Ahoy!
Shakedown cruise of the SS Hydra complete! It has surpassed my minimum goal of being at least faster than my old copper chiller, and perhaps then some: it seems flow rate has a considerable impact on getting peak performance.
I used the same two stage procedure I've been using with my 50' x 3/8" copper chiller: run tap water to at least below 100°F, then switch over to a utility pump circulating ice water.
Flow rate of my kitchen faucet for the first stage was just 2 gpm, while JaDeD says 6 gpm is optimal. The pump will surpass this of course. Temperature of the tap water was 46-47°F.
First stage, in 6 minutes 6.6 gallons of wort were down to 88°F. Lately I've been around 10 minutes to get into the 90s, but the difference here wasn't huge.
Second stage recirculating ice water (after a 3 minute pause to switch over) took it down to 44°F in just 10 more minutes. Last time out was just over 20 minutes to 49°F. So there was a significant difference.
I think I could improve performance by learning optimal methods for stirring and agitating. Especially at the beginning of today's run, I was struggling with this, because the configuration of the Hydra won't allow the same stirring technique I'm used to -- there's a lot more going on in the kettle. I started to get the hang of it. It's also confusing me because it's wound, and has the in/out fittings, backwards from my homemade chiller. But overall, with a total elapsed time more than 1/3 less than the fastest I can do with my old copper chiller, and having gotten more than 5°F colder than when I usually call it quits, I think I'm pleased. It's stainless, and it's fast. Even if not as fast as advertised, at least in my circumstances (again, advertised speeds clearly depend on flow rate. So I can only make a relative comparison to my old chiller.)
Next time I will probably switch over to pumping ice water a bit sooner, since that is clearly where I got the best performance.