Plate Chiller + March Pump... worth it?

So finally, after a whole year with my lowes bought, 20' copper coil (which isn't long enough, I know) its my birthday soon and I am considering buying myself a march pump along with a plate chiller and weldless tap + bazooka tube.

The only thing is, the whole setup will cost me close to $275-300 and I only want to drop that kind of cash if its really that great of a system.

How does this setup compare to a decent copper immersion chiller? Is it worth 3x the price? Has anyone here used both systems and can give me a comparison?

yeah a pump is soooooooooo worth it, and either plate chiller or Counterflow,or Jamils whirlpool chiller


-=Jason=-

I totally love my plate chiller and will never go back to an immersion chiller at this point.

There is nothing like racking boiling wort straight to your fermenter at perfect pitching temps to make you a believer.

Best money spent yet! Pump comes in handy everywhere along the process, and the plate chiller is a fast chill. Worth every penny! The grant is the other thing that helps with a lot of things during brewing and cleaning. The combo is always going to be a part of my brewery!!!

You just use the grant to keep the flow consistent, or are you filtering with it?

I use it to gravity flow my wort for vorlauf, so stuck mash isn't as prevalent. One could also use a heat source in it for maintaining mash temperature. I use it to filter my wort post boil (hopsack is used to filter hops in the kettle though). I plan on using it as a hop back as well. I sometimes use it to pitch my yeast prior to going into the fermentor. Lots of uses.

Pump - YES!

Chiller - Maybe, on the fence as I don't get the great results most others report. I'd look into a counterflow chiller as an alternative, which also is less prone to clog issues if your hop filtering fails. With the plate chiller you have to be more precise in setup and cleanup.

Grant = ?

Grant = bucket to catch runnings/whatever. It acts as a gravity break.

Yes on both plate shiller and pump. I got a 50 plate chiller from dudaDiesel and brewed last week. I chilled 5 gal from boiling to 58 degress in 1 min 41 seconds. I do live in michigan so ground water was ~45 deg F. For pump I have the standard march pump. I use hop bag for filtering hops and then i backflush chiller and bake after each use to burn any material to ash thats inside.

samc said:

Pump - YES!

Chiller - Maybe, on the fence as I don't get the great results most others report. I'd look into a counterflow chiller as an alternative, which also is less prone to clog issues if your hop filtering fails. With the plate chiller you have to be more precise in setup and cleanup.

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If you aren't getting a good chill from your plate chiller, you probably need to adjust the flow rate(s). Either pump the water through faster, or slow down the wort.

Gosh... I can't figure out which way to go. On the one hand, the short cooling times for plate chillers are incredible, but then, the counterflows seem to require less effort. Then there is just the old standby, a 50' copper immersion coil. AHH!!!! THE CHOICES...

I'm considering just buying a 50' immersion chiller, seeing how it works, and if it doesn't work, using it to make a counterflow chiller with a hose and the kit Austin Homebrew sells.

Right now I'm using a horrible 1/2" 10' immersion chiller. It's pretty much worthless so anything would be a big step up.

badmajon said:

Then there is just the old standby, a 50' copper immersion coil. AHH!!!! THE CHOICES...

I'm considering just buying a 50' immersion chiller, seeing how it works, and if it doesn't work, using it to make a counterflow chiller with a hose and the kit Austin Homebrew sells.

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Well you can always turn that IC chiller into the jamil counter flow whirlpool chiller

-= Jason =-

rockytoptim said:

Yes on both plate shiller and pump. I got a 50 plate chiller from dudaDiesel and brewed last week. I chilled 5 gal from boiling to 58 degress in 1 min 41 seconds. I do live in michigan so ground water was ~45 deg F. For pump I have the standard march pump. I use hop bag for filtering hops and then i backflush chiller and bake after each use to burn any material to ash thats inside.

Click to expand...

This must be a before you baked the chiller picture as the teflon tape plus plate chiller lable are still intact and not all turned into ash?
Teflon I recall has temp limits from -450*F to +550*F well below "ash" temps.

Flomaster said:

Well you can always turn that IC chiller into the jamil counter flow whirlpool chiller

-= Jason =-

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You're right... this is another option.

http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=44_35_46&product_id=151

They sell a weldless version of it. I suppose it'd require another ball lock to be functional though.

Man, so many different ways to skin a cat.

I havent tried this personally, but Ive heard of people using dishwasher pumps. They are food grade and whole dishwashers can be obtained for free from kijiji.

The pump is a big investment, but it is worth it IMO.

The chiller is a personal choice thing. I prefer an immersion chiller (virtually no cleaning concerns, break & trub stay in the kettle), and my 25' IC works well enough to chill 10 gallons to pitching temps within 10 minutes. I don't think your 20' IC is necessarily too short, so don't put the cart before the horse.

The key with ICs is to either keep the IC moving through the wort, or keep the wort moving through the coils of the IC, depending on how you look at it.

I have my March pump mounted right on the kettle, with 1/2" copper plumbing serving as a recirculation/whirlpooling fixture. This not only whirlpools the break and trub to the center of the kettle, it also keeps the wort flowing through the coils of the IC, which speeds things up exponentially. Once it's cool, I close the recirc valve, open the output valve, and pump the cool wort directly into the fermenter, aerating it in the process.