Does gravity feed in Shirron plate chiller work?

[GroosBrewz]

I don't have a pump yet, but I am wanting to buy a new wort chiller. The shirron chiller says wort can be pumped or gravity fed, but my LHBS guy says it won't work without a pump.. Anyone use this chiller on a gravity feed? What are your results? Obviously I am aware of the benefits of a pump (faster circulation through chiller, etc) but it's not in the budget right now.. I can either buy a chiller or a pump.. The pump is no good without the chiller, so I am going for the chiller.

 

[paradoc]

It works sporadically, but you need to be meticulous about keeping hops out of the Shirron. It clogs more easily than some other plate chillers. I haven't had a problem with hot or cold break clogging it, but if you don't bag your hops or use a hop stopper of some type, the Shirron WILL clog. Flow with gravity is slow, but if you aren't in a hurry it will work.

 

[Waunabeer]

I works, but just make sure you have enough fall between the boil kettle and the fermenting bucket. I struggled with that twice and didn't get my wort to cool enough. I hate having to lift a heavy boiling pot to get it higher to gravity feed, so I just purchased a pump and longer hoses/tubing so I have more flexibility and safety.

 

[Joelsyales]

I have done about 8 batches with a gravity feed and have had no problem. It is a bit clunky to work with, but no issues. Next purchase is a pump however.

 

[2005STi]

Bumping this thread. I've tried gravity feeding my 30 plate dudadiesel 3 times and can barely get the wort under 100 degrees after one pass with ground water at 76 degrees. I have been letting it flow at about 0.5 gpm. I even used my old immersion chiller as a pre chiller for the water in and still the thing came out 100 degrees. Dudadiesels website says to chill 5 gallons at 1 gpm I would need to use 26 gallons of water?!? I've had it with this thing. I'm not spending another $150 on a pump and wasting 25 gallons of water to get this POS to work. I'm switching back to ol' reliable IWC. Anyone else have these issues with this or any other plate chillers?

 

[mpcluever]

IMO the plate chiller manufacturers are quick to say that you can gravity feed their plate chiller, because TECHNICALLY you can... However, your performance will be nowhere NEAR what it could be with a pump.

The other problem with not having a pump is cleaning. You cannot simply flush water through to clean them no matter what anyone says. While repeated soaking of PBW or caustic sodium hydroxide could work, I would never trust that it got everything. Yes there are ways to sanitize it with a bit of residue still in there (baking/boiling) but Star San won't sanitize a bunch of gunk and you're still pushing wort past a bunch of gunk. Yuk

For perspective, I have the Dudadiesel B3-23A 40 Plate Heat Exchanger.
For cleaning, I do each step both directions through the wort side
Rinse
PBW
Rinse
Sodium Hydroxide
Rinse

After that there's absolutely NOTHING in there. Using PBW was never getting everything out where repeating the recirculation with fresh PBW would still turn it a green color and hop chunks would still come out.