I am curious to see what people recommend for plate chillers. There are the cheap ones, the expensive ones, the long ones, the fat ones etc. Which one should I buy and why?
I love my therminator from Blichmann but the Duda Diesel is comparable and costs less. The long plates definitely help the Duda Diesel stay competitive but the Blichmann has so many plates that I believe its currently the "best in class" currently. The Blichmann is also more compact which makes it a little more versatile for different mounting scenarios.
Blichmann is7.5 " x 4". There are 7.5" x 2.9" Duda Diesel chillers. http://www.dudadiesel.com/heat_exchangers.php
Thanks for the link and the correction! A few guys in my brew club do own the duda models though and claim its comparable to the Blichmann for what its worth.
i got the duda for price reasons. The bigger the plates, the more efficient the heat exchanger, so go for plate size if you want more efficiency. You increase plate #s if you want to increase the speed of chilling. 20 plates will be slower to chill than 40 plates. I went with the 12" long, 30 plate exchanger and has proven to be a good balance of speed & efficiency coupled with my march pump. edit: just noticed that the duda link has an explanation of this on heat exchanger webpage.
