Any of our plate heat exchangers may be used for beer wort chilling. Heat Exchangers found on this page are most commonly used in beer wort chilling due to the convenience of having garden hose fittings for the water side and 1/2" Male NPT or 1/2" Hose Barbs for the wort side. If you prefer NPT (regular pipe thread) fittings on all 4 sides, please view all of our heat exchanger models for many different options on our different models.

Performance Comparison of Units

For a simple comparison of our different heat exchangers used in beer wort chilling, please view our beer wort chilling chart. This chart helps compare performance from model to model in a typical beer wort chilling application.

Advice on Selecting the proper Beer Wort Chiller

The longer, the more efficient

The more length a heat exchanger has, the more efficiently it will perform. If you made an infinitely long heat exchanger, it would be possible for the hot fluid to reach the same temperature of the cold fluid entering the unit. When your goal is to achieve lower temperatures, faster chill times, or lower water usage, choose a longer unit.

The More Plates or Channels, the less pressure drop

More plates means more channels for the fluid to flow through. This is similar to increasing the size of a pipe, which allows for more flow rate so that more fluid can be pushed through the unit. It also adds more surface area contact for a little more heat transfer, but keep in mind that plate heat exchangers are most efficient by use of convective heat transfer as opposed to conductive heat transfer, which means that the faster your fluid flows, the faster the heat transfer. The more plates you add, the more channels your fluid has to flow through, and so the slower the velocity of the fluid flowing through the channels. If you do not increase the flow rate as you add plates, it could actually lower the heat transfer rate due to low velocity fluid or even cause some of the channels to not have any flow through them from the near zero pressure drop passing through the unit.
When seeking more efficiency, always seek a longer unit. When seeking higher flow rates, add more plates to compensate for the needed flow to avoid too much pressure drop.

The new B3-36A models offer the highest possible performance for a typical city water pressure application at home. Choose this model for the best performance and most savings in water usage.