Wort Chiller Review and Comparison

[duelerx]

Here my water gets above 80F and using a prechiller with ice cubes in a cooler still is a pain to lower the temperature, anyone have any tip or technique to prechill the water temp?

 

[beernutz]

My goal was to chill wort to pitching temp as fast as practicably possible while trying to manage cooling water use. If you run your wort more slowly through a CFC you naturally use more cooling water right?

 

[Norselord]

Another though experiment:
What if the counterflow chiller is itself submerged in a salted ice bath?

 

[MagicMatt]

No, because you can run the water at a slower rate as well. It's about contact time, not flow rate. In my experience the water does not reach saturation temps (as in it cannot absorb any more heat) with both valves open all the way (wort and water). Slowing the wort still doesn't get it there by itself, but slowing both the wort and the water does allow this and thus is more efficient (my last 5.5 gallon batch I only collected ~4.5 gallons of runoff from my CFC as the hose was barely opened). During the summer with the hose all the way open I easily use 10 times that amount (40 gallons).

 

[MagicMatt]

No, because you can run the water at a slower rate as well. It's about contact time, not flow rate. In my experience the water does not reach saturation temps (as in it cannot absorb any more heat) with both valves open all the way (wort and water). Slowing the wort still doesn't get it there by itself, but slowing both the wort and the water does allow this and thus is more efficient (my last 5.5 gallon batch I only collected ~4.5 gallons of runoff from my CFC as the hose was barely opened). The coldest water is at the end of the wort's trip through the CFC, so you should be maximizing the contact time there. During the summer with the hose all the way open I easily use 10 times that amount (40 gallons).

 

[Boise1024]

Thanks, that's interesting !

 

[sp0rk]

Note that the Keg King pump isn't actually made by them, as with all their products, they are custom ordered/relabeled products from Chinese suppliers (such as those that appear on Alibaba)
The original version of this pump used to be sold as a Kaixin MP-15R, us Aussies used to import them in group orders from China.
Keg King have custom designed the latest version with a stainless head, however.

 

[micraftbeer]

Something I haven't tried, but thinking about the immersion chiller in hot wort, you probably would get a benefit by moving the coil around in your pre-chiller, or finding someway to circulate that ice water.
Applying other principles discussed here, slowing down the water flow rate through your chilling coil(s), would probably lower your cooling water temperature before it enters your main coil in the boil kettle. And adding more surface area of copper tubing in your ice bath pre-chiller allows more heat transfer surface area/time to chill the water before it enters your boil kettle.
Taking it further, you could get a submersible pond-type pump to put in a cooler of ice water and hook up the output of that to your immersion chiller coil. Flow your hose water into the cooler full of ice to replace what you're pumping out.

 

[duelerx]

I just found a thread detailing about the submersible pump looks like the best idea.

 

[duelerx]

I always thought that using plate or counterflow chillers you do the whirlpool first to precipitate the trub and the cold break and after transfer to the fermentor so you avoid clogging with hop debris, with out doing the whirlpool i see why some people say the disadvantage is cleaning and clogging with hop debris.

 

[micraftbeer]

This actually isn't an accurate description of Keg King. They have their own facility and their own staff in China, as well as their Australian homebase. They do source some components straight-up from Chinese manufacturers, but they also test and re-design where necessary to take generic commercial products and make them brew-worthy.
Take this pump for example. While true that the electrical side of the pump (motor & windings) are the same as this Kaixin pump, they weren't happy with the glass reinforced polyproplene's temperature performance so they developed a Polyethylene Sulfide pump head, which although more expensive that PP, has better long-term temperature durability. And to support this material change, they actually have to source the raw materials to deliver to the mold injector.
And as you noted, they did tool up the stainless steel head as this wasn't a product offering previously.

 

[RichBenn]

The point I was making is evaluations should point out the differences. For example, while a plate chiller seems good, there are additional costs and techniques required. There are trade offs to every technique, and finding out and discussing those are what makes a good article better.

 

[IKR]

Good article. I settled on using a big immersion cooler with a submersible fountain pump in an ice bath when the initial boil temp drops to 130F after using straight tap water. I see the benefit of a plate chiller or a CFC but long term cleaning ability does not set well with me. I'm scared missing out on cleaning the remnant of the last wort will come to haunt me in the form of an infected batch in future use. I've seen people flush a plate chiller multiple times after using it and still be able to get crud out on beer day. Someone send me a link to a company that has plate chillers I can disassemble (pro-style) and I'm ready to buy.
Cheers

 

[coolitfast]

I have been using one of my original prototype for 3 years brewing at least once a month. I flush with 180d water before and after every use. I will fill and soak it with Oxy Clean for an hour and flush every 5th or 6th use and have no ill effects with my beers nor have I heard of any of my customers with any problems using the same method.
I did attend as an exhibitor at the BYO Boot Camp in Burlington V.T and heard many nightmare stories of plugged plate chillers and as you mentioned never really being able to clean them.
It would be cost prohibitive (at least in my opinion) to to produce an effective, cleanable plate chiller for the home brewer who produces 5-15 gal batches.
Stay ExChilerated

 

[BrunDog]

Don't. Prechilling that volume of water is not efficient and basically doesn't work. Assuming you are using an IC in the ice bucket, switch it to be a secondary chiller, meaning main chiller flushed by ground water, then your wort goes through this secondary chiller into your fermenter. Try it and be amazed how well it works!

 

[LuckyBeagleBrewing]

It really is a shame that Jaded has not released their supersized counterflow chiller. I have not had a lot of time to use mine (beta) but when I did, with 55 degree water, it will take my 12 gallons of finished wort from boiling down to 70 degrees in about 12.5 minutes, The 70 degrees is not the output temp but measuring from the center of the kettle. Output was in the low 60s by then. I notice counterflow tests are with output temp not center kettle. I need to start working it more and send them more data because that is the best counterflow I have used, It is straight 1/2 id copper tubing and it takes 5 minutes to clean with two people and a slice of green scrubbie. It is similar to their Cyclone only bigger. Makes whirlpooling a breeze.
Before I use that I had coil counterflow that took 1.5 to 2 hours to drain gravity fed. Never got off flavors with it taking that long but beer quality is better when you have fast chill.

 

[Polypod]

Well then, a good weekend read can be found here:
http://sites.poli.usp.br/pqi/lea/docs/cobem2001.pdf
Of course the main pro's and con's are elsewhere; and at the end of the day, a immersion chiller and a sore arm is fine for most..