First Use of Plate Cooler

[phillc]

A while ago I bought a wort plate chiller from China, via the Alibaba website.

Yesterday was the first time I had a chance to use it. My wort temperature went from 96C to 26C in a touch under 20 minutes. I was quite impressed with this efficiency. Next time I'd consider immersing the plate chiller in a tub of iced water as well, in a bid to reduce the amount of cooling water used.

I captured all the cooling water, to re-use for cleaning purposes, but there was around 60 litres of it. Has anyone measured how much water they'd typically use with a coil chiller?

Actually, I had to buy five of these as a minimum order. I also bought 25 each of the two different size screw-on bayonet connectors. If anyone here is interested in one of these coolers, I have four I'd happily part with! Send me a PM to discuss (I'm in Austria and these are quite heavy, so there's postage to consider).

 

[Dads_Ale]

Although I don't use a plate chiller my coil counterflow chiller has a temperature probe on the wort outlet. This allows you to vary the cold water flow (or wort flow) to get the optimal cooling. You may find your water flow is too high (or too low of course..)

 

[phillc]

I did think about reducing the water flow next time, but also thought that would probably increase cooling time. Yesterday the water was already pretty warm when exiting the chiller.

The other thing I thought of was re-circulating the water through an ice bath. I'd need another mini-pump and a few other bits and pieces. Still, I'd like to create less waste water on a brew day.

 

[Dads_Ale]

I did think about reducing the water flow next time, but also thought that would probably increase cooling time. Yesterday the water was already pretty warm when exiting the chiller.

The other thing I thought of was re-circulating the water through an ice bath. I'd need another mini-pump and a few other bits and pieces. Still, I'd like to create less waste water on a brew day.

You may be surprised at how little water flow you need. With mine I had to turn it down to almost a trickle as it was cooling too much. Of course a lot depends on ground water temperature.