ss plate chiller recomendation

[Stone Cold]

good morning all.

I am looking to upgrade to a plate chiller can anyone help me as to what my options are.
so far I have been looking at the ones on home brew shops and on ebay.
on brew uk they have a 12 plate for £100 but didnt think it would be up to the job as i am doing 200L brew lengths.
there are these on ebay that are 60 plate for £80 ( sounds much more sensible) can anyone see any problems with them? its the only ss plate chiller i could find on ebay.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stainless-Ste ... 779wt_1002

cheers

Ollie

 

[Shrek]

with a plate chiller you need to work out what the surface area in contact with your wort is. A large one with less plates might be better than a smaller one with more plates. The other option is to put in a valve to throttle the flow through the chiller.

 

[Stone Cold]

so the 60 plate may not be much better than a 12 plate?

 

[Aleman]

No the 60 plate will be better than the 12 plate, but a 30 plate chiller with twice the surface area of the 60 plate one will be better still. And this Huge 30 Plate one would be best of all. What I have found is that once you get past a certain number of plates the increased cooling effect is minimal the size of the plates becomes more important.

Anyone want to buy a 60 Plate Chiller? :whistle: :whistle:

 

[Stone Cold]

thanks aleman. the 30 plate chiller is in my price range the bigger 30 is not. what size brew length do yo think it can handle?

 

[orlando]

You also need to factor in to it the cost of connectors. I chose to go ss quick disconnects using camlocks. Now they can be very expensive but found that Intrico (speak to Calvin if unsure) are dirt cheap compared to any others I looked at and of course come with all the benefits of being food grade, easy to clean, withstand hot temperatures and could easily last forever.

 

[Stone Cold]

am i right in thinking the 3/4 fittings is the wort in/out and 1/2 are water in/out on the plate chillers

 

[Aleman]

the 30 plate chiller is in my price range the bigger 30 is not. what size brew length do yo think it can handle?

No problem with 200L at all . . . it comes down to how quickly you want to transfer the wort, and what you want the final temperature to be . . .which also depends on the coolant temperate . . .so you have longer transfer times during the summer.

am i right in thinking the 3/4 fittings is the wort in/out and 1/2 are water in/out on the plate chillers

I do it the other way round, as Brass Fittings for coolant are easier and cheaper to come by than stainless ones, Plus all the other fittings in my brewery are 1/2" so it made sense to stick with 1/"2 for the wort

 

[orlando]

am i right in thinking the 3/4 fittings is the wort in/out and 1/2 are water in/out on the plate chillers

I got a couple of reducers for mine so I could use 1/2" hose all round. This time of year it's a piece of cake. I haven't brewed in the warmer months yet so it will be interesting to experience the challenges of this and how effective the plate chiller will be.

 

[Shrek]

If the temp is up in the summer :rofl: for the cooling water you can put a valve after the chiller to slow the flow of the wort through the chiller and this should help in chilling it. It will mean that it will take longer to drain the boiler but it will still be quicker that letting it cool naturally.

 

[orlando]

If the temp is up in the summer :rofl: for the cooling water you can put a valve after the chiller to slow the flow of the wort through the chiller and this should help in chilling it. It will mean that it will take longer to drain the boiler but it will still be quicker that letting it cool naturally.

I control the flow now by just shutting down the ball valve on the boiler :whistle:

 

[Shrek]

If you do it from after the chiller you know that the chiller is always full. if you do it from the boiler valve you might not be utilising the whole of the surface area available.

 

[Stone Cold]

that's all good advice thank you for taking interest. I will order one right away. cant be dealing with the massive length of copper coil no more.

 

[orlando]

If you do it from after the chiller you know that the chiller is always full. if you do it from the boiler valve you might not be utilising the whole of the surface area available.

Good point thanks. What would you use?

 

[Stone Cold]

No the 60 plate will be better than the 12 plate, but a 30 plate chiller with twice the surface area of the 60 plate one will be better still. And this Huge 30 Plate one would be best of all. What I have found is that once you get past a certain number of plates the increased cooling effect is minimal the size of the plates becomes more important.

Anyone want to buy a 60 Plate Chiller? :whistle: :whistle:

oooops got the huge one

 

[31bb3]

Nice how much

 

[Stone Cold]

just shy of 250