on the top... make sure you look at the bottom chart)

My whole point was pointing to a chiller for the same price as the Therminator with almost triple the cooling surface area. That's all.

Obviously this thing can chill wort at an extremely fast rate, more so than the Therminator. I never said it was needed or better for our needs. Only that it is bigger for the same price. Period.

the other very important consideration is not the surface area, but the length of the flow - this has been much overlooked and I've actually never seen it discussed. Therminator is a mere 7.5", whereas the duda and the OP's link are 11.5 and 12" long.

The duda site lists a "better than therminator" chiller - in actuality, it is quite a bit better than therminator. If you ask Duda to run performance numbers you will find that you can sustain far higher flow rates and get closer to matched temps with duda than the therminator.

For 5 gallon batches, I suppose, who cares. But for guys like me, doing 50+ gallons at a time, being able to knock out at 3 gpm, vs .8 gpm (my therminator experience) is a HUGE deal.

Why would the length of each plate matter if the total length is the same?

So if I had a 7.5" long plate x 40 plates, I get 300 inches, or 25 feet. So this would be less efficient than say a 10" chiller with 30 plates? Maybe it is, but I wouldn't think the two would matter and would technically be identical.

Then with an extreme example, would a 2 plate chiller with 12.5 foot long plates be even better?

I think that thing is badass. I'd buy it if I didn't already have a Therminator (which I love).

One thing Bobby_M brought to my attention about huge plate chillers is the amount of wort that can left in the plate. He said his had about 1.5 liters of wort that got left behind. That's quite a bit. I wonder if I could just hook up my compressor to it to flush out the last bit of wort?

ghart999 said:

One thing Bobby_M brought to my attention about huge plate chillers is the amount of wort that can left in the plate. He said his had about 1.5 liters of wort that got left behind. That's quite a bit. I wonder if I could just hook up my compressor to it to flush out the last bit of wort?

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I just pick mine up and most of it drains. However, if it is fixed to a structure, then yes that is a concern.

Yes it will be fixed to my stand. Maybe I could just blow into the inlet. It it legal to give a BJ to brew equipment?

ghart999 said:

Yes it will be fixed to my stand. Maybe I could just blow into the inlet. It it legal to give a BJ to brew equipment?

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Probably not. Yeastiality.

I just spit soda on my keyboard. LOL.

I don't know how the length matters but it does - ask the fluid engineers... The performance data bears that out in spades.

You can blow out what's left with compressed O2.

One thing Bobby_M brought to my attention about huge plate chillers is the amount of wort that can left in the plate. He said his had about 1.5 liters of wort that got left behind. That's quite a bit. I wonder if I could just hook up my compressor to it to flush out the last bit of wort?

Click to expand...

ghart999 what I do in my set up I push 180° F water or higher through the system after the wort, not my idea.
This was very common in the old days of German brewing.

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

Good idea Claudius.

Well I ended up buying a plate chiller. Not the huge one up top. But one from the same manufacturer as dudadiesel. I wanted to get one of his but none of the larger one have standard fittings. They either have barb or 3/4" or 1" MPT.

I spoke with him and he's go lots of stuff coming in the next few months that weill be more standardized to what would benefit us.

This is the one I got. It's 7.5' x 2.875" x 4". Has 40 plates with a total chilling surface of 5.18 ft^2. So its over the double the Shirron surface and about 20% less than the Therminator for $100 shipped.

Plus its 316 SS and has 1/2" NPT fittings all the way around. Exactly the fittings I wanted.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Brazed-Stainles...ultDomain_0&hash=item27b271275a#ht_718wt_1137

ghart999 said:

Well I ended up buying a plate chiller. Not the huge one up top. But one from the same manufacturer as dudadiesel. I wanted to get one of his but none of the larger one have standard fittings. They either have barb or 3/4" or 1" MPT.

Click to expand...

What do you consider "standard" in this case?

Anything that's not needing sweating or welding or huge reducers or barbed ends.

Standard for me is either 1/2" or 3/4" NPT.

If you look at his site, he has no chillers in the range around the therminator or slightly smaller with 1/2" or 3/4" NPT. They all have sweated fittings, 1" NPT or barbs.

The B3-23A 20 Plate Heat Exchanger has 3/4" NPT but they are now out of stock.

Also I am sure its not a big deal, but duda's are 304 SS and the one I got is 316 SS. With all the things equal, I would rather the better steel.

304 actually conducts heat better than 316. With as infrequently as you will be using the chiller (not to say you're not brewing often) you will never wear out either.

Oh well. Its a done deal. I need plate chiller and for $100 this one seemed the best bang for the buck as far the size I wanted and the fittings. If duda had an equivalent size and fitting layout I would have done it. But he doesn't right now.

ghart999 said:

Oh well. Its a done deal. I need plate chiller and for $100 this one seemed the best bang for the buck as far the size I wanted and the fittings. If duda had an equivalent size and fitting layout I would have done it. But he doesn't right now.

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You are going to love it. Great job.

ghart999 said:

Good idea Claudius.

Well I ended up buying a plate chiller. Not the huge one up top. But one from the same manufacturer as dudadiesel. I wanted to get one of his but none of the larger one have standard fittings. They either have barb or 3/4" or 1" MPT.

I spoke with him and he's go lots of stuff coming in the next few months that weill be more standardized to what would benefit us.

This is the one I got. It's 7.5' x 2.875" x 4". Has 40 plates with a total chilling surface of 5.18 ft^2. So its over the double the Shirron surface and about 20% less than the Therminator for $100 shipped.

Plus its 316 SS and has 1/2" NPT fittings all the way around. Exactly the fittings I wanted.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Brazed-Stainles...ultDomain_0&hash=item27b271275a#ht_718wt_1137

Click to expand...

How is this working out for you? I am thinking of getting the same one.

I have not used it yet, but the build quality is solid. I am in the midst of building a complete brew stand, so no brewing until its done. I was able to pick up some U-bolts that I will use to mount the chiller to the stand. I might try and do a test where I run some boiling water through it to see how it does. If I do, I will post back here.

I will say that considering this thing came from Hawaii, I got it extremely quick. Flat rate priority from USPS. Hawaii to Colorado in 3 business days from the day I ordered it. Not bad.

After it taking me 30+ minutes today to cool a 5 gallon batch with my IC and sump pump ice bath, a plate chiller seems real appealing.

For me it is a decision whether to pay $105 for this 40 plate 316 SS one, or $80 for a 30 plate 304 SS.

It depends on the surface area of each plate too. Also consider the types of fittings that each chiller has. Hose thread on the water side and 1/2" NPT on the wort side is optimal. If there something else, consider that you're spending some $ of adapters. I spent a total of $8 extra for a set of 1/2" MPT to hose thread adapters. Then I installed camlock QDs in the wort side.

Also I don't think the diff between 316 SS and 304 SS is worth worrying about at all.

ghart999, I went ahead and picked up the same one as you. The 40 plates and 1/2" fittings make it appealing for just $105 shipped. I can't wait to try it, although I am going to have to wait a few weeks because PFD are out of stock on the type F couplings for 2-3 weeks.

Good deal. Yes I am waiting for a couple extra Type F fittings for the chiller too. Its my 4th order with PFD now.

To save a little $$$, I am thinking of using polypropylene cam-locks on the line with the water into the chiller and then water out. Does anyone see any issues with this? All the rest of the connections which will be touching the wort will be stainless steel.

"My whole point was pointing to a chiller for the same price as the Therminator with almost triple the cooling surface area. That's all."

The therminator is WAY OVERPRICED for what you get. I found one on ebay for 110.00 delivered with the same dimensions. The one you are talking about is nice and BIG. The only bummer is now you have to reduce the fittings to 1/2" NPT (if that is what you use). Either way a plate chiller of any size is the way to go!

anyone provide a review for these beasts?

Captain_Bigelow said:

To save a little $$$, I am thinking of using polypropylene cam-locks on the line with the water into the chiller and then water out. Does anyone see any issues with this? All the rest of the connections which will be touching the wort will be stainless steel.

Click to expand...

You'd only be saving a little bit. PFD camlocks are as cheap as it gets....definitely worth paying $2 more per fitting. Also, consider resale value if you ever get sick of backflushing and cleaning the plate chiller....it's happened to a lot of folks. Homebrew stuff has a way of retaining value and selling quick on ebay. Go stainless and you'll get a decent return.

So I finally got my camlocks yesterday and just did a test run with this chiller. So there are some issues.

Firstly I am unsure exactly how to connect it. I figure hot liquid one way (i.e. left to right) and the water the other as a conter-flow(right to left). I did this and basically I only got a few drips not even a trickle out of the chiller. Therefore I switched it up and ran both the hot liquid and cooling water in the direction of the arrows on the plate and then got a steady stream coming out.

I did not bother with an ice bath for this practice run, but the water coming out of the chiller was about 100c, which seems too high.

I emailed the eBay selling a couple of weeks ago asking about the connections and never got a response.

**follow up.. just tested this for the second time. It worked a lot better this time. I raised the chiller off the ground so there was more height between that and the final container. I had it working counter-flow and got the hot water to 95 from about 200, with a faucet water temp of about 76. I figure if I use an ice bath to pre-cool the water it should hopefully get it down to nearer the pitching temps.

Try blowing in a hole and see where it comes out. Name that your wort in and out. Then, on the same side of the chiller as your wort out call the remaining port your water in. THe 2 fluids need to pass eachother, not flow the same direction. That way, the water can "strip away" the heat from the wort. Each chiller is a bit different, but that's the nuts/bolts of it. YMMV.

Any idea on the flow rate full bore through one of these? Also, with what pump and relative height of the pump to chiller would be helpful.

I found with full throttle with this chiller I could only get to about 110-120f. I had to turn it to a trickle to get it close to the cooling water temp.

What temp is your groundwater? I'm in the low-mid 60s in the summer and lower in the winter. This might be one good thing about being in Ohio...