I have the Shirron plate chiller and I do not really care for it as far as gravity feeding is concerned. The flow is incredibly slow and it tends to get stuck with a small amount of hop particles. From what I read, the Therminator has fewer problems. Anyone used both and have an opinion?
I am in the process of assembling a sculpture and like that the therminator has a way to mount to the frame. I will also add a pump which may sort out some of the issues I have. Any ideas? Stick with the shirron or upgrade?
If you are going to add a pump to your setup I would wait to change your chiller until you know how the pump will affect performance of your existing chiller.
Personally I went with the chillzilla a few months ago because it had the least restriction and I wanted to go with gravity.
Have not has an issue yet as far as clogging and the gravity works fine even though I have about as little gravity as possibly from kettle to chiller to fermenter.
I have never had an issue with cavitation. I use a Shirron and a pump and have been very happy with it. I have bleeder valves to take out air, so it’s been pretty seemless. I bag my hops and recirc, and I haven’t had a problem yet. I’m in MN, so ground water is pretty cool year round for us. I used advice from Wild Bill on the More Beer forum on pumps and it’s worked great for me for the past few years.
I am also curious about the Duda Diesel wort chillers as they are very inexpensive. They are made in China, and so is the Shirron chiller. I live in South East Asia and have sources the factory where the Duda Diesel chillers are made and can get them for a song. I am wondering how they perform as wort chillers. Anyone out there have any experience with them, particularly the B3-23A with 30 plates?
I went ahead and bought the 30 plate chiller. I’ve used it twice now and have had zero issues with it. When I received it, I ran about 4 gallons of hot PBW through it to clean it and was glad I did because it had a lot of debris in there.
Using only gravity and and water from the hose, I have been able to take 5g from boiling to 62F as fast as I could drain the kettle. I actually had to watch the water flow to not let the wort get TOO cold.
I don’t have any experience with the Shirron or the Therminator, but I am very pleased with the Duda Diesel chiller, especially with the price.
I have had a Therminator for a few years and use it gravity-fed. It developed flow problems after an Imperial IPA but then realized I had not been cleaning it properly and flow was being restricted by trapped hops particles. I made a hose to run hot water through it after every brew session (as per Blichmann’s user manual recommendations) and it works flawlessly.
I incorporate an -in-line valve and thru-mometer downstream of the chiller, between it and the carboy, to slow the flow and increase chilling to target temps. The added resistance in the hoses does not cause any problems.
Blichmann products are made in Lafayette, IN. I twice e-mailed the company with questions about their products and both times John Blichmann answered personally. I love this company. Yes, their products cost more, but you get what you pay for.
You didn’t specify on your process so I’m going to suggest bagging your hops during your boil before you try anything different. We had the same issues the first time we used our plate chiller with the hops clogging everything up but have had little issue since then with hop bags.
