jerly said:
I hear people talking about being worried with the sanitation of the Shirron, but has anyone that actually owns one really had a problem with it?
I think it's more theory than practice. Yes, you can get hop debris/trub/whatever in there and yes, one of the two most common places for infections to set up shop in a brewery is in the heat exchanger.
That said, I've been using the Shirron plate chiller for almost 2 years now with no problems whatsoever. No infected batches, no DMS problems, nothing. I have a HopStopper in my kettle that keeps the hop debris and trub out of the chiller and I back-flush the chiller immediately after all the wort gets to the fermenters. I also regularly run a hot Oxyclean solution or boiling water through it just as a maintenance thing. I use some QDs to make connecting it and backflushing it easy, works like a charm.
I used to use a CFC...the Chillus Convolutus. As far as cooling efficiency or times, I haven't noticed a huge jump in efficiency but that's a pretty big CFC. I used a homemade one CFC a few years ago, I think the inner line was 3/8". The Shirron definitely would've beat out that one, hands down. In the summer I still gate the flow through the chiller back to maintain a good output temp. The Shirron is more compact and allowed me to hard-plumb the pump to the chiller and out.
Here's how I have mine set up:
Pic 1
Pic 2
As far as the extra cash goes, it really depends on what you're looking for, how you're planning on building the CFC and what matters most to you.