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Author Topic: Plate Chiller Pump Stand and Recirculation  (Read 1627 times)

Offline MrDonde

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Plate Chiller Pump Stand and Recirculation
« on: April 12, 2017, 01:53:43 pm »
Hello,

I currently have a plate chiller I use for my all grain brews and I am trying to figure out a type of stand to hold the chiller in place and make it more stable. Currently I just rest it on a chair or the floor and it is highly unstable. I was hoping people have examples or know of common stand that will keep the chiller in place and make it easier to connect/disconnect lines.

Along the same lines I was wondering if there is a common way to recirculate the water used in a plate chiller? The last brew I did I must have gone through 50 gallons of water chilling everything, which is too wasteful for my taste. My plan was to have a pump run water from a vessel into the plate chiller and the outflow of the water would return into the same vessel. I would keep the water in vessel chilled with ice packs. Does anyone have any examples of this type of system or maybe has built one themselves? Not sure what type of pump I should get for this.

Thanks!
-Donde

Offline smkranz

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Re: Plate Chiller Pump Stand and Recirculation
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2017, 09:44:22 pm »
Until getting a Tower of Power stand, I used an old wooden stool to mount my chiller and pump.



I personally think if you are concerned about the volume of waste water, your best best it to just try to capture it and re-use it for something later, like watering your garden, washing dishes, etc.  The water that discharges from my plate chiller is h.o.t. and if you tried recycling it with cold packs and running it back through the chiller, you'd be there all day and all night long.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2017, 09:53:54 pm by smkranz »
Steve K.
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Offline MrDonde

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Re: Plate Chiller Pump Stand and Recirculation
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2017, 09:43:24 am »
Thanks for the tips on the stand for a plate chiller.

I know the water coming out is hot but I have successfully set up a re-circulator system with my immersion chiller. I use a 5 gallon bucket, few bags of ice, and a small aquarium pump. I can get 5 gallon batches down to 80F in like 20 minutes while recycling all the water I use.

Just trying to setup a similar system using the plate chiller.
-Donde

Offline coolman26

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Re: Plate Chiller Pump Stand and Recirculation
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2017, 11:52:33 am »
I recirculate back to my BK from my CFC. I catch the initial water to clean with in a large plastic tub. When my BK hits about 120, I have a tee that goes to a small sump pump. The pump is in a small kid pool with frozen gallon jug ice and a small amount of water. Takes about 4-5 frozen gallon jugs. It cools the rest of my batch to whatever pitch temp I want. It cut my consumption by a ton. I do 20 gallon batches, so it was taking me forever and a lot of usage. I think you could do something with a tee mounted to both tap and pump ice water. I'd just make it tall enough to be above your pump and easy to turn the valves on the tee. Plus the pump has hose threads. The water that doesn't get used in the cleaning, gets frozen in jugs and used again.


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Jeff B