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Anyone ever heard of these guys? They have some fairly reasonably prices wort chillers available.

http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?qu ... erchillers

I never had a plate chiller, but reading, it seems a lot of people get them and give up on them?

brulelager wrote:http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?qu ... erchillers

Anyone ever heard of these guys? They have some fairly reasonably prices wort chillers available.

http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?qu ... erchillers

I've been using one for nearly three years and love it. Never had any issues with it. Initially I used a hop blocker from theelectricbrewery.com to keep hop matter out. I tempted fate today and used a side pickup tube for a batch of IPA that had nearly a pound of pellet hops. I did a 15 minute whirlpool before running the wort through the chiller and didn't have any issues at all. My hop blocker will be going on the shelf for the time being...

Interesting reply, someone actually said that to me recently.

Guess I'll stick with the immersion.

Never had an issue with my homemade counterflow wort chiller, extremely forgiving as far as debris is concerned.

Jeff smith, you look like a serious brewer. Thank you for your insight.

brulelager wrote:Jeff smith, you look like a serious brewer. Thank you for your insight.

Haha, depends on who you ask. Today was the first time I've brewed in six months. I've run quite a few batches through my gear, though.

brulelager wrote:Interesting reply, someone actually said that to me recently.

Guess I'll stick with the immersion.

I've had an immersion Chiller, homemade counter flow, cheap 10-plate plate Chiller and now have a Chillzilla counter flow.

An immersion chiller works great if you have a way to keep your wort moving in the kettle. It's simple, easy to clean. At the time I didn't have a pump so I decided to make my immersion chiller a counter flow.

My 25' counter flow worked great - no complaints except that it was bulky. I used 3/8" copper wrapped with copper wire, inside a 3/4" high temperature rubber hose. I was still able to gravity feed with this chiller without any problems.

I "upgraded" to my plate Chiller to reduce space. Initially it worked great, even with gravity feed. Eventually two things happened - my taste in beer changed from lightly hopped to more hops and I changed out some gear, upping my capacity from 5 to 10G. I started having problems with clogging. I did make an awesome hop blocker with a domed false bottom and stainless steel mesh that worked great with the plate Chiller, but I had to reduce flow on my pump to just a trickle so draining the kettle took longer than I wanted.

When I had a chance to grab a used Chillzilla, I jumped at it. The 1/2" copper in copper is compact and works great. I don't use a hop blocker, I can run my chugger wide open to whirlpool and chill at the same time and chilling is quick. This time of year, a 5G batch is cooled to 67 F in less than 10 minutes, 10G's in less than 20. It's a bit longer once the HRM water supply warms up but I'm happy with it. The only restriction I have now is that I have to stick with pellet hops, which isn't an issue.

If I had a chance to do it all over again, I would seriously consider an immersion Chiller with a chugger for whirlpooling, easy to clean and simple to use.

Just my nickel's worth.