Refurbish or to scrap mega heat exchanger

[Welderbydaybrewerbynight]

Went out on a call today and changed out a heat exchanger for a lager one. I just couldn't bring myself to scrap it. It was put in, in 2006 by me and works great. I had R22 on the cooling side and process water on the hot side. The process water was kept very clean but still not anything close to sanitary.

I have rebuilt these many times at work and it is time consuming but hey its free. It does look a little rough from the pictures but that was just the armaflex I ripped off of it and a good ss wire brushing would clean it up nicely. It is all stainless inside and out and very clean internally.

Now it is way bigger than any home brewer would ever need but I plan on going pro one day (like 5 to 10 years in the future) with a micro pub that I build myself. I set a little 10 plate on top of it for scale, what do you all think?

 

[WPStrassburg]

No picts showing?

Make & model? BY the sounds of it it's a plate and frame if it's rebuildable, so I'd just look for a new set of gaskets and go to town! If it's stainless brazed plate then you're fine to clean it and use.

 

[Welderbydaybrewerbynight]

Hold on, phone is being very slow.

 

[Welderbydaybrewerbynight]

 

[emjay]

It's cute.

Maybe you could take a profile picture (straight from the side, not really from above) with something more recognizable beside it, in order to get a greater sense of scale? Maybe like a 1-foot ruler, or a 5gal bucket or carboy?

 

[day_trippr]

I'd say the yellow gas bottle suggests that thing is HUMONGOUS...

But I could be wrong

Cheers!

 

[david_42]

How much liquid volume on each side?

 

[aarong]

Looks like a kids bike with training wheels in the back I agree it looks huge.

 

[Welderbydaybrewerbynight]

How much liquid volume on each side?

Has 2" ports, it is 40" long 17" high and 10" wide. Weighs about 100# or more. That pic is from the side.

 

[CoalCracker]

You'll lose a whole batch of beer to that thing! What a monster. Probably worth more in scrap than what you can use it for.

 

[bradjoiner]

dont scrap it you could get way more on ebay

 

[Hodor_Baggins]

What would you have to do to clean that sucker up?

 

[Welderbydaybrewerbynight]

It won't take much a good ss wire wheel on the outside and then blast it with walnut shells in the sand blaster would make the outside look like new. The inside would require a good acid soak for a day or two and then a good rinse for a couple of hours. Weld on some ferrules to the input and output and it would be like new. I did some research on it today and it holds 2.89 gallons of product to be cooled and a little less like 1.80 gallons of chilled water.

Might be off a bit on the chilled water my refrigerant pounds to gallons math is rough. But i bet it could chill a 50 to 60bbl system very quickly with the right temp on the cooling side.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

It's cute.

Maybe you could take a profile picture (straight from the side, not really from above) with something more recognizable beside it, in order to get a greater sense of scale? Maybe like a 1-foot ruler, or a 5gal bucket or carboy?

Or, maybe, you get your head out of your ass and realize he's got a homebrewers plate chiller (shirron like) on top and a gas tank to the side.

 

[emjay]

Or, maybe, you get your head out of your ass and realize he's got a homebrewers plate chiller (shirron like) on top and a gas tank to the side.

Never seen a 10-plate homebrew chiller (and the only one I've seen in person is the Therminator), and I don't know how large "yellow" gas tanks are supposed to be. I'm sorry if I've offended you.

 

[Welderbydaybrewerbynight]

Well the more i think about it I'm just going to scrap it and buy some wood to make a table for my mill and to store grain buckets on, maybe buy a bag or two of grain as well. I most likely will never use it and if the day comes that i need something that big i will just grab another one i take out.

 

[60sd]

I'm nowhere near as skilled, or well equipped, as you, but one of my constant struggles is overcoming the urge to hang on to stuff because it's cool and I want to use it someday. My rule, (although I probably break it all the time) is if I haven't used it in a year, it gets s*** canned. If you're not going to use it, maybe you can refurbish it and get some cash on ebay or c/l for it. Good score either way!

 

[Welderbydaybrewerbynight]

Well I scraped the exchanger and used the cash to make a table for my mill (which I made all but the rollers) and brewing utensils.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Never seen a 10-plate homebrew chiller (and the only one I've seen in person is the Therminator), and I don't know how large "yellow" gas tanks are supposed to be. I'm sorry if I've offended you.

Shirron (although really an 11 plate, IIRC.)

For your blaspheme, you are forgiven. For being Canadian, well, there's just no helping that.