ChickenLuva
Member
Thoughts
Plate chillers vs immersion chillers
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I have only used immersion.
But, plate = faster. It can clog. Difficult to be sure it is clean. Costly.
Immersion = slow, it won't clog, relatively easy to clean. Inexpensive. Uses a lot of water.
Both will only cool to the temperature of the water going through them, unless you cool additionally.
But, plate = faster. It can clog. Difficult to be sure it is clean. Costly.
Immersion = slow, it won't clog, relatively easy to clean. Inexpensive. Uses a lot of water.
Both will only cool to the temperature of the water going through them, unless you cool additionally.
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ChickenLuva
Member
I'm tired of my immersion chiller leaking at threading and spraying all over my kitchen.
augiedoggy
Well-Known Member
if you have a means of filtering your hops out of the wort before it enters the chiller plate chillers are great. I love mine.. I have a longer 20 plate duda diesel model and it works amazing and is very easy for me to keep clean but I use a hop spider for my hops too...
Duct Tape.
Plate = faster? I'm not so sure. I have a Jaded Hydra. Four minutes from boiling to 74 degrees.
Easy to clean, never clogs.
If those are NPT threads then you need either PTFE tape or pipe dope.
If they are Garden Hose Thread, do you have the rubber washer installed?
I had a therminator plate chiller for years and even if i were to ignore the constant clogging (which it always did), they are still a huge hassle to clean and require far far more cleaning time than what you save in chilling time.
Now with that said not all ICs are the same. I haven't seen one yet as good as the Jaded Hydra. That's what i have and currently no plans to use the plate chiller again. It's not worth the cleaning hassle. Standard length copper ICs are slow though... so go big or go home.
My therminator was definitely faster than my Hydra. I'd say what takes me 15-20 minutes with my Hydra would only take 10-12 with my plate IF it didn't clog. But it takes 3 minutes to clean the hydra, and 45 to clean the plate. You do the math.
Plate chillers don't show their benefits until you get into 1 BBL and above batch sizes because at that volume you can't really make a larger IC
augiedoggy
Well-Known Member
Thats a regular immersion chiller? sounds expensive.. This is honestly not intended to come out as bragging but my plate chiller cost me $85 and I can take the wort from boiling down to 50 degrees in one pass this time of year... granted it takes more like 8-10 minutes to empty my BK this way as I oxygenate but im also dealing with 11 gallons of wort.
to clean it I run hot water through it for a minute or two after brewing.. every few brews I run pbw and backflush... I very rarely have anything come out and when it has the most Ive seen couldnt fill a 1/4 tsp. The huge secret is just keeping the hops out of it...
augiedoggy
Well-Known Member
Obviously not all plate chiller environments or plate chillers are the same either since your experience and mine are very different right
imasickboy
Drinkasaurus extraordinarius
My homemade counterflow costed me the same thing, does the same thing, in the same amount of time, but takes me significantly less time to clean, and is much more worry free, when it comes to clogs and sanitation. I'm not sure why counterflow's weren't included in this discussion.
augiedoggy
Well-Known Member
We dont serve their kind here...
.In all fairness they do seem to have the advantage besides size I guess...Ive never used one but Ive never had issues with my plate chiller to really pursue one either.
Well the Jaded Hydra is $160. I have a 40 ft homemade one of 3/8 inch copper tubing, 2 sections so one can be a pre-chiller. For a total of about $50. Copper is more $$ now though.
