The Therminator

Who has any experience with the Therminator in-line chiller. I'm considering adding this to my system and would like to learn from experienced users.

 

I've ran one for about a year and they are wonderful. What would you like to know?

 

Can you explain how it is used and is it easy to sanatize? I assume it is dependent on the temp of the water that is reverse circulated through it. If I understand the principle correctly.

Sorry for the thread jack.

I am also considering purchasing one for my new set-up.

 

Well, for starters you best have a good wort strainer in your kettle like the hopstopper or similar DIY. These plate chillers really don't like particulates.

 

Well, as I said before I've ran the Therminator in my system for a full year now and I would'nt use anything else. I use a Keggle for boiling and use a Hopstopper to catch almost all of all of the debris that are in my wort. And yes it really will cool your wort to pitching temperature within five minutes. When the ambient temps reach over 100 degrees I use a small pond pump and five gallons of ice water and pump the ice water though the water jacket. I have found the Therminator to be pretty tolerant of small break matter and all I do is back flush several times in both directions and then I let it soak in Idophor for several hours and then let drip dry. I have never Knock On Wood had any off flavors or infections ever but I'm pretty anal about sanitation.

 

Just curious, but why not the shirron for 100 bucks less?

 

I think there are half the number of plates and maybe a bit smaller?


Dan

 

Because all of the equipment that I've purchased from Blichmann has always worked as advertised I felt that I would rather take a chance on a for sure thing than on a gamble a lesser known brand, and a C note is not that much to me really! Willsellout is correct the Therminator is larger and cools a little better, But I don't think this would keep me from buying a Shirron.

 

I have the Shirron, works great, I couldn't be happier!

 

I use the Shirron and it works great, even gravity fed.

I use a SS racking cane in the kettle, which i bent the bottom of at a right angle and attached a Sure Screen to keep particulates from going through the chiller.

BTW, it only takes a small amount of chilling water to bring the wort down to pitching temp. The first time I used it I had the faucet water only about half way and accidentally chilled the wort down to 55F and had to actually wait for it to warm back up again, so I really don't see why you would bother with the Therminator when the Shirron already offers more than adequate cooling capability. Perhaps the Therminator performance could be better utilized when pumping and or brewing large batches (greater than 5gal.)

Also: Hi, this is my first post to this forum. I suspect I'll be checking in much more often as I prepare to make the transition to all-grain when I finally move into a house where I'll have a dedicated brewing area.

 

Will the Therminator work well being gravity fed or do you need to pump the wort through?

 

Looking at my Williams Brewing catalog, they stated that the Shirron can cool 5gallons in 5 minutes, and that the Therminator can cool 10gallons in 5 minutes.

With that said I watched my first AG brew last thursday and the brewmaster used a Shirron w/ a March pump and it cooled his 10gal batch in about 7 or 8 minutes.

 

Do a search, the shirron gets fine reviews on pretty much all boards. I am sure you may be able to squeek a little more effiency out of the Blichmann, but the Shirron has always gotten me to pitching temps from day 1.

That said, its your dough. I would rather have the spare cash for this summer's gas prices, I can only imagine what they are gonna be in CA...

 

The Therminator comes with premium quality stainless hex nuts for mounting, but I prefer to use wing nuts so I can easily remove it from my brew stand without tools for heavy cleaning, baking, draining, etc.

I had trouble finding information on what size mounting posts the Therminator had, so I'm resurrecting this thread to share what I found out.

The answer is... 10mm with a 1.5 thread pitch.

These worked perfectly:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#94543a460/

 

Yes it will. I cooled 8 gallons from 180 to 65 in about 10 minutes using gravity. Could of gone faster but had a water leak in a garden hose and the higher water pressure was giving me a shower. Very happy with its gravity performance.

 

I've recently done 11 gal of 200F wort to 65F in under 5 minutes using a chugger pump and some cold ass ground water.