Plate or Counter flow chiller for the new rig?

[scotia]

http://www.brewershardware.com/Trub-Strainer/
think its what Scotia has used??

No! made my own

[Aleman]

Best PC'er ? Mr Lard has a nice long 125KW one for £85....

He also has a really nice 185Kw one . . .but it is a bit more than £85

[Fil]

http://www.brewershardware.com/Trub-Strainer/
think its what Scotia has used??

No! made my own

Course u did!! what was i thinkin...

[setmash]

Scotia is a man of steel, that rig is something else. He made my dog kennels (chugger enclosures) and even the Mrs said 'hmm they look nice' when they arrived, enough said !!

Come on then Aleman how much does a 185KW plate chiller cost ?????

[Aleman]

Contact Mr Lard

[setmash]

I'll raise your 185Kw to 210Kw

[Aleman]

I'll raise your 185Kw to 210Kw

But mine only has 20 plates

[setmash]

I guess less plates are better ?? makes the PC longer but more efficient ?

[Aleman]

I guess less plates are better ?? makes the PC longer but more efficient ?

Once you get beyond a certain number of plates then it is plate size (and transit time) that limits the cooling effect . . . Bigger plates . . .better cooling . . .which is why commercial PC's are Huge, but relatively few plates.

[setmash]

Thanks, what size would you recommend for a 38 liter fast as possible chill. Pumped through the chiller in to FV. Is 210Kw overkill ?

[Aleman]

Thanks, what size would you recommend for a 38 liter fast as possible chill. Pumped through the chiller in to FV. Is 210Kw overkill ?

As long as you can get the coolant flowing through to match the rate at which you are sending your wort then it won't be an issue for you . . . I've found that my coolant flow isn't good enough for the small / many plate chillers . . . I had a 60 Plate 120KW PC and struggled getting temps down below 30C unless I throttled back the wort flow . . . with the new chiller I can hit 20C easily

[setmash]

The 210Kw chiller is 50 plate, its not cheap so dont want to buy it if its not right. What length is your 20 plate if you dont mind me asking ??

[setmash]

..and the width ?

Im slowly getting my head around this, like all things brewing its a maze. I also know i have low flow rates for my water so i need a long chiller too....

[setmash]

Getting my head around this a bit now. Im going to add a cleaning cycle in to my process - dump the hot water output from the chiller in to the HLT. Back flush with the hot HLT water to clear the crap - through the chiller and RIMs. Then add PBW in to the balance of the hot HLT water and back flush. Then back flush with clean water to rinse. The issue I have is that the flow rate from my taps suck at about 10 liters a minute (coolant). I need an efficient chiller. Ideally I need the water out from the chiller to be about 65 degrees so it needs to be efficient.

After some research Ive come across these guys who do all kinds of very nice plate chillers. They even have a 2.1MW chiller

http://www.dudadiesel.com/heat_exchange ... id=115:11:

They have an interesting chart for each of their chillers showing output temps, chill times and flow rates:

http://www.dudadiesel.com/files/beerwortchart.pdf

The cost of delivery is between $80 and $100 - so all in not cheap. It will cost me about £200 for either the B3 36A 40 plate (18 inches long 2.9 inches wide) 251KW or the B52A 20 which is a massive 20.7 inches long and 4.4 inches wide (only 191Kw but should be more efficient). Im going to email them and see what they recommend. Mr Lard may be able to help once I understand exactly what I need. Any ideas from anyone as to which would be the best for such a pants flow rate of 10 liters per minute of coolant ?

Ive thought about building something like Fils mega chiller - but by the time you add all the bits up its as much as a plate chiller. A CF with a 1 meter square area needs 20m of 15 mm copper pipe and 20 m of 22mm, thats £100+ before all the fittings

[darkonnis]

check ebay once you decide what plate chiller you want. A germany company makes most of the ones you see on here and that'll save you a tonne on postage and charges