HERMS Question

[Steven9026]

Could you take a plate chiller and close off the water inlet and outlets and pump your wort through it to make a HERMS unit? I was thinking this would be more compact for doing a 5 gallon HERMS setup.

 

[Yooper]

Could you take a plate chiller and close off the water inlet and outlets and pump your wort through it to make a HERMS unit? I was thinking this would be more compact for doing a 5 gallon HERMS setup.

I'm not picturing how it would be a heat exchanger if the outlets were closed off. Can you elaborate a bit on how it would work?

 

[Steven9026]

You would pump the WORT through the plate chiller just like you do when cooling it.. Except the chiller would be inside the HLT and heated to the MASH temp..

 

[Steven9026]

I guess there would be no reason to have to close the water side inlets.

 

[Steven9026]

It may also take a little longer to get it up to temps. than a copper coil..

 

[Yooper]

It may also take a little longer to get it up to temps. than a copper coil..

A plate chiller may be more compact than a copper IC, but they both would still fit in a 5 gallon HLT, wouldn't they?

I guess I'm trying to see the advantage here, and I must be missing it. The copper coil is cheaper, more efficient (better heat transfer), and very lightweight.

 

[Steven9026]

I was wondering how efficient it would be.. It was an idea,. I just thought the little box chiller sitting in the HLT would look a little neater than the copper coil.. It's no big deal.. The money part didn't matter, but since the copper will be more efficient, that is the way to go..

 

[cletusp]

If you had 2 pumps i think it would work fine. just asked the same? But why put it in the HLT, Just leave it where it is.