Conventional counterflow vs. plate chiller

[Riclat]

After a 10-12 year hiatus, I brewed a batch of beer Sunday--10 gallons of bitter, all grain. One of my surprises was the high temp of the wort after chilling, around 90 degrees. I was using my old counterflow chiller--about 20 feet of copper tubing inside vinyl tubing. I was recirculating my chiller water, periodically adding ice.

How much more efficient would one of the 40- or 60-plate chillers be? Would I need to use a pump to push the wort through it?

I like the fact I could run hot wort through a plate chiller, sanitizing it. I'm afraid to do what with my current chiller because of the vinyl tubing.

 

[MalFet]

You should be able to get well below 90ºF with a counterflow chiller if you are using ice water. Perhaps you were running your wort out too quickly. Plate chillers tend to be more efficient, and can be gravity fed. You mention running hot wort through it...I assume you mean that you'd run wort through before turning on the water? How are you imagining it to work? I suspect you would need a recirculating pump for something like this.

 

[Riclat]

Yes, I'd recirculate the hot wort through the chiller with a pump before running the cold water through it. I've got a March pump I'll eventually be using for the chilling process. I didn't use it Sunday because I was having some priming problems when I was testing it Saturday.

 

[hatfieldenator]

The plate chillers are incredible if you have cool enough tap water. When my tap water is 65 or less I can chill a batch down to pitching temps in a matter of minutes. I was shocked the first time I used one. Well worth the investment in my opinion. The only downside is that they are difficult to get 100% clean.

And yes, you probably need to use a pump to push the wort through, although I've never tried without one. I suppose its possible to gravity feed through it if you're system is set up for that already.