Got a few questions. Been out of the game for a few years, wondering on what ideas on a chiller are now a days? Some one thought they needed some of my equipment more than I did so I dropped out after that. For now I think an immersion chiller is the best idea, can’t really afford a plate chiller right now. And what is the going cooler to use for all grain now a days? The one I had was a cube, perfect for 5gl batch sparges. I haven’t seen one in a store in a while, I can go larger as I can step up to ten gallon batches, just need a better burner.

Thanks.

Buy a copper or stainless chiller on Amazon. 

I haven't brewed in years, but that would be my first purchase too.  I hate waiting for the mix to drop to yeast drop temperature. 

I bought a 50ft stainless on Amazon using a giftcard.  I love the thing.

I started with an Immersion chiller I made out of refrigeration tubing. I have a plate chiller now, but use my immersion chiller to chill the water going in the plate chiller. It is an awesome thing to go from drain of keggle to fermenter and pitch immediately.

I can't remember how much it was I think 100.00 when I bought it. I run hot PBW through it and a rinse after use, prior to use I drop it in the boil filled with water for a few minutes to sanitize.

Cold break is tremendous when using a plate chiller. Some rack off of the cold break, but I do not rack off of it normally, as I am usually pitching heavy and go straight from boiler to fermenter anyway. Many times right onto a yeast cake.

Immersion chillers are awesome, esp if your water temps are low.
Something like the "silver serpent" from Northern brewery.

For a doubly-effective system, you can use a plate chiller in a cooler full of icewater before the immersion chiller to reduce temps really fast.

The problem with plate chillers and counterflow chillers is they are really hard to clean if you are pumping your wort through them.
With an immersion chiller, all the wort stays outside the tubing.

I've used both a therminator and the 50' stainless immersion from Amazon. The therminator is a great unit and with cold groundwater it will chill your kettle as fast as you can drain it. The downside is that you need to hook up 4 hoses and can range from a pain to a bitch to clean and if you don't clean it well can be a source of off flavors.

I use the immersion chiller, it only uses two hoses and is easy to clean. Yes I'm lazy. With our 55° water it takes me about 20 minutes to get 11 gallons from boil to pitch.

With warmer water the plate chiller certainly has advantage of taking a ton of time out of your brew day. With colder water like mine those advantages are erased.

Thanks for the input. I guess I’ll just stick with the immersion chiller method. I made a replacement after my old one was liberated from me. Made it out of copper, thought of SS but I like the benefits of copper. I toss the chiller into the boil about fifteen minutes before I shut the flame off, the copper helps feed the yeast.

I must have been doing something right, I was racking onto the last yeast cake in the primary and getting action a couple of hours later. Learned to use a blow off tube and not an airlock, those air locks will dent the ceiling when they blow out lol

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This is a reverse flow chiller in red. Copper pipe running down through a Garden Hose and I can go from boiling to pitch temp immediately.