For some time now I've been unhappy with the length of time it takes to cool wort to the fv. I'm also removing all copper from my system, so a stainless steel option was on the cards. A few months ago I won a Sondex gasket plate heat exchanger on e-bay for a very reasonable price. The first job was to open it up and see what sort of condition the gaskets and plates were in, and also to check what sort of gaskets were fitted. Luckily for me it had been well maintained and the plates are in mint condition. I was lucky with the gaskets as they are sonder-lock which means they attach via small lugs which push through holes in the edges of the plates.
Some GPHE's are fitted with glued gaskets making servicing more 'difficult'. The gaskets are in A1 condition also, though I may replace them anyway. The GPHE has to be mounted vertically for best purging of air and heat exchange, so I am currently working on a way of fitting it into my system. It also needs a pre-filter on both product and coolant inlets to prevent particles larger than 0.5mm from getting into the plate package. It's far easier to stop particles getting into the GPHE in the first place than it is to strip it down. To this end I am fabricating, with the help of a friend, a stainless mesh filters to fit a standard Pentek 10" clear filter housing. Once I am happy with the performance of the design I may well progress to a stainless housing
