thumbs up for the duda diesel plate chiller

I bought this about a month ago. Today was the first time i had a chance to use it. I have the small, 30 plate model. I can't say enough how well this worked. I turned on my hose water for a minute before hooking up the wort and turning on my march pump. I only turned the valve handle maybe 1/2 turn open. and barely cracked the outlet of my pump. The wort coming out was actually too cold so i opened the valve on the pump for faster flow. I have a blichman Thrumometer between this chiller and the fementor so i know what temp the liquid is.

With the money i saved, i was able to equip it with PolyS - Quick Disconnects and i still came out cheaper. The QDs allos me to switch from hose water in to wort out and backflush the unit in no time.

Thanks for a great product at such a reasonable price.

I forgot to add, that i was going to use this to gravity feed my wort through it; but decided to "out it to the test" and pump through it. I cooled 5.5 gal ow 180 wort to 74 in 9.5 minutes. I'm sure if i would have opened the flow of the hose water further i cold ger the time down lots. I am even thinking of using my old imersion chiller as prechiller that sits in an ice bath.

Glad it works well for you. I also have one and love it, it has been on my brutus rig for over a year now.
They are a great price for what you are getting.

I'm interested in one of these as well, I've been reading that most people backflush the chiller with a cleaner of some sort, but is that all the cleaning that is necessary? Do you all sanitize it in the oven? Pump boiling water/wort through it? What has worked for you with this particular chiller?

Thanks,

Joe

RiverCityBrewer said:

I'm interested in one of these as well, I've been reading that most people backflush the chiller with a cleaner of some sort, but is that all the cleaning that is necessary? Do you all sanitize it in the oven? Pump boiling water/wort through it? What has worked for you with this particular chiller?

Thanks,

Joe

Click to expand...

When using, I flow boiling wort through it for 15 minutes before flame out. After brewing is done I backflush the crap out of it, then during clean-up I pump pbw through it, rinse then pump star san through it.

I probably need to oven bake every 10-15 batches.
Josh

RiverCityBrewer said:

I'm interested in one of these as well, I've been reading that most people backflush the chiller with a cleaner of some sort, but is that all the cleaning that is necessary? Do you all sanitize it in the oven? Pump boiling water/wort through it? What has worked for you with this particular chiller?

Thanks,

Joe

Click to expand...

I boilwater through it pre and post brew day. Before i use it i send Starsan through it to my fermeter, sanatizing everything.

I backflush mine with the garden hose and then pump hot PBW through it for 30 minutes. This doesn't add any time because I pump PBW through the pump and hoses anyway.
I sanitize with StarSan or bake it in the oven at 285F for 3 hours. Timebake for 3 hours and it's sterilized, cooled and ready to go in the morning.

Sounds like a lot of work for clean up. I just got mine, haven't had a chance to try it out, probably won't until I get my pump, QD's and hoses.

I wonder how much cleaning and sanitizing is really needed? I guess the fact you can't see inside tends to make everyone cautious about it.

Hmmm, I have one and have used it on about 5 batches so far. No pump so everything is gravity feed. I simply backflush with the garden hose until no more gunk comes out, then gravity feed Starsan through it. I store it filled with Starsan. On brew day, I dump it, flush it with fresh Starsan and use it. No issues to date, though as I said I've only used it about 5 times. Definitely one of the best time savers I've added.

Craig

Is it safe to leave Star-San inside the chiller for extended periods of time? You can't see what it is doing to the insides if prolonged ...

thats why i just make sure mines clean after brew day, starsan is an acid and will eat away at metal if stays in constant contact. I have heard of others baking theirs in the oven.

I guess what ever works for each person.


Is it safe to leave Star-San inside the chiller for extended periods of time? You can't see what it is doing to the insides if prolonged ...

I do not recommend baking it in the oven. I did it to a previous plate chiller that I had and ruined it. I did not clean the chiller out well enough and now the gunk that was not cleaned out is baked permanently in the chiller. I tried every thing to get the baked on gunk out, but nothing works. So It is basically useless now.

Can you put it in the oven for a "self-clean cycle" to ash out the debris? Don't know how hot the copper can get, but if it's useless now it might be worth a try.