In a word - awesome! 
About 10 years ago I built a counter-chiller with one of those Phil's fitting kits. You know, the one where you snake 20 ft of 3/8" copper into a garden house, and run cold water through outer jacket, hot wort through the copper. Wonderful, cheap device - particularly great for 5 gal batches where you're gravity feeding the wort to a fermenter. If you go slow you can easily chill 200°+ wort down to 65°. But you have to wait like 20-30 min.
Fast forward to my new E-brewery - 10 gallon batches of awesomeness with March815 pumps. Great system, but the counter-chiller is massively undersized. With gravity feed, I'm looking at knock-off times of 60 min (unacceptable); if I pump, I have to recirculate back though the boil kettle several times to have any shot of cooling the wort below 100 or so. Again - not acceptable.
But every problem has a solution, and in this case it's a duda. Arrived a week ago and she got her first test drive Sunday on two 10 gal batches (and a couple of side 5 gal batches). Great brewday! I was able to run full bore with my 815 directly through the plate chiller and into my fermenters. As advertised, I cooled the entire 10 gal batch from near boiling to 65° in about 7-8 minutes. Mind blowing.
No issues with clogging, though I should point out that I continuously recirculate during mashing. The wort runs super clear after a 75-95 min vorlauf. Makes for almost no trub post fermentation. I also bag my hops (usually whole hops) and hang them from a hop spider to keep them out of the pump (bad ju-ju).
Bottom line - I'm a believer. These plates really rock! :rockin:
About 10 years ago I built a counter-chiller with one of those Phil's fitting kits. You know, the one where you snake 20 ft of 3/8" copper into a garden house, and run cold water through outer jacket, hot wort through the copper. Wonderful, cheap device - particularly great for 5 gal batches where you're gravity feeding the wort to a fermenter. If you go slow you can easily chill 200°+ wort down to 65°. But you have to wait like 20-30 min.
Fast forward to my new E-brewery - 10 gallon batches of awesomeness with March815 pumps. Great system, but the counter-chiller is massively undersized. With gravity feed, I'm looking at knock-off times of 60 min (unacceptable); if I pump, I have to recirculate back though the boil kettle several times to have any shot of cooling the wort below 100 or so. Again - not acceptable.
But every problem has a solution, and in this case it's a duda. Arrived a week ago and she got her first test drive Sunday on two 10 gal batches (and a couple of side 5 gal batches). Great brewday! I was able to run full bore with my 815 directly through the plate chiller and into my fermenters. As advertised, I cooled the entire 10 gal batch from near boiling to 65° in about 7-8 minutes. Mind blowing.
No issues with clogging, though I should point out that I continuously recirculate during mashing. The wort runs super clear after a 75-95 min vorlauf. Makes for almost no trub post fermentation. I also bag my hops (usually whole hops) and hang them from a hop spider to keep them out of the pump (bad ju-ju). Bottom line - I'm a believer. These plates really rock! :rockin:
