I have a big plate chiller from brew builder (50 plate, 100KW), it uses less water than my copper immersion chiller used to, and cools a LOT faster. I would never go back now.
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As to cleaning, yeah bit harder than with immersion chillers, but not that hard. The main thing is, don't let solids get into them in the first place. So talking putting hops into a hop spider, make sure no grain makes it into your wort... If hops or grain get into your chiller, then yeah you are gonna have some fun (been there, done that... lol). Avoid getting solids in there though, and cleaning is simple, so long as you are using a pump that can handle the heat. Just hook it up to your boiler when you are cleaning that, and pump the same cleaning solution (PBW or whatever) through it at around 40 degrees C or so for a bit. Then rinse with water at the same temperature. Also, it helps if you have the same plumbing size on both sides of it, so you can swap wort side and water side, this allows you to back flush with water at the end of the brew just by swapping your hoses over, I do this before cleaning to flush it out, last brew the water quickly ran clean doing this. Tip it upside down and drain as much water out of there as you can.
When you come to use it next brew day, you handle it in a similar way to an immersion chiller, which is where that heat handling pump comes in. Hook it up and start running the BOILING wort through it 10-15 minutes (I go for 15 minutes to be thorough) before the end of the boil, dump the first bit of liquid that come out though into a bucket or down the drain in order to flush out liquid left over from when you cleaned it out from your previous brew day (ie, any dregs of water left in there). Just take care not to touch the plate chiller until you turn on the cold water at the end of the boil though, as it gets flippin' hot (the whole point... lol).
Don't cheap out on a chiller though. I did that with my copper immersion chiller, bought one off eBay, was garbage.... Used at least 200 litres of water to cool 15 litres of wort during hot weather. Pay more now, save more later, including your back....
I am going to repeat this point, as I think it's the most important part. It's all about stopping gunk getting in in the first place. Hop spider (or bags alternatively), no grain in the wort.... Lots of folks will tell you this impacts utilisation, free the hops, yeah, I put about 10% more hops than I calculate with my software at each stage (I use Beersmith 3), and find my beer comes out tasting spot on for me. :) I always joke with my wife as I do it, as as I weigh I'll go to the weight specified in the software, then as I add 10% more will say "and some to feed the spider".
