Cleaning A 10 Plate Heat Exchanger

[Truman42]

I just brought myself a 10 plate heat exchanger from keg king, secondhand for $20. It was right on closing time and the missus and I had a few beers with the guy there. Nice guy, very friendly.

Anyway I was going to boil it in my urn with some cream of tartar, fully immersed for 20 mins as this has cleaned my urn up nicely in the past. Then rinse it through with boiling water.

How does this sound?
Any other tips for setting it up and using it?
I know these 10 plate units don't chill as good as the larger ones but for $20 I couldn't refuse and my batches are only 16 litres anyway.

 

[alfadog]

I just brought myself a 10 plate heat exchanger from keg king, secondhand for $20. It was right on closing time and the missus and I had a few beers with the guy there. Nice guy, very friendly.

Anyway I was going to boil it in my urn with some cream of tartar, fully immersed for 20 mins as this has cleaned my urn up nicely in the past. Then rinse it through with boiling water.

How does this sound?
Any other tips for setting it up and using it?
I know these 10 plate units don't chill as good as the larger ones but for $20 I couldn't refuse and my batches are only 16 litres anyway.

I just use a small submersible pump with a bucket of PBW, let it circulate for a few mins then leave it to soak for a while. I then do the same with the starsan.

 

[Truman42]

I dont have a small pump...yet. I was going to gravity feed the wort through it when I do my next brew.

Ive ordered a pump but havent got it yet. But will give that a try once I do have it. Thanks.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

I dont have a small pump...yet. I was going to gravity feed the wort through it when I do my next brew.

Ive ordered a pump but havent got it yet. But will give that a try once I do have it. Thanks.

I use beerline cleaner ("Pipeclean"alkaline cleaner) and recirc this thru the chiller after I have flushed out wort with water. I buy it in 4l container for about $40 so it works out cheap.
I leave that in the chiller in a closed loop between brew's. When I brew I flush the chiller with water and then recirc sanitiser through. Fool proof method.
The hermit pump will do this easily.
Nev

 

[MaltyHops]

I dont have a small pump...yet. I was going to gravity feed the wort through
it when I do my next brew. ...

Along with the soaking/sanitising tips, get some fittings to allow the
wort channel of the chiller to be connected to mains water tap - really
good for flushing out hot break proteins & hops - just make sure to
point the channel outlet away from face :lol:

 

[rob2263]

Go to search bar and type in, "how to clean cfc" You may be surprised with the result you get. Same goes for enquiries into setting one up!

 

[Truman42]

Thanks heaps for the helpful advice and information.
I'm going to dunk a submersible pump into my water tank and use that for pumping water through the PHE and just have it recirculate back into the tank. Should save me wasting so much water.

 

[alfadog]

I would love to have a rainwater tank to save water.

I do however gravity feed the wort through. I also immerse the chiller in a bucket of icy water to help cool it down, I usually get it down to 28deg into the fermenter which is not bad for Brisbane.