Plate Chiller Advice

OK, so I am looking to make the change from immersion chiller to plate chiller, and I could use some advice. Here in North Texas, the ground water is 90 degrees at times, so I will be using a copper immersion chiller as a pre chiller in a bucket of ice. I have used a friend's Therminator a couple times and I love it - other than clogging it with hops once - but it is also the most expensive chiller you can buy. I have been looking at some 40 and 50 plate chillers here: http://www.kegcowboy.com/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=13 and it looks like I can save myself $100 or so, but I want to make sure that whatever I get works really well. I would like to be down to 67 or 68 right away in one gravity feed pass, so if I need to wait and spend the money on the Therminator I will.

Is there anyone out there who has used the Therminator as well as a couple other types/brands of plate chillers that can give me a comparison?

I think dudda diesel has performance charts on their plate chillers

The temperature you can achieve in a single pas depends a lot on the temp of the water you are pushing through it.

That being said I have the 50 plate model and haven't had a problem getting into the 70's on a single pass. In the summer (when ground water temp is warmer) I just close the ball valve on the pump exit half way to slow down the wort a bit to make sure it gets down to temp.

Unfortunately I can't compare it to any other plate chillers as I only have a 25ft immersion chiller to compare chilling times with.

I had a 50 foot immersion chiller I made from Home Depot for 48 dollars. I have just upgraded to a pump from morebeer.com and a 30 plate long chiller from Duda Diesel.

B/c I live in a condo and the sink is just through the window to our deck I have to use the smaller full feed from our sink. From the Duda Diesel flow sheet the longer 30 plate was going to cool the best. It is amazing to go from flame out to 65 or 68 in just a few minutes.

My wife remembers me coming into the house with the boiling pots, putting the immersion chiller in, stirring and stirring and it taking 30 minutes for a 10 gallon batches.

Now it is all on the deck straight in to the fermentors and pitching the yeast.

She asked why I hadn't done this before. I said "Well, we are married and me spending $400 isn't usually a conversation that ends well."

Go with the plate chiller and it will save you loads of time. It also makes me feel like a real commercial brewer, of sorts.

~Diz

Duda Diesel , can't beat em' - http://www.ebay.com/itm/40-Plate-Wo...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item905c285e66

I went w/ a 40 plate from Keg Cowboy. I run a cold loop from a cooler filled w/ ice water powered by a cheapy Harbor Freight pond pump & have great results. I would consider maybe a 50 plate chiller, but that would just cut a few minutes off. All in all, going from immersion to plate was a giant relief, and switching to the cold loop lets me save water-I make my own ice, so total usage for a 5 gal. batch is about 7 gallons including clean up water.

I have the 30 plate chiller from KegCowboy. I was previously using a very good homemade 50' copper immersion chiller. Because I only got the plate chiller back in july, I haven't had a chance to use it with ground water being at a reasonable temperature (in Houston ground water this past summer ranged from 85-95* each time I brewed). I had good luck using the immersion chiller to cool the wort from boiling to ~100* and then removing it, and using it as a pre-chiller in a cooler of ice water with the plate chiller. In one quick pass I was able to chill the batch from 100* down to 67*. I could have restricted flow and gone colder, but I would probably have run out of ice. All in all it is a time saver, especially if you have cold tap water.

I just got my dudadiesel 40 plate chiller with the garden hose fittings and 1/2" hose barbs. What a great deal, and it is physically almost identical to my friend's therminator. Thanks for the great advice, can't wait to try it out this weekend.

I was an ice bath guy and was unsure about plate chillers in general before I bought my 10 plate chiller. I went cheap, got the 10 plate. South Texas tap water is at least ~80 F in August so I supplement by submersing the entire chiller in a bucket of ice. I can drop boiling wort to under 80 degrees in ~15 minutes by slowly feeding my wort through the chiller. Very convenient. I think that after fermentation temp control, this is the beat buy a brewer can make.

my tap water is like 58 degrees so i don't need a pre-chiller, but i am able to cool a 10.5/11 gallon batch in 5 minutes and a 5 gallon batch in about 3 minutes. I have a keg cowboy model.

keg cowboy occasionally has deals if you are willing to wait a little while

Is that with or without a pump?

bcryan said:

Is that with or without a pump?

Click to expand...

without a pump, gravity fed