CFC or Plate w/o pot spigot.

[olllllo]

I helping my buddy's SWMBO get him a gift. He needs a wort chiller of some sort. I don't want to get him an IC as I feel he may want to scale up at some point. His pot is spigotless.

Can a CFC or plate be used with a siphon?
It seems like alot of sketchy business.

 

[Ender]

It can, but I would recommend a Stainless steel racking cane. Or better yet, just drill a hole and get a weldless kit. Makes all things easier

Ender
-I'm smelling a lot of IF comming offa this plan-

 

[bradsul]

I use my CFC with a copper dip tube into my kettle. Works great, drains 25L in about 17 minutes through a 25' 3/8 CFC.

 

[olllllo]

Bradsul:
Do you siphon by filling the hose with a starsan solution?

 

[Bobby_M]

You'd have to start the siphon first and then block the line while you attach it to the CFC. However, without a pump, I REALLY feel like external exchanger is a PITA to sanitize. I gravity fed mine (even with a bulkhead drain) for a few batches and vowed to go back to the IC until I got the pump.

 

[bradsul]

Bradsul:
Do you siphon by filling the hose with a starsan solution?

I attach a short piece of sanitized tubing to the discharge of the CFC and suck start. As soon as I see wort pass through the clear tubing at the top of the CFC I remove the short piece of tubing and gravity does the rest. Totally sanitary and no pump required.

I pull starsan through the CFC the same way into the primary, then when I've drained through for a couple minutes I use that to sanitize the fermenter. The whole process takes about 5 minutes (which I do while the kettle whirlpool is coasting to a stop.

 

[Dude]

Have her get him a weldless kit for his kettle, and just go the CFC or plate chiller route the right way, right away.

I'm thinking ground water temps--and you know he'll want to upgrade from an IC almost ASAP.

 

[olllllo]

Weldless may be the ticket.
May have to go the siphon route with him for the first batch or so.

He's one of those perfectionists that'll put off drilling the pot until he can get time on a real drill press or build some jig for it or a million other things I can't even dream up. You know what I'm talking about.

 

[wild]

I don't want to get him an IC as I feel he may want to scale up at some point.

Then he can use the IC as a pre-chiller. It's useful out here.

Wild

 

[FlyGuy]

If he is using glass carboys as fermenters, you could always add a DIY Wort Wizard pump with the kit. That would make siphoning a breeze, and improve cooling time.

 

[Doc Thirst]

I used my CF Chiller with a siphon at first and found it near impossible...well let me rephrase, it took so long, I might as well have spooned out my wort, blew on it, then dumped it in my carboy.

I love gravity as a tool and refused to get a pump, so I dropped a whoppin' 25 bucks on a weldless fitting. Makes a HUGE difference, as I'm down to a reasonable 1.5 min per gallon rate. Now all that being said, its also fair to mention switching to a suspended hop bag couldn't have hurt either.

I would set my container of starsan on top of my basement steps with my SS kane attached to my CF, then I'd suck some starsan into the CF to get the whole thing filled up, once it started flowing out the other end I would pinch off the hose. Let sit for a few min to do it thing then I would transfer to the kettle. At that point I would release the pinch and let it run though until the starsan turned to wort, and I would start filling my carboys. All in all I prob had a 4-6 foot drop.

So to chime in with the other folks here, get a weldless fitting if you want to save your bud some frustration with his new chiller, in my opinion

 

[Lil' Sparky]

However, without a pump, I REALLY feel like external exchanger is a PITA to sanitize.

Agree 100%.

I hated getting my CFC ready before I got my pump! Now it's a breeze, and I just clean it along with my pump now by pumping boiling water through at the end of the day.

 

[Bobby_M]

I don't even do that anymore. At the end of a brewday, I attach my garden hose to the input of my pump and run plain water through the pump and CFC for 5 minutes. Then I store it away. Next brew day I hook everything up the kettle with T-10 minutes in the boil and just start recirculating hot wort back into the kettle. ( I catch all the hose water in a bucket until I see wort). There may be some "nasties" in the chiller that get flushed into the hot wort, but I'm sure it's dead by the time I start chilling.

After 6-8 batches I'll boil some diluted white vinegar and recirulate that just to give it a good cleaning.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

It's probably overkill, but I just don't like the thought of anything getting stuck in there since you can't see what's on the inside. Just paranoid, I guess.