twobears
Member
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2012
- Messages
- 22
- Reaction score
- 2
I have done a lot of searching on this subject, not only here, but throughout the web as well about which chiller is better, counterflow vs plate chiller. I understand the plate chiller requires a few extra steps to cleaning it properly. That does not concern me. I want the one that uses the least amount of tap water. I want the most efficient one. Least amount of water with the fastest chill time. A 10 gallon batch that takes 5 minutes to cool at 5 gpm takes 25 gallons of water. This is acceptable. However, with the counterflow chiller I am using, it takes more like 15 minutes, which is 75 gallons of tap water!! This is NOT acceptable. What I need to know is....is a 5 minute cool-down time a real world figure? Or a sales pitch? Sure I can run the hose from my garage, into the house, down to the basement, and into the washing machine and reclaim some of that water but my washer only holds 20 gallons. In the summer time, I can water my garden with the water coming out of the chiller. In the winter, its pretty much a waste. The system Im putting together now will have an overhead reservoir tank that holds about 13.5 gallons of the luke warm water coming out of the chiller to reuse during clean up and even use gravitational head pressure to back flush my entire system but that still leaves quite a bit of wasted water. So, again....counterflow or plate chiller? Maybe 2 plate chillers? Like I said, if it only took 25 gallons of water to cool down 10 gallons of wort, I would be perfectly happy with that. Can I expect that sort of efficiency from a plate chiller?