Counter Flow Chillers/Plate Chillers Use Less Water?

[RLinNH]

I have to ask as I am running into an issue as far as my well going dry on brew days here at my new house. Only time I run the water during my brew day is when I run the immersion chiller. So my question is this. For all of you that have had an immersion chiller and now run some sort of CFC or Plate chiller, do you think that it uses less water than your immersion chiller did?

I shudder at the thought of having to buy a damned pump for my gravity system. I am the Keep It Simple guy and have tried pumps in the past. I didn't like them at all. But if these new chillers use less water than my current setup, I guess it's just something I'll have to get used to...

 

[RLinNH]

After some research, I like the Exchilerator Brutus. Looks like I could even use it as a gravity feed...

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Look at the Jaded ICs. They have a couple of models (Hydra and King Cobra I think) that can chill a batch way faster than my plate chiller and w/o a pump or worry about getting the inside clean. This is the next upgrade on my brewery list!

 

[auburntsts]

Plate chillers and CFCs both use significantly less water because they can both cool from a boil to pitching temps in just a few minutes.

 

[RLinNH]

Leaning towards recirculating my coolant water. Something like this...

 

[RPh_Guy]

Plate chillers and CFCs both use significantly less water because they can both cool from a boil to pitching temps in just a few minutes.

This ^^^
But they are faster because they are vastly more efficient (better heat transfer).

The amount of water saved depends on the quality of the CFC, but also you can reduce flow of water and wort to make it even more efficient, or gravity-run ice water through the CFC with the cooler you have there (probably not needed).
Just a stab in the dark but I'd guess you'd be using around 10-100x less water with the right setup.

The recirculator project you linked will definitely help too but a CFC is way easier in the long run and possibly cheaper.

Cheers

 

[tmendick]

I use a cooler, pump and ice water system with an immersion chiller, I think it saves quite a bit of water. I have a cooler dedicated to brewing that I keep about half full of water, then add 2 bags of ice to top it off. Run about 1 gallon of water per gallon of wort off into a separate bucket and dump that then start to recirculate back into the cooler.