Just curious, why isn't there a commercially available plate chiller that can be disassembled and cleaned, similar to what professional breweries use? I assume the obvious answer is cost, but is there another reason I'm missing?
Ah nice, thanks!
Wow that's pretty cool! I wish I did something interesting like that for a school project.This is an interesting Senior Project I found where a mechanical engineering student basically made his own from scratch. Of course, he had access to the University's machine shop, but the estimated materials cost was around $150.
Yea I wonder what factors would lead to better performance in line with even cheapo amazon plate chillers? I believe he says the plates are made of 24ga steel, which is inline with some commercial heat exchangers, accord to my quick googling.I'd read page 47 before deciding if that cost is interesting
"The heat exchanger system worked, although not quite to the extent that was desired. Ideally, the system would have taken 200 °F water down to ~70 °F. In actuality the system was able to take 120 °F water down to around 90 °F, although the cooling water was room temperature. Calculating the heat transfer for this system, a value of ~8500 BTU/h is found. Ideally, the system would have been able to transfer 76,000 BTU/h."
That's stunningly bad performance, imo. My 12" long 30 plate Dudadiesel PC can drop almost boiling wort to pitchable temperature in one pass using my ~55°F well water. Cost was around $150 iirc...
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