Using chillus convolutus for HERMS, then wort chilling

Is anyone using their counterflow chiller for HERMS and then doing a quick clean/sani for it to be used as a wort chiller? I'm thinking that I would only have a short "mash out rest" amount of time to get it hot rinsed, 5 min PBW, another good rinse then packed with StarSan. I would be using the kettle as the CIP grant, so getting that empty and ready is high priority.

If I start the brew day with an already clean chiller would a good hot rinse/sani cycle be good enough to prep the chiller after the HERMS duty? I'm expecting to do a hot rinse in both directions.

So no one does this?

I thought I'd seen someone mentioning a similar idea a short while ago, but can't find the post. Rather than a counterflow chiller they were talking about an immersion chiller as both the herms coil and chiller. If I'm picturing your idea correctly, I'm seeing the wort going through the same way both times (mash and chill), while during the mash you'd have warm water being pumped through the chill ports, and cold water during the chilling. (Or are you talking about putting the whole chiller into the HLT and running the mash through the chill water ports?)

Assuming the first method I mentioned, what I'd be worried about is being able to maintain a mash temp using a counterflow chiller. While it should be able to maintain temps fairly well once you hit a point, you'd have to test out the best spot for measuring your temps so that you didn't go past your mash temp.

As far as getting it clean, I don't see it being that big of a deal since the wort is going through the same route. Pump some boiling water through before the boil is finished and it should sterlize/wash it pretty well. Unless you generally get chunks of grain through during the mash recirculation, you could probably even skip a rinse, although you'd have all the time of the boil and it might give you some piece of mind.

I am pricing an output thermometer for the chiller. That should help me hit my target temps (during cast also). I guess I could do a manual recirc before the HERMS ramp to reduce the particulate contamination potential.

I forgot to mention that I do have two pumps. One would recirc the hot water, the other would recirc the mash. I'm sure the heat exchange would cool the water, so I'd have to be ready with a large volume of near boiling water.

Yeah, I think as long as you had a large enough supply of HERMS water, it should work. If you try it and it works, let us know! If I can use one thing for two purposes, that saves me a little cash!