Hi-
I had been using a CFC initially with gravity draining and it seemed to work fairly well. Could run it wide open with gravity drain and cool to 68-70 or so as fast as gravity would go- perhaps 7-10 minutes for a 5.5-6 gallon boil.
I then bought a pump and a brand new 40 plate chiller from mambler2002 on ebay. Here is a link to the product:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Brazed-Stainles...ultDomain_0&hash=item27b3d9d456#ht_718wt_1061http://cgi.ebay.com/Brazed-Stainles...ultDomain_0&hash=item27b3d9d456#ht_718wt_1061)
I noticed it didn't cool well at all when the pump was pushing. So I tried gravity again. Mother^&^%&r! Going at gravity with 65 degree cooling water (with the hose on full blast) and the thrumometer topped out at 88 and then the colors went away, meaning it was even higher. In order to make it chill down to 74 degrees (way too hot) I had to slow the thing down to a tiny little trickle that took almost 15 minutes to drain the kettle!
Anyone have any idea what is going on? I got the link to this guy by IloveBeer- a senior member who has used his for a long time and says it works great.
Is there something I am doing wrong? There seems to be no difference between the cooling water and wort intake sides, and I don't think it matters which of the ports you use for cooling water or wort (they should be ridged on both sides). I have tried it with the ports facing sideways or pointing up in the are and there seems to be no difference in cooling ability. Perhaps putting it vertical with the wort intake on the bottom? This is very discouraging considering the surface area is more than a therminator for this plate chiller. I would expect it to cool very rapidly indeed. Oh, and I am running the hot wort into one side and the cold water in the other side so there is counterflow.
I appreciate any help.
Klaus
Does anyone have any suggestions?
I had been using a CFC initially with gravity draining and it seemed to work fairly well. Could run it wide open with gravity drain and cool to 68-70 or so as fast as gravity would go- perhaps 7-10 minutes for a 5.5-6 gallon boil.
I then bought a pump and a brand new 40 plate chiller from mambler2002 on ebay. Here is a link to the product:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Brazed-Stainles...ultDomain_0&hash=item27b3d9d456#ht_718wt_1061http://cgi.ebay.com/Brazed-Stainles...ultDomain_0&hash=item27b3d9d456#ht_718wt_1061)
I noticed it didn't cool well at all when the pump was pushing. So I tried gravity again. Mother^&^%&r! Going at gravity with 65 degree cooling water (with the hose on full blast) and the thrumometer topped out at 88 and then the colors went away, meaning it was even higher. In order to make it chill down to 74 degrees (way too hot) I had to slow the thing down to a tiny little trickle that took almost 15 minutes to drain the kettle!
Anyone have any idea what is going on? I got the link to this guy by IloveBeer- a senior member who has used his for a long time and says it works great.
Is there something I am doing wrong? There seems to be no difference between the cooling water and wort intake sides, and I don't think it matters which of the ports you use for cooling water or wort (they should be ridged on both sides). I have tried it with the ports facing sideways or pointing up in the are and there seems to be no difference in cooling ability. Perhaps putting it vertical with the wort intake on the bottom? This is very discouraging considering the surface area is more than a therminator for this plate chiller. I would expect it to cool very rapidly indeed. Oh, and I am running the hot wort into one side and the cold water in the other side so there is counterflow.
I appreciate any help.
Klaus
Does anyone have any suggestions?