Yes I’m familiar with the unit and yes it’s a pain to break it down. You don’t need to bake it that’s your call.
Flushing with hot water and running star San through it is a guarantee to infection. It’s simply not enough and bad practice.
At the minimum you need to run a back flush with hot water 130-150 degrees. Then reverse the hoses and clean with a PBW ( or oxyclean free) wash at 130-150. Then a flush with 130-150degree water. Then a sanitation with star San, sani clean or iodophor.
A plate chiller has multiple layers of copper with many small spaces for stuff to get caught up and you can’t visually inspect it. So if you aren’t very careful with cleaning you are going to have a problem at some point. The wort going in is near a boil but goes to warm then cold as it passes through. Wort and trub will not only stick in it but it will create a perfect environment for bacteria growth a few plates into the unit. Once you back flush it after a brew day you’ll see what I mean. This unit needs to be as clean or cleaner than your fermentor, you don’t want to expose your wort to any bacteria at the beginning of fermentation as bacteria can take hold before the yeast can eat up the sugars and out compete the bacteria. It’s survival of the fittest in the beginning.
I use a sump pump. I make three buckets of cleaning solution, rinse water and sanitizer. I just move the sump and return line from bucket to bucket then air dry with the unit on its short end to allow the sani to drain out. Then I sanitize once more on brew day.
They work great, you’ll love the ability to rack chilled wort at your desired pitching temp in a single pass saving you time and water but that ease comes with a price.
