Mashmaster Chillout Model No: P20 - anyone used one?

[integersmirk]

I have picked up one of these but am not really too sure how to use it - has anyone else here used one?

I tried to get it to operate with the wort flowing through by siphon but found the only way to get a siphon started was by sucking on the exit pipe. If you have any tips on how to clean start a siphon through it, or whether I need to hook in a pump, that would help a lot.

Also, I am interested in how you sterilise it too... Not sure my method is up to much.

[Reviled]

Youll probably need a pump mate, and to sterilise you can run the boilng wort through it for 10 mins before you start chilling...

[denimglen]

The MKIII plate chiller?

Even though they're extremely well made and their service their is truely great I would NOT recommend one.

I used mine for about 10 or so batches, any grain particles that made it into the boil made for instant blockage, anything with more than about 75g hops - same thing.

If you could sanitise it without recirculate boiling wort through, and have some sort of filter on your boil kettle you would probably have no dramas.

Recirculating immersion chillers for the win.

[integersmirk]

Actually I think mine is the original - it looks like the one described in this discussion

I need to try and make it work, having bought it! If I find a successful method, I will post it.

[denimglen]

A few things that were working OK for me were -

Making sure absolutely NO grain particles got into the kettle, the SS braided hose in the mash tun did this quite well.

Using a very large hop bag in the kettle like this helped a lot.

An SS scrubby under the kettle pick up tube also helped stop any thing that slipped through.

They really are a good piece of equipment, you just have to be super careful with them, it was just a bit too much of a hassle for me after using an immersion chiller for so long.

[integersmirk]

I have the SS hose braid in my mashtun, seemed to work great.

For filtering out the hops, any advice on how fine the mesh needs to be? I have two straining bags that might suit, one is monster big but has a larger mesh size. The other is super-fine but is probably too small for the job.

Last night I also googled the advice that the outlet hose should have a bend upwards in it, so that at some point in it's length it is higher than the wort inlet point. Apparently this helps to make sure that you don't have airlocks inside the plate chiller itself (airlocks can prevent a siphon from working, and/or reduce efficiency of the chiller).

At this stage I am thinking about:
1) ensuring nothing gets in to the system through mashtun braid and hop bag
2) changing the tube route to follow this advice above about airlocks
3) adding in a stop tap to the inlet hose so I can control flow rates (and therefore chiller efficiency)
4) create a more sterile siphon by getting some kind of flow direction control and having a side-join to the outlet hose. I can switch flow to the side-join, use this to suck on and start the siphon, and then switch back to the main hose
5) sterilising by running (near) boiling water through the whole system.

Another thing I found out on Saturday was that we had real problems starting a siphon from water that was at a rolling boil. It got too much air in the intake.

[denimglen]

You need to find a happy medium between the free-flow of wort through it and hop particles gertting out. I was just using a piece of Swiss voile from Spotlight sewn into a bag. That stuff is cheap as chips and if you know anyone with a sewing machine and five minutes spare time you've got yourself a bag.

Your plan so far looks good.

I had a pump which made things a bit easy starting a siphon and helped a little with airlocks.

Since those bastards are all stainless and copper you can just boil the whole unit to sanitise, if you're using silicon tubing you can also boil that.

[Justin M]

I have largely the same issue (apart from blockage) as I have a counterflw chiller which I need to siphon through. The obvious issue here is having to suck on the exit hose. As I ferment in glass carboys, I have carboy cap (http://morebeer.com/view_product/16657//Rubber_Carboy_Hood_w_White_...) which has two outlets (one for wort flowing in and the other for the air to exit the glass carboy as it fills. This system means that from the boil kettle to the carboy the wort is never exposed to the outside environment. To start the siphon i attach a hose to the exhaust outlet on the carboy cap and suck out from there.

Before I had this setup I just used to slip a larger tube over the exit tube and suck on that, then just slip it off prior to the wort flowing through.

In regards to the blockage - I use all sorts of things from those metal scrubber things (steel wool) to any device which attaches to the end of my racking cane. But its only really an issue because I don't want to much trub ending up in the fermenter. It always helps to create a whirlpool first as well.

I sterilise the counterflow by circulating boiling water through for at least 5 minutes (I have heard that every component needs to be heated above 85 degrees for 5 minutes).

[integersmirk]

After a second attempt at using my chiller, and a similar outcome of a stuck siphon despite all my attempts to fix it, I have spent a heap of time reviewing youtube videos and online photos of chillers in place.

Every single one I have found has a tap at the bottom of the boil pot, where I have been trying to siphon up and out of the boil pot - with a plastic tube that collapses to flat on the edge of the pot when hot wort flows through it.

Looks like I need to get a modification made to my s/s boil pot. Anyone have a suggestion on where to get a suitable tap I can get fitted?

[JoKing]

Make up yor own weldless one like I did. Go to Mitre 10 and find a 1/2" Male > Femele ball valve. They also sell the flat nut that fits onto the Male side of the valve. Find a washer that fits over the male thread of the valve and a rubber gasket that is the same size as the washer. To join it all together, Put the washer over the Male part of the valve, then the Rubber Gasket, then you put the Male thread through the hole in your kettle (you'll have to make that yourself) then the flat nut. Then you tighten the living shit out of it.
Here is a photo of my configuration I have a 90 degree elbow in the kettle instead of a nut - but it does the same job... but it means that I can draw off at a lower point in the kettle than where the hole was installed.

[integersmirk]

Awesome. Do you have a photo of the inside of the kettle - showing the elbow?

I am not too worried about having to tip the kettle to get the last bit but if an elbow is just as easy I might as well go there.

Do I need to worry about the proximity of the weldless set-up to the fiery flames of incendiarising gas-death that heat the whole kettle up in the first place?

[JoKing]

I suppose you would need to worry about the flames for sure. They will burn the gasket and the handle of the valve. youd need to place your kettle on top of a deflector of sorts to stop the flames from rising up the side of the kettle.

As far as the elbow goes - there might be a shot of it somewhere in my photo libraby - but I think you get the idea of it. It's just a female thread over the male part of the valve, then points 90 degress towards the bottom of the kettle. My hole is about 100 - 150mm from the bottom, and the elbow gets me about 40mm from the bottom of the inside.

[integersmirk]

My pot is 41.5cm across the base, and the burner has a circular stand which is about 35cm diameter - all actual flames are contained within this diameter so no flames make it to the outside edge of the pot. So the only concerns would be radiated heat in the air and conducted heat through the s/s. I guess that the wort tops the conducted heat to ~100deg and the radiated heat would not be significant enough to damage the gasket/handle?