25 replies to this topic

[CaptRon]

I can't speak from personal experience but I do believe that this type of plate chiller is meant to be used in conjunction with a pump. I can't see gravity feeding beer through a device like this either. I don't have a pump and have not considered one at this point either. Someone else can verify but thats what I believe about a plate chiller.

I should be able to with a CFC right? I am just sick of the time my immersion chiller takes.

[Deerslyr]

These things confuse me. :1zhelp:Can you gravity feed these or do you have to use a pump? And is this a wort goes in hot and comes out pitching temp kind of thing like the CFC or is it meant to recirc? I think I'm being lame about these things. lol

I can check with my buddy about whether gravity alone would be sufficient. I wanted to be lazy, so I got a pump for my system. There are some really good pumps out there, and believe me... I couldn't imagine brewing without. I even use it to fly sparge. The pump is hooked up to a float switch that shuts off the pump when there is enough sparge water in the MLT and kicks back on when it gets to the pre-determined level... but I digress.The Chill Plate does the exact same thing that a CFC does. Only difference is that it is more compact, easier to store and less dead space. If your groundwater is cold enough, you don't need to recirculate at all. Same would go for a CFC. For a while I was recirculating during the last ten minutes without the counter-flow running to make sure my CFC was extra sanitized from heat. These are not lame questions. I think the pump and chiller are great tools. This chiller may work with gravity, I'm just not entirely sure. I'm thinking it should because the plates aren't so compressed that you HAVE to force the wort through... it still flows. I picked up a sump pump and am still trying to figure out how I'm going to recirculate my chilling water so I have a closed loop system and am reducing my waste water. This may actually make things easier.

[Deerslyr]

I should be able to with a CFC right? I am just sick of the time my immersion chiller takes.

Yes, but a pump makes it easier... if you aren't careful, it's easy to lose your siphon flow when relying on gravity because you may still have to make a "climb"... ask me how I know. :1zhelp:Say... you are North Bay... get thee over to B3 and get a pump. They've got a good economical March pump for high temps.

[stellarbrew]

As for the trub... I have a bazooka screen in my kettle that strains it out... my buddy does the same thing. But, I understand you CAN take them apart to clean them.

You would not be able to very easily disassemble a brazed plate heat exchanger (as shown in your eBay link). The brazing would need to be melted to pull the plates apart, and then brazed back together after you had cleaned out the plate channels. That is the advantage of using a plate & frame type hx. In the plate & frame type, the plates are gasketed and sandwiched together with bolts and a frame, to allow for disassemby by loosening the bolts.

[3rd party JKor]

No you can't take apart a brazed plate HX and the flow path is pretty restricted. You have a make sure you strain out your hops before using one.Technically, you can used a BPHX with a gravity feed, but you're probably going to have all kinds of problems with flow stalling, unless your boil pot is on one floor and your fermenter is on the next floor down.

Edited by JKoravos, 10 July 2009 - 05:52 PM.

[Deerslyr]

Just ordered one with 1/2" Female fittings. A friend pointed out that i's hard to damage the threads on a female fitting when you accidentally drop it!