[narvin]

Not to be a party pooper, but I can tell you honestly, a plate chiller is very hard to keep clean.  I used one for almost five years (shirron and then a therminator) and they are nearly impossible get completely clean without tons and tons of backflushing (both ways), soaking, etc.

That said, I never had an infection either, so its not like its a high risk, but that drawback is definitely real, so much so that it caused me to give up on them when considered in conjunction with the hassle of using them as well.  

#1 Use a screen in your kettle.  I have a homemade hop stopper and it works great to keep everything (except the cold break) out of the chiller, even on my recent Pliny clone.

#2 Backflush and purge with PBW immediately after your brew session.  If you already have a pump, just save the output of your chiller water (which will be warm) in your mash tun and use that to recirculate.  This will clean your hoses, the pump, and the chiller all at once.  Easiest part of the cleaning session.

#3 If you want, you can bake it in the oven to kill anything left over in there.  You can also run hot wort through it before you start chilling to sanitize your hoses, pump, and chiller without worrying about sanitizer.

I haven't heard of anyone I know who uses a plate chiller having infections, so I don't think it's something to worry about unless you start getting them.

[blatz]

narvin - I did all that for years:

[rant]

BK: whole hop/bazooka - very little material made its way through.

1/2 hour recirc every time with hot PBW followed by a rinse, followed by a 90 minute bake at 250df.

but I'm telling you that if you take a white bucket and back flush both sides with the output going into that bucket you can do it for HOURS and still see little specks of hop particulate come out.  turn the hose on full blast to loosen it and then turn it off.  repeat.  you will see junk come out.  if you let it run you will only see it at first as the stuff becomes trapped in the bends, but if you hit it with high pressure, you'll see what I mean.

again, I used a plate chiller for a 4-5 years and never had an infection.  but all that cleaning, setup, sanitizing etc. became too much of a hassle for me.  I'm done with my brew day at exactly the same time I was before - sure it takes me longer to get down to pitch temps with an IC and ice water recic (after <100df), but I don't spend all this time recircing cleaner, rinsing, disassembling the pump, hoses, plate chiller etc.  

Spray off the IC and its done.

When I saw how much garbage was still in my plate chiller when I thought it was 'squeaky clean', well, I lost it a little bit.

[/rant]

I don't have as cool of groundwater as you guys do either, so they require a lot more extras to make em work properly.

By all means, whatever works for you, do it!  But beware that it ain't as clean as you think it is  

[EHall]

I just hand my BK to Chuck Norris... few min later, its chilled!

[weithman5]

I just hand my BK to Chuck Norris... few min later, its chilled!

chuck has been kind of busy.  now i have been using leroy jethro gibbs.

[redbeerman]

I use a plate chiller, and haven't had any issues.  I backflush with hot water immediately after use and flush and sanitize before each use.  YMMV

[dhacker]

narvin - I did all that for years:

[rant]

BK: whole hop/bazooka - very little material made its way through.

1/2 hour recirc every time with hot PBW followed by a rinse, followed by a 90 minute bake at 250df.

but I'm telling you that if you take a white bucket and back flush both sides with the output going into that bucket you can do it for HOURS and still see little specks of hop particulate come out.  turn the hose on full blast to loosen it and then turn it off.  repeat.  you will see junk come out.  if you let it run you will only see it at first as the stuff becomes trapped in the bends, but if you hit it with high pressure, you'll see what I mean.

again, I used a plate chiller for a 4-5 years and never had an infection.  but all that cleaning, setup, sanitizing etc. became too much of a hassle for me.  I'm done with my brew day at exactly the same time I was before - sure it takes me longer to get down to pitch temps with an IC and ice water recic (after <100df), but I don't spend all this time recircing cleaner, rinsing, disassembling the pump, hoses, plate chiller etc.  

Spray off the IC and its done.

When I saw how much garbage was still in my plate chiller when I thought it was 'squeaky clean', well, I lost it a little bit.

[/rant]

I don't have as cool of groundwater as you guys do either, so they require a lot more extras to make em work properly.

By all means, whatever works for you, do it!  But beware that it ain't as clean as you think it is  

Hey Blatz . .

FWIW, I use an IC when doing 5.5 gallon batches. Agreed . . it is easy to just drop and go! But the water consumption is a bit more than my liking when doing 11 gallon batches.

I'm an equal opportunity chiller! 

[blatz]

Hey Blatz . .

FWIW, I use an IC when doing 5.5 gallon batches. Agreed . . it is easy to just drop and go! But the water consumption is a bit more than my liking when doing 11 gallon batches.

I'm an equal opportunity chiller! 
[/quote]

agreed - but I drop 12 gal from boil to 100df pretty quickly, then I switch to recirced icewater via sump pump for the remainder.

I've not actually compared it, but I think the amount of time it takes me to drop before recircing is probably equal or maybe even less time than it took me to run the full wort through the therminator, so I am not really wasting any more or less.

[Thirsty_Monk]

Here you can get different size plate chillers.
http://www.dudadiesel.com/heat_exchangers.php

Reasonable priced.