Counterflow Chiller

[sintax69]

This is what i want for fathers day
10 Gal in 5 min now thats saving water!!
But at $199US eekkkk!!!

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/Therminator/


Sintax

 

[Kai]

I think I'm in love.

 

[big d]

wow miniature version of the industrial heat exchangers at my place of work.very impressive.

 

[Hoops]

What is the priciple behind these heat exchangers?
How do they work?

 

[big d]

as basic as i can explain .a whole series of plates with galleries through them all sandwiched together.a huge area in total that the liquid has to pass through from start to finish.wish i had a phote of one plate to show you it would be much easier.
does this make sense if not i will get a photo of a work one.

cheers
big d

 

[JasonY]

I believe it is basically providing a huge surface area for heat transfer to occur across hence you can reduce the size of the device. Only issue will be if it springs a leak you are probably screwed.

Where I work we had a large one about 4m x 1.5m x 1m for cooling diesel of a process unit which I think was the same kinda deal .... bloody thing kept leaking all the time so it is now out of service ... the idea was it could replace a number of conventional tube heat exchangers.

Hopefully these would be fine as I am sure beer cooling is a lot less onerous than cooling 4000klpd of deisel

 

[big d]

leaks they do.we have about 20 units and when they leak they are a pain.lotsa giant rubber seals to bother with.aand stripping them down takes forever.

 

[Hoops]

:huh: Galleries? Is that similar to how a fridge evaporator works? ie one line that snakes around the plate or are there multiple lines running through the plate?
Does it then use a coolant against the plate to transfer the heat or rely on air?

 

[Darren]

Lokks and sounds great. How would particles such as greak material/hop debris go in one of these?
Darren

 

[big d]

check out the alfa laval site for more info.

http://www.alfalaval.com/ecoreJava/WebObje...woa/wa/showNode?

 

[big d]

mmm didnt work.

http://www.alfalaval.com/ecoreJava/WebObje....woa/washowNode?

try above if this doesnt work go to the alfalaval site and look under plate heat exchangers.

 

[GOLIATH]

Makes ours look positively archaic! BUT A$80.00 is a powerfull consideration.

They claim large surface area which would indicate that it will handle the bits of trub etc that may be present.

There are no seals to blow in this kind of heat exchanger. All the plates are welded/fused together and it looks like a very reliable unit.

Probably OK for a micro but for home use, whilst it looks nice, it would be a bit like weighing 5 LB of meat on a weighbridge.... Overkill!

Regards
Dave

 

[user 384]

I note that Bett-A-Brew (ibrew) are listed as the Australian distributor for this company's products. The ibrew website lists their Ferminat0r, will be interesting to see if they stock the Therminator and at what price.

Cheers
MAH

 

[dreamboat]

That really is a horny bit of gear, and small enough to drop the wole thing into a boil to sterilise it!
It looks to me like there would be some risk of blockage with bits of hop in particular, but a small strainer could take care of that risk. Really is a bit pricey for most of us I'm sure, but the yanks love to have the gadgets.


dreamboat

 

[Doc]

Does anyone know of anyone that has one, and used it in Oz ?
I've read a bunch of reviews from guys using it in the US and one in Japan and they all concur the claims of cooling rate stack up.
I'm seriously considering getting one and would be interested to hear from anyone locally that has one or seen one in action.

Beers,
Doc

 

[sosman]

Probably a bit over the top for homebrewing applications but a micro brewery in these parts has one of these

The brewer there reckons he has to strip it down every three brews or so to clean it.

 

[ausdb]

I dont know about this one but any plate type heat exchanger has mega surface area compared to a simple tube in tube. This page has some good info on how they work
http://www.flatplate.com/whatishx.htm

And this is what they look like inside
http://www.flatplate.com/whybraze.htm
If you know what Celdek evap cooler pads are like then think of these in stainless steel.

There was a thread on the ozcraftbrewer list a while back and I don't think you would want to get a lot of trub inside or you will need to use some seriously nasty chemicals to clean one out.

 

[wessmith]

Folks, the plate heat exchanger shown at Jamieson is typical of the units fitted to most microbreweries. They need to be cleaned out after every brew with hot caustic and occasionally with an acid descaler to avoid a calcuim buildup. I would not recommend this type of heat exchanger for HB though, as they are expensive and can be problematic if the internal seals let go and leak coolant into the wort. Better to stick with the tube in tube type which are also made commercially in various forms.

As for having to strip the heat exchanger every 2 or 3 brews - no, there is something wrong here. They are not meant to be stripped down like that. Ahh - hope the OH&S folks wernt around the day that photo was taken - they have a pretty dim view of thongs in the workplace......

Wes

 

[Doc]

Wes,

I'd be interested on your thoughts of the Therminator.
Yes it is expensive, but also small and efficient and hopefully the last chiller you will ever need.

Beers,
Doc

 

[wessmith]

Doc, the Therminator is a sexy piece of kit and will do a great job. BUT it suffers from the same problem as all these plate type heat exchangers ie the plate to plate clearances are so tight, small pieces of trub (and heaven help any hop flowers getting in!) will become lodged and there is no way to physically clean the unit out. You then have to rely on agressive chemical cleaning which is not something I would recommend for the home situation.

Wes