Homebrew Immersion Wort Chiller
This copper wort chiller is manufactured by Krome, and is the best selling wort chiller on Amazon. Probably its most important quality is the fact that it's easy to use while being effective at the same time. It can easily get attached to almost any sink faucet with the help of its 3/4” hose fitting (female). This makes it easy for this wort chiller to be incorporated into the brewing process.
Another feature of this item is the outlet tube, which directs warm water into the sink, thus avoiding a mess. The vinyl inlet hose measures 7' in length, and the same applies to the outlet hose. Coil height is 6” and coil diameter is 10”. The copper coil diameter is 3/8”, and the overall coil length is 25'.
Copper Immersion Wort Chiller
This item is sold by HomeBrewStuff. With a 9” diameter and a height of 20”, this item is an excellent choice for batches of 5 or 10 gallons. The wort gets chilled extremely quickly, helped by the 50' of tubing that this immersion chiller comes equipped with. The hoses are made of vinyl and feature a garden hose end made of brass.
Chill-Out! 30 Plate Wort Chiller
The Chill-Out! 30 plate wort chiller is very fast and effective. It will get the wort to the yeast pitching temperature in no time. This is actually a small version of the plate chillers used by the pros. This particular model features 30 stainless steel plates which are brazed together with pure copper. Each plate has small ripples which means that the wort travels over a bigger area and the water has more time to cool down the wort. Even more, the ripples create a turbulent flow, which makes sure that the wort cools down extremely fast.
This Chill-Out chiller uses less water than the standard immersion chiller, which makes it especially suitable for people who live in hot climates. So how does this chiller work?
Starting with the left heat exchanger port, the wort passes through every other channel, and it ends in the opposite port (also on the left part of the heat exchanger). The same applies to cold water, the only difference is that it passes through the opposite ports on the right side. Since the fluids basically touch each other in the process, heat gets transferred from the hot to the cold fluid. Bear in mind that the two fluids don't get mixed. What makes plate wort chillers extremely effective is the fact that the metal plates have very good heat conductivity rates, in conjunction with the fact that the plates are really thin. This item can chill 5 gallons in 5 minutes. Other product features include: 1/2” MPT on inlets and outlets, and a size of 7.5 by 2.9 by 3 inches. Other 2 models are available for this particular item: the 20 plate model (which chills 5 gallons in less than 7 minutes), and the 40 plate (which chills 5 gallons in 3 minutes).
Shirron Wort Plate Chiller
The Shirron plate chiller features 10 stainless steel plates. Like in the case of the Chill-Out chillers, these plates are brazed together using pure copper. However, this particular item produced by Shirron is a counterflow wort chiller. For the wort, it features threaded male hookups (1/2”), while for the wastewater it features male garden hose fittings (3/4”). As a consequence, the wort can be pumped or even gravity fed. This item also prevents the wort from getting oxidized and reduces bacteria. The dimensions of this Shirron wort chiller are 13 by 3 by 2 inches.