HUGE Plate Chiller

[ghart999]

Good deal. Yes I am waiting for a couple extra Type F fittings for the chiller too. Its my 4th order with PFD now.

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

To save a little $$$, I am thinking of using polypropylene cam-locks on the line with the water into the chiller and then water out. Does anyone see any issues with this? All the rest of the connections which will be touching the wort will be stainless steel.

 

[ILOVEBEER]

"My whole point was pointing to a chiller for the same price as the Therminator with almost triple the cooling surface area. That's all."

The therminator is WAY OVERPRICED for what you get. I found one on ebay for 110.00 delivered with the same dimensions. The one you are talking about is nice and BIG. The only bummer is now you have to reduce the fittings to 1/2" NPT (if that is what you use). Either way a plate chiller of any size is the way to go!

 

[kegtoe]

anyone provide a review for these beasts?

 

[ScubaSteve]

To save a little $$$, I am thinking of using polypropylene cam-locks on the line with the water into the chiller and then water out. Does anyone see any issues with this? All the rest of the connections which will be touching the wort will be stainless steel.

You'd only be saving a little bit. PFD camlocks are as cheap as it gets....definitely worth paying $2 more per fitting. Also, consider resale value if you ever get sick of backflushing and cleaning the plate chiller....it's happened to a lot of folks. Homebrew stuff has a way of retaining value and selling quick on ebay. Go stainless and you'll get a decent return.

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

So I finally got my camlocks yesterday and just did a test run with this chiller. So there are some issues.

Firstly I am unsure exactly how to connect it. I figure hot liquid one way (i.e. left to right) and the water the other as a conter-flow(right to left). I did this and basically I only got a few drips not even a trickle out of the chiller. Therefore I switched it up and ran both the hot liquid and cooling water in the direction of the arrows on the plate and then got a steady stream coming out.

I did not bother with an ice bath for this practice run, but the water coming out of the chiller was about 100c, which seems too high.

I emailed the eBay selling a couple of weeks ago asking about the connections and never got a response.

**follow up.. just tested this for the second time. It worked a lot better this time. I raised the chiller off the ground so there was more height between that and the final container. I had it working counter-flow and got the hot water to 95 from about 200, with a faucet water temp of about 76. I figure if I use an ice bath to pre-cool the water it should hopefully get it down to nearer the pitching temps.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Try blowing in a hole and see where it comes out. Name that your wort in and out. Then, on the same side of the chiller as your wort out call the remaining port your water in. THe 2 fluids need to pass eachother, not flow the same direction. That way, the water can "strip away" the heat from the wort. Each chiller is a bit different, but that's the nuts/bolts of it. YMMV.

 

[NiteOwlBrewing]

Any idea on the flow rate full bore through one of these? Also, with what pump and relative height of the pump to chiller would be helpful.

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

I found with full throttle with this chiller I could only get to about 110-120f. I had to turn it to a trickle to get it close to the cooling water temp.

 

[NiteOwlBrewing]

What temp is your groundwater? I'm in the low-mid 60s in the summer and lower in the winter. This might be one good thing about being in Ohio...