Which plate chiller? - Types and Methods Discussions on Home Brew Forums

C_B

What is the difference between this 30 plate chiller and the Therminator? Other than this one is half the price and smaller I'm sure. Is the Therminator really worth the two bills?

frydogbrews

@Lothos is the only person who has a therminator on here at the moment.

i don't get mine til april.... ~X(

C_B

What do you have now?

Thym

Fewer plates = lower effeciency = slower chill rate = more water consumed

C_B

But I can't seem to find (haven't really looked) how many plates are in the therminator. Cuz it looks like about 30. Which brings me back to why is it awesomer?

Thym

It has "inator" in the name, of course.

frydogbrews

i can't say why it is awesome, but i know 4 people that have them and they all rave about it. tha'ts all i got, but its enough for me to buy one.

jlw

Lakewood said:
It has "inator" in the name, of course.

This

BenS

Lakewood said:
Fewer plates = lower effeciency = slower chill rate = more water consumed

That's not entirely true. The longer that each plate is, the more surface area you get per plate. I bought this model http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=HX2320BWGH and really like it. I can chill down 10 gal in about 5 min with my winter ground water temps. The total plate surface area is going to be you're determining factor for chilling power.

BenS

And if you have 38F ground water like austin homebrew states that you need to chill as fast as they claim, I'm jealous of you. My ground water is 55F right now during winter.

Lothos

frydogbrews said:
i can't say why it is awesome, but i know 4 people that have them and they all rave about it. tha'ts all i got, but its enough for me to buy one.

ok here it is

jlw

For a plate chiller do you need a pump? I would guess so.

BenS

jlw said:
For a plate chiller do you need a pump? I would guess so.

Some plate chiller manufacturers say they work well using gravity feed but I wouldn't trust it.

Lothos

jlw said:
For a plate chiller do you need a pump? I would guess so.

this one you can gravity feed

but i have a pump

frydogbrews

yeah, i plan on getting a pump later, but i will have the chiller pumpless for a few months at least. same plan two buddies did and it still worked great.

Lothos

it cools like none other i went from a 1/2" copper imersion chiller to my therminator big improvement on my batches and pitching temps

BenS

Lothos said:
it cools like none other i went from a 1/2" copper imersion chiller to my therminator big improvement on my batches and pitching temps

Agreed. I went from 3/8" 20 ft immersion chiller to plate chiller. Cut my chilling time from 45 min to 3 min.

Lothos

Lothos said:
it cools like none other i went from a 1/2" copper imersion chiller to my therminator big improvement on my batches and pitching temps

getting ready to convert to these

Jet Burner - 8" diameter This high heat, cast iron burner ring has 20 jet nozzles, is designed for use with low pressure propane and can develop 200,000 BTU of heat. Gas inlet is 1/2" NPT. Choose Propane (with a COM#2 regulator/hose ) or Natural Gas. Weight 11#.

BenS

That is a big SOB. You should do a build thread when you install it.

Lothos

I'm installing 3 of them into my system

this is what i have now
3 of them

jlw

BenS said:

Lothos said:
it cools like none other i went from a 1/2" copper imersion chiller to my therminator big improvement on my batches and pitching temps

Agreed. I went from 3/8" 20 ft immersion chiller to plate chiller. Cut my chilling time from 45 min to 3 min.

I use an IC and go to 70* or lower under 15

Lothos

jlw said:

BenS said:

Lothos said:
it cools like none other i went from a 1/2" copper imersion chiller to my therminator big improvement on my batches and pitching temps

Agreed. I went from 3/8" 20 ft immersion chiller to plate chiller. Cut my chilling time from 45 min to 3 min.

I use an IC and go to 70* or lower under 15

But that's 15 minutes of exposed to bad air time
not good

At full speed on my pump i can bust out10 gal in 4 min to 68 deg using just my outside hose bib that has roughly 45 psi on it if i was out next to the well that side gives me 5 gal in 30 sec straight out the ground

C_B

Do you have problems with hops debris and cold break? If i get a plate chiller I'll have to use it pumpless for a while.

Lothos

No i have a false bottom for whole hop and i bag pellet hops and cold break not a problem

Thym

Lothos said:
No i have a false bottom for whole hop and i bag pellet hops and cold break not a problem

i think this is a must for plates. i use a counterflow pipe chiller, so i dont have the same concerns. but i'm thinking i want to go this route for other reasons.

Lothos

Lakewood said:

Lothos said:
No i have a false bottom for whole hop and i bag pellet hops and cold break not a problem

i think this is a must for plates. i use a counterflow pipe chiller, so i dont have the same concerns. but i'm thinking i want to go this route for other reasons.

therminator is counter flow chiller\

or mine is running that way

C_B

Lothos said:

Lakewood said:

Lothos said:
No i have a false bottom for whole hop and i bag pellet hops and cold break not a problem

i think this is a must for plates. i use a counterflow pipe chiller, so i dont have the same concerns. but i'm thinking i want to go this route for other reasons.

therminator is counter flow chiller\

or mine is running that way

I think he means a copper pipe inside a garden hose style counter flow chiller.

I'm really pretty concerned about the debris issue. Party because I will be using it gravity fed for a while and also because i know me. I'm bound to cut a corner one day and just toss in pellet hops and then be screwed.

Lothos

That could happen

Thym

chandlerbang said:

Lothos said:

Lakewood said:

Lothos said:
No i have a false bottom for whole hop and i bag pellet hops and cold break not a problem

i think this is a must for plates. i use a counterflow pipe chiller, so i dont have the same concerns. but i'm thinking i want to go this route for other reasons.

therminator is counter flow chiller\

or mine is running that way

I think he means a copper pipe inside a garden hose style counter flow chiller.

I'm really pretty concerned about the debris issue. Party because I will be using it gravity fed for a while and also because i know me. I'm bound to cut a corner one day and just toss in pellet hops and then be screwed.

mine is copper pipe inside copper pipe, but yeah, that's generally what i was referring to.

C_B

Lakewood said:

chandlerbang said:

Lothos said:

Lakewood said:

Lothos said:
No i have a false bottom for whole hop and i bag pellet hops and cold break not a problem

i think this is a must for plates. i use a counterflow pipe chiller, so i dont have the same concerns. but i'm thinking i want to go this route for other reasons.

therminator is counter flow chiller\

or mine is running that way

I think he means a copper pipe inside a garden hose style counter flow chiller.

I'm really pretty concerned about the debris issue. Party because I will be using it gravity fed for a while and also because i know me. I'm bound to cut a corner one day and just toss in pellet hops and then be screwed.

mine is copper pipe inside copper pipe, but yeah, that's generally what i was referring to.

Really? Can you give me a quick run down on the specs? Length and diameter of both pipes? Maybe a pic?

Thym

chandlerbang said:

Lakewood said:

chandlerbang said:

Lothos said:

Lakewood said:

Lothos said:
No i have a false bottom for whole hop and i bag pellet hops and cold break not a problem

i think this is a must for plates. i use a counterflow pipe chiller, so i dont have the same concerns. but i'm thinking i want to go this route for other reasons.

therminator is counter flow chiller\

or mine is running that way

I think he means a copper pipe inside a garden hose style counter flow chiller.

I'm really pretty concerned about the debris issue. Party because I will be using it gravity fed for a while and also because i know me. I'm bound to cut a corner one day and just toss in pellet hops and then be screwed.

mine is copper pipe inside copper pipe, but yeah, that's generally what i was referring to.

Really? Can you give me a quick run down on the specs? Length and diameter of both pipes? Maybe a pic?

i started to do a build thread on it but solid works crashed and lost the model...

heres a pic

Thym

this one is about 20ft of pipe inside a pipe. you can make it longer, but i re-circulate the batch through it to chill and whirlpool at the same time so I don't need it to be very long to get the chilling rate im looking for.

C_B

Well I'll be.... The main reason I want to go to a plate chiller is how it will fit into my rig build down the road. But that little guy looks handy. And i can't imagine you would have problems with debris as you might with a plate chiller. Is that 6 runs? Each about two feet long?

Thym

Yes 6 runs, a little more than 2 ft each leg. Of course the geometry is totally up to you, the caps are 1/2x1/2x3/4 reduction tees. Each leg is just a 1/2 pipe fed all of the way through a 3/4 pipe and a reducing tee shoved all of the way over so a bit of the 1/2 pipe sticks out the end on both sides. Then you can connect as many of these together as you want.
You can increas efficiency by denting the inner pipe in several places. This encourages turbulent flow inside the pipes.

C_B

I like the rigidity as well as the ability to design it into a rig. It doesn't have to be one set size or shape.

C_B

What kind of cooling capacity do you see? Rough cooling water input temp, batch size, and chill time? I'm trying to get I rough idea of what size is need to take 10 gallons to 65 with 52* ground water. I have an idea that i could use this as a gravity fed unit (wort side) for a little while until I get a pump.

Thym

chandlerbang said:
What kind of cooling capacity do you see? Rough cooling water input temp, batch size, and chill time? I'm trying to get I rough idea of what size is need to take 10 gallons to 65 with 52* ground water. I have an idea that i could use this as a gravity fed unit (wort side) for a little while until I get a pump.

i recirculate the entire batch through mine continuously while I chill. my chilling rate is highly dependent on season as my ground water can come out of the hose bib at 75 degF in the summer. In winter when the tap is yielding 50 degF water, i can chill ten gallons from boiling to 80degF in about 15 minutes, thats without running the hose full blast. running it wide open will cut that down a few minutes, but uses a lot more water. the important part, is that i can bring the whole 10gal below 150 deg in less than 5 minutes, so the late additions actually preserve their purpose.

Thym

and yes you can gravity feed through it. just start slow, with the cooling water running at a reasonable rate and keep increasing the wort flow rate until you hit your target temp.

C_B

I get 52* cooling water 365 days per year. The advantage to having my own well guess. Eventually I want to have a pump and recirc for the same reason you just mentioned. But one step at a time.