We've been having issues lately with our heat exchanger not cooling as efficiently as it used to. We clean the HX every day after brewing and once a month break it down to check the plates and scrub them if they need it. It started cooling slightly less efficiently a few months ago and it's starting to really lag as of late. We're having to crack back valves to give the wort more time in the HX resulting in cooling times approaching and exceeding an hour for a ~17bbl batch.
My question is: Has anyone else ever had this issue and is there a simple fix that I'm just not paying attention to? My fear is that maybe somewhere along the line one of the plates got removed and put in incorrectly and that's what's causing the issue, but I want to check before shutting down another day to tear it apart again.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Josh Ward
Head Brewer/Brewing Operations Manager
Grand Canyon Brewing Company
My question is: Has anyone else ever had this issue and is there a simple fix that I'm just not paying attention to? My fear is that maybe somewhere along the line one of the plates got removed and put in incorrectly and that's what's causing the issue, but I want to check before shutting down another day to tear it apart again.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Josh Ward
Head Brewer/Brewing Operations Manager
Grand Canyon Brewing Company
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