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Date: 11 Jul 2006 10:15:33
From: Dave Smith
Subject: plate chillers
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I've been thinking about a place chiller for awhile, what is the opinion
in the group? Are they good? Bad? Some better than others? A friend of
mine just ordered one and he said you can spend $75 or $175, that's a
pretty huge price gap!
Dave
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Date: 11 Jul 2006 13:53:27
From: Jim Stansell
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:15:33 -0700, Dave Smith <dave@nowhere.com >
wrote:
>I've been thinking about a place chiller for awhile, what is the opinion
>in the group? Are they good? Bad? Some better than others? A friend of
>mine just ordered one and he said you can spend $75 or $175, that's a
>pretty huge price gap!
>
>Dave
The two main plate chillers out there are the Therminator (about $190)
and the Shirron (about $85).. The Therminator has about twice the
plate area of the Shirron, which accounts for the higher price. As a
result, it's more efficient, although there's no hard and fast rule to
determine if it justifies the higher price.
Plate chillers are wonderfully efficient and quick, and typically use
less water to chill down to pitching temperature than counterflow or
immersion chillers. The main drawback is that you must be very
fastidious when it comes to cleaning as the gaps between the plates
are quite small.
Generally, you should backflush the chiller with hot water or PBW to
give it a thorough cleaning.....it can be easily sanitized by soaking
in iodophor, Star San, or whatever.
It's also a good idea to have some kind of filter in your boil keg and
to use at least some leaf hops to help prevent particulate matter from
going through the chiller. It's almost like setting the grain bed in
your mash tun.
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Date: 11 Jul 2006 21:29:54
From: Dave Smith
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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Thanks for the info Jim. Do you use one yourself?
Dave
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Date: 12 Jul 2006 06:55:36
From: Jim Stansell
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 21:29:54 -0700, Dave Smith <dave@nowhere.com >
wrote:
>Thanks for the info Jim. Do you use one yourself?
>
>Dave
Yes, although I didn't want to appear to push one over the other in my
original reply. I didn't want to make it look like a sales pitch, but
since you asked <VBG >......I've been using a Therminator for several
months, and love it. It's amazing to see 200 degree wort go in and
have 55 degree wort come out about five seconds later. For what it's
worth, I don't pump the wort......gravity feed works just fine.
I live in Michigan, and in the middle of winter my water temperature
is about 51 degrees. I actually have to slow the water flow to keep it
from chilling too much. In the summer, I can chill a five gallon batch
to the low 60s in just a few minutes.
After I use it, I recirculate hot PBW through it for about five or ten
minutes (while I'm cleaning up other stuff). I mix up about two
gallons, and dump the first half gallon or so since it's pretty cruddy
with hop residue. After the PBW flush, I run hot water through it to
finish the cleaning process, drain it, and let it dry.
I bought the Therminator over the Shirron because (a) I could get it
locally through my LHBS (where I also get a club discount), and (b) I
was pleased with the Beer Gun (another product from Blichmann
Engineering).
Check out the following web site for more information:
http://www.blichmannengineering.com/Therminator/Therminator.htm
Standard disclaimers apply.....no affiliation, etc.
Let me know if I can answer any more questions.
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Date: 12 Jul 2006 08:18:45
From: Dave Smith
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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How do you recirculate the pbw? Pump?
Dave
In article <noi9b2pejgf44c9plickl3cearsljf29s6@4ax.com >,
Jim Stansell <jim.stansell@comcast.net > wrote:
> After I use it, I recirculate hot PBW through it
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Date: 12 Jul 2006 11:44:02
From: Jim Stansell
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 08:18:45 -0700, Dave Smith <dave@nowhere.com >
wrote:
>How do you recirculate the pbw? Pump?
>Dave
>
Exactly. I also recirculate SaniClean (a non-foaming version of
StarSan) before I use it to sanitize the chiller and hoses.
The reason that I gravity feed the wort through the chiller instead of
pumping is that my pump is only rated to 185 degrees, and I don't want
to risk damaging it. I was a bit skeptical that gravity feeding the
chiller would work, but I haven't had any problems at all.
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Date: 12 Jul 2006 10:21:34
From: MDixon
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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Jim Stansell <jim.stansell@comcast.net > wrote in message
news:noi9b2pejgf44c9plickl3cearsljf29s6@4ax.com...
> I've been using a Therminator for several
> months, and love it. It's amazing to see 200 degree wort go in and
> have 55 degree wort come out about five seconds later. For what it's
> worth, I don't pump the wort......gravity feed works just fine.
I was part of a brew where we used one of the smaller plate chillers, IME,
they (the smaller ones) suck at cooling and are not worth your time, even
when using a pre-chiller...YMMV...
Cheers,
Mike
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Date: 12 Jul 2006 11:03:30
From: Jim Stansell
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:21:34 -0400, "MDixon" <me@privacy.net > wrote:
>
>Jim Stansell <jim.stansell@comcast.net> wrote in message
>news:noi9b2pejgf44c9plickl3cearsljf29s6@4ax.com...
>> I've been using a Therminator for several
>> months, and love it. It's amazing to see 200 degree wort go in and
>> have 55 degree wort come out about five seconds later. For what it's
>> worth, I don't pump the wort......gravity feed works just fine.
>
>I was part of a brew where we used one of the smaller plate chillers, IME,
>they (the smaller ones) suck at cooling and are not worth your time, even
>when using a pre-chiller...YMMV...
>
>Cheers,
>Mike
>
Hmmmm, fortunately, that hasn't been my experience. With my immersion
chiller (50 feet of 1/2" copper), it would take 10 to 15 minutes to
get six gallons of wort down to about 75 degrees, even using a pump to
recirculate while chilling.
With the Therminator, I can chill a six gallon batch down to the
mid-to-upper 50s in about five minutes.
Do you remember which one you used and what the water temperature was?
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Date: 12 Jul 2006 18:08:35
From: MDixon
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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Jim Stansell <jim.stansell@comcast.net > wrote in message
news:ah3ab2tsausaaalf3vkcguak9klr8mrum5@4ax.com...
> Do you remember which one you used and what the water temperature was?
>
The water temp was probably about 70ºF, but keep in mind we ran the water
through an immersion chiller in an ice bath (that was EXTREMELY COLD) prior
to going into the plate. It took from my recollection 15 min to cool 5
gallons and the best we could do with the temp was 76ºF.
Assuming that the water was moving too fast for the ice bath (impossible) in
theory we should have been within 5-10ºF. It was enough of a life lesson
for me to suggest to the brewer who brought it that he might think of
dunking an immersion into the brewpot to get the first 40-50ºF drop from
212ºF and then switch to the plate.
I can see how more plates would chill better, but nearly 200 beans is quite
a bit for chilling...
Cheers,
Mike
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Date: 11 Jul 2006 17:53:24
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:15:33 -0700, <dave@nowhere.com > wrote:
> I've been thinking about a place chiller for awhile, what is the opinion
> in the group? Are they good? Bad? Some better than others? A friend of
> mine just ordered one and he said you can spend $75 or $175, that's a
> pretty huge price gap!
What do you mean by a plate chiller?
Are you talking about a chiller that goes in your kettle, or a cold plate
for dispensing beer... or something else? I'm not familiar with that term.
John.
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Date: 12 Jul 2006 08:03:58
From: Richard Kaszeta
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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John 'Shaggy' Kolesar <spam@shagg.net > writes:
> What do you mean by a plate chiller?
>
> Are you talking about a chiller that goes in your kettle, or a cold plate
> for dispensing beer... or something else? I'm not familiar with that term.
It's another form of counterflow heat exchanger for chilling wort. If
they are well designed, they are usually more effective than a
similarly sized shell and tube or tube in tube heat exchanger, since
the heat transfer surface area is larger. The "Therminator" is the
most common one you see in brewing.
(I design heat exchangers for my day job...)
--
Richard W Kaszeta
rich@kaszeta.org
http://www.kaszeta.org/rich
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Date: 12 Jul 2006 06:43:08
From: ET
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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John 'Shaggy' Kolesar <spam@shagg.net > wrote in
news:slrneb7pgl.csn.spam@weizen.shagg.net:
> On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:15:33 -0700, <dave@nowhere.com> wrote:
>> I've been thinking about a place chiller for awhile, what is the
>> opinion in the group? Are they good? Bad? Some better than others? A
>> friend of mine just ordered one and he said you can spend $75 or
>> $175, that's a pretty huge price gap!
>
> What do you mean by a plate chiller?
>
> Are you talking about a chiller that goes in your kettle, or a cold
> plate for dispensing beer... or something else? I'm not familiar with
> that term.
>
>
> John.
>
<http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=10572
&osCsid=0695e4a556047fe1e994a5ce14e7616b >
or http://makeashorterlink.com/?H16F2446D
I got one a few months ago, it's taken me a bit of time to get used to,
but now I love it...
It cools the wort to 83 degrees, with my 82 degree water (summer) which
is good enough for me!
--
-- ET >:-)
"A common mistake people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete
fools."---- Douglas Adams
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Date: 13 Jul 2006 09:03:45
From: miker
Subject: Re: plate chillers
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I've been contemplating getting the Shirron PC myself since I need a
new chiller and the price of copper tubing has skyrocketed, and having
read a lot of comments lately about both brands, this was the first
mention I've seen of them not cooling extemely well.
The big debate seems to be more about cleaning and, since they don't
come apart, the chance that small particles might lodge in there. The
importer of the Shirron says you need to strain out hops, etc or you
will have a problem. Last I saw, he was going to saw open his well used
(and properly flushed and cleaned right after each use) one and see
what it looked like inside, but don't see any report of that. He was
also looking into a pc that could be dissassembled, but the cost was
too high so far.
Anyone here used the Shirron plate chiller and have comments?
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