Best type of chiller

With the sale NB was having, I was ready to pull the trigger… It is… out of stock… Next time … Sneezles61

1 Like

HMMM…I don’t know if that cart will hold the weight…hahahaha

How long do counter flow chillers take to get to pitching temp?

Yeh doubt it

Depends on the ground water temp. In the winter around here, I can get 10 gallons to lager pitching temp in 10-15 minutes. In the summer, it takes a bit longer.

I’ve been following this conversation for a while and thought I’d chime in. I use both personally. I use an Immersion chiller coupled with a pump for recirculating/whirlpooling for heavily hopped beers (link for reference photos), and a CFC for everything else. I only do 5 gallon batches (for now :smiling_imp:). The immersion chiller with the recirc setup can drop from boil to 170 in 5 mins or less easily, then once my whirlpool is finished, it takes probably 15-20 mins to get down to the upper 60s. I got my immersion chiller free as part of a sale our hosts were running a few years back, a bigger one would help with time on this.

For 90+% of my beers, I use my CFC. I have a gravity fed setup using my Little Giant Ladder with two platforms.

It’s probably not ideal to lift 6 gallons of boiling liquid to the top platform and eventually I’m hoping to get an electric side by side setup, but that’s down the road a ways. Ground water temp varies by season so in the winter, I actually have to turn down the hose volume to keep it from chilling too cold, because it will easily get down into the 50’s in the dead of winter. In the summer I typically run full bore with the hose and the valve on my kettle about halfway open and get it down to the upper 70’s as fast as I can run it through the chiller in my gravity setup, then the carboy goes in my swamp cooler setup with ice bottles, until it’s down to pitching temp before bed.

As for cleaning, I simply run StarSan through the CFC from a bucket and cap both ends with StarSan in it. I’ve never done anything more than that and never had an issue in over 4 years. Occasionally it will get clogged if it’s a highly hopped beer, but then I simply use a bike pump to force air through it and that always solves the issue.

The immersion chiller setup, I spray and scrub off the outside of the chiller and the inside of the kettle, then refill the kettle, heat to 120, then add PBW and recirc everything for about 20 mins. Then I dump that, rinse down, refill to cover the chiller, reheat to 100ish, and recirc the rinse water through everything for about 10 mins. The chiller/pump recirc setup takes about an extra hour total to clean up, but most of that time I’m off doing something else and only go back when the timer goes off.

:beers:
Rad

2 Likes

Thanks for chiming in @radagast I am thinking plate or counter flow now more than the immersion. The immersion I have now takes forever to cool 5 gallons so I probably wont go that route

Just to toss a little mud in the water for you (or hops in the wort), the Hydra is comparable to @radagast 's setup timewise. I think if I were doing a dedicated setup I’d look at a CFC or plate and figure out a way to keep the debris out of it and backflushing with boiling stuff prior to using and after using. I’ll be interested to see where you land on this. :sunglasses:

2 Likes

There are also people that deal with the warmer ground water issue by using an immersion chiller in a bucket of ice water to feed the CFC. I haven’t tried it myself, but conceptually a great idea. That way you can utilize both what you already have and what you want. :innocent: Also, Mullerbrau who was an old forum contributor that I scrounged a lot of information from used dual Chillzilla’s in series in his 25 gallon setup. I wonder whatever happened to Greg, he was a wealth of information. Looks like his website that I was going to link for you is down too.

:beers:
Rad

1 Like

My brew stand came with an IC and I have tried the IC in a tub of ice feeding the CF I already had. Mid summer here the municipal water only gets in the 60s and the IC still really eats ice. I need to find a container for it closer to its size. Now I use storage bin that is too big. I have also learned, thanks to members here to slow down the flow of water a little. that helped a lot.

The other thing I have done is to put the IC in the kettle and drive down the temp under 100 then switch to the CF. I try to remember to connect the CF and run some boiling wort through before cooling with the IC.

I have never (knocking on wood) had the CF clog. I put the hops in muslin bags and the pick up for the spigot is up enough where I end up tipping the kettle to get the last of the wort. When it’s that low you can see if the gunk is getting ready to go.

Yeh I’ll need to make a decision here

Ok so now as far as the duda diesel chillers, which one?

bigger is better… Sneezles61

I have not chimed in yet because I really love my SS immersion chiller. I would love to play around with faster/ colder but I really am doing just fine as it is. The immersion lets me, without any effort, get down to 170F for my hop stands as well. My only complaint is the water usage but I water the plants with as much of it as I can.

1 Like

Mine is a B3–12A, 30 plate(I think). 1/2 npt for wort and garden hose fittings for water.

Is there a simple way to mount it?

Edit.

I saw on their site they have mounting studs

Mine came with two threaded studs on the back of it that I mounted it on my cart with. I don’t recall if I had to request that or not.

Yeh it says they have metric studs on them

So I started taking measurements today so I can build a bracket to mount my electric controls on that cart and I have decided on getting the duda diesel plate chiller and will mount that on there as well. Stay tuned for pictures of the process.

4 Likes

I think you’ll be happy with the plate chiller. I have been.