any ideas on heat exchanger?

[luismatalon]

I am currently a 5 gallon/cooler system all-grain brewer...I'm slowly but surely planning a 10 gallon system.
I like the idea of incorporating a heat exchanger, not just for the mash recirc. but also for cooling wort.
Has anyone here seen or built a heat exchanger that both heats and cools wort? I was thinking of utilizing a seperate (smaller) vessel with a metal coil line running through it, with both a heating element (for use during mash recirc.) and a hose connection to run cool water (with the ability to add ice and recirculate when trying to reach pitch temp).
Has anyone here tried something similar? I have only come across heat only heat exchangers. Any thoughts/ideas would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks!

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I use my HLT as my heat exchanger (instead of a seperate smaller vessel). It also acts as my chiller when I'm done using the HLT. As soon as I start my boil, I begin cleaning my MLT and HLT. By the time my boil is done, I have an empty HLT that I fill with ice water. After my boil, I pump the wort through my coil again and it cools it very fast.

 

[luismatalon]

Out of curiousity...how long does it take you to cool down boiling wort to...say...65 degrees? Rough estimate?

 

[OneHoppyGuy]

I've used a counter flow copper wort chiller for double duty, it worked excellent. Single pass to tap temperature.

 

[thelorax121]

I've used a counter flow copper wort chiller for double duty, it worked excellent. Single pass to tap temperature.

This is what I am getting ready to do. I was planning on using a small (6 qt) vessel with a 4500W element inside as the HEX boiler, then using a PID to control that element while recirculating the water through the outer coil and wort through the inner coil of a chillius convolutus. Is that similar to what your setup was? If I am not getting the heat transfer I need from the Chillius, I am thinking about making a new all copper CFC with 30 ft of 1/2 and 7/8 tubing. Any plus, minus or advice regarding the CFC HEX? Thanks!

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Out of curiousity...how long does it take you to cool down boiling wort to...say...65 degrees? Rough estimate?

It takes me 10-15 minutes tops to cool down a 10 gallon batch.