Can i use a Therminator chiller to heat wort?

[salombard79]

I was wondering, can you use a therminator wort chiller to heat wort as well. If you were step mashing and had to raise the temperature, with the help of a pump could you bring the wort in on one side and the hot liquor in the other and return the heated wort back to the mash tun. Has anyone tried this? Would it take to long to heat? Wouldn't you be using the same physics of the chiller but in reverse. Then you wouldn't have to use an open flame and worry about scorching.

 

[weirdboy]

Yeah I have a Therminator and have thought about this, too. It will work as a heat exchanger just fine, but the problem is that you almost always have some crud coming off your mash, especially when you first start recirculating. Enough that I'd worry about clogging up the tiny channels in the Therminator.

Maybe if you do a vorlauf for a while before running it through the Therminator it would be OK, but I wouldn't want to run it straight in without at least trying to clear up the wort coming off the mash first.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Yes, you could. Just recirc hot water through one side and wort through the other. You would need two pumps. Shouldn't take any longer than a RIMS as the heat exchangers are very efficient. And, if you alternate ports, it shouldn't be much more hassle to clean. Whatever port you run the hot water through for step mashing, use that same port for wort when you chill. That way a bunch of water will flow through the dirty side when you chill and make it easier to clean.

 

[tenbricks]

Yeah I have a Therminator and have thought about this, too. It will work as a heat exchanger just fine, but the problem is that you almost always have some crud coming off your mash, especially when you first start recirculating. Enough that I'd worry about clogging up the tiny channels in the Therminator.

Maybe if you do a vorlauf for a while before running it through the Therminator it would be OK, but I wouldn't want to run it straight in without at least trying to clear up the wort coming off the mash first.

I do this, but with a tube CFC for exactly that reason. The mash gets recirculated through this, which is easily large enough not to get clogged with any grains or crud that make it through the false bottom. Running a bit of hot water through when needed raises the temperature nicely.

When mashing is done, it's simple to connect wort return line to the boil kettle instead to pump everything into that. After the boil, hoses are swapped and the chiller is used to chill.

Works well.