A couple of Q's about plate chillers

Disclaimer: Yes, I searched and read about a million posts about it this morning, still ...

I'm one chiller away from being an AG brewer and so far I'm leaning towards a plate chiller. This is mainly because my SWMBO works for the water utility and has way too much information (read: is paranoid) about what brass and even copper can do in a hot & acidic/basic environment. That aside, i'm curious what other plate chiller users have to say. I use leaf hops and I'll be using a keggle with this. Will that be enough to prevent clogs in chiller? How's the maintenance on that sucker? I do 5g batches but I occassionally like to do 10g batches also, will it handle that? Thanks folks.

Well, if you're scared of copper, keep in mind that plates are brazed with copper. I don't think I'd consider a plate without a pump and something like the hop stopper or a similar home made screen. The false bottom you linked to doesn't really have the surface area to deal with large hop bills but maybe something like a large hop bag would work.

I don't have a problem with copper, just my SWMBO is a little on the paranoid side... but really my main concern is the maintenance on it. I use leaf hops but I can see where small bits of it would still go through the false bottom, maybe if I put an inline screen of some sort between the false bottom and the chiller...

I have the Shirron and do 10 Gallons with pellets.

I am thrilled with my plate chiller. It has been the most efficient chiller I have used to date and before it I was using a 50' 3/8" coil with a pre-chiller. I get 10 gallons to tap temp with the valve full open and the pump running in as long as it takes to drain the kettle.

I sanitize the wort side while boiling, let it drain, and then pump the wort through.

I use a hop stopper with mine but whole leaf has fewer fine particles and it will be easier when I start using that.

Cleanup is easy. I made my own backflush hose and pump hot liquor backwards to flush. After every few brews, I soak it in either PBW or Oxyclean and flush/backflush again.

If I ever do plug this sucker up, I will definitely buy another one.

You could look into one of these:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=5518

I know I have seen some other pre-filters around before. You may want to search for something along those lines.