Heat Exchanger Size for 1.5 BBL system.

[jmastagetoblasta]

Hello,
I was looking for a little help purchasing a plate chiller for my 1-1.5 BBL system. Not going to go w/ therminator... too expensive and IDK if the Shirron Plate chiller is big enough. Looking to run off in 20-30 minutes, ground temp water 55-60F. Duda Diesel seems to be a good company for heat exchangers... thinking about getting a B3-36A 40 Plate Heat Exchanger with M8-1.25 Mounting Studs. ANy thoughts on this? Im waiting to hear back from Duda, Ill share what they say (I sent them a similiar email). Cheers and MahaloPlenty!

 

[stevehaun]

I do 1 barrel batches and use a therminator. My well water is between 50-55F. I can drain my boil kettle in about 30 minutes.

 

[mswebb]

Go to dudadiesel.com. They have charts which outline the cooling capabilities of their chillers. I chose based on what I found to be an acceptable amount of cooling water and paid a bit more to waste less water. They also gave a forum and respond to questions.

 

[jmastagetoblasta]

Thanks! Here's the email they sent me, very fast and professional response!DAMN, thats a fast knockout!!!

Yes, the 36a-40 would work well.

Assuming you have a water flowrate of 6 gpm, then in the worst case scenario
(water temp of 60, pitching temp of 68) you should be able to chill 55
gallons in about 17 minutes. If you have 55 degree water and a 72 degree
pitch it will only take 13 minutes.

The only concern would be if your ground water slow is much slower. At 2
gpm of water, it could take 39 minutes to chill.


Thank you,

Duda Energy LLC

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I was looking at that same duda chiller for my 1/2bbl system. I want to minimize water use. FWIW, some of the 10bbl brew systems I have been looking at are running chillers with 5m2 of contact. But these are 2-stage with the first stage being water and the second glycol.

I look forward to seeing how this chiller works for you. It is on my shopping list. Just wish I could get it with sanitary fittings.

 

[Duda_Energy]

I was looking at that same duda chiller for my 1/2bbl system. I want to minimize water use.

Sandy, let me know what your water temp, its flowrate, and desired pitching temp are and I can let you know how much water various chillers would use

FWIW, some of the 10bbl brew systems I have been looking at are running chillers with 5m2 of contact.

We actually carry exchangers as large as 11.76 m² (and can custom make larger) if need be.

Just wish I could get it with sanitary fittings.

Could you be more specific? Our fittings are brazed on directly to the exchanger, so they are easy to sanitize by washing/dunking/baking the whole unit. Adding quick disconnects would let you easily detach the whole unit for the system so they could be cleaned.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Sandy, let me know what your water temp, its flowrate, and desired pitching temp are and I can let you know how much water various chillers would use


Desired pitching temp is 68* for the most part. Groundwater is around 75* in the summer, which is not ideal. I don't know flowrate but it is pretty good. I would like a dual stage where I can drop to ~100* with ground water and then finish with glycol to get it to pitching. This would let me do it year round without worrying about ground water.

We actually carry exchangers as large as 11.76 m² (and can custom make larger) if need be.

Are these larger exchangers still following the same construction as the smaller ones? Do you offer a dual stage option in the larger chillers?

Could you be more specific? Our fittings are brazed on directly to the exchanger, so they are easy to sanitize by washing/dunking/baking the whole unit. Adding quick disconnects would let you easily detach the whole unit for the system so they could be cleaned.

Well, on the water side hose thread is fine. On the beer side I'd love to have tri-clamps. Everything else in the brewery has tri-clamp and it is nice to keep it uniform. 1.5" TC is what I am using. I could get a threaded TC ferrule but then I have threads to worry about. I don't want to keep screwing it on and off to clean. AFAIK, a 1" TC and a 1.5" TC ferrule have the same flange size, just different IDs.

.

 

[Duda_Energy]

What is the temp of your glycol system (or the one you are looking at)? We don't have anything made to be two stage in one unit, but you can easily either use a holding tank and use the same unit, or for better speed I can come up with 2 separate units for each job.

We've been considering tri-clamps for a while, just haven't implemented them because of how close together the fittings are on our smaller long units tri-clamps don't fit on those. And our gravity-flow capable units sell so much better than our brewery size units.