Plate cooler water source

[Llmmm]

Currently have a plate cooler but dont use it due to sediment in main water source from spring have deep well water for plant washing but supply is very poor.Have been advised to buy an ice builder for plate cooler but cant see the bebefit as only one milking would be on off peak was thinkinking of just pumping water from a storage tank trough plate cooler to another tank and letting it cool naturally between milkings would this work my thoughts would be it would be cheap to set up and run

 

[Nearly]

We ran a plate cooler from the ice bank of a disused bulk tank.
Cooled the milk very quickly.

 

[Llmmm]

We ran a plate cooler from the ice bank of a disused bulk tank.
Cooled the milk very quickly.

I have no doubt it would cool quickly but it costs money to build the ice . have ice bank tank and excellent quality milk just want to cut the electric bill seems a shame to have plate cooler and not use it

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Currently have a plate cooler but dont use it due to sediment in main water source from spring have deep well water for plant washing but supply is very poor.Have been advised to buy an ice builder for plate cooler but cant see the bebefit as only one milking would be on off peak was thinkinking of just pumping water from a storage tank trough plate cooler to another tank and letting it cool naturally between milkings would this work my thoughts would be it would be cheap to set up and run

It would certainly help in winter but you might find the water temperature didn't drop much in summer.

 

[Llmmm]

It would certainly help in winter but you might find the water temperature didn't drop much in summer.

Surely warm water stored at night in a tank would cool in summer .during day id say ur correct id be hoping to run a large water volume trough plate cooler.

 

[Fraserb]

Surely warm water stored at night in a tank would cool in summer .during day id say ur correct id be hoping to run a large water volume trough plate cooler.

It wont drop by much, our water coming off the plate cooler is about 16-18 degrees, 5 hours after the end of milking its usually dropped 2 degrees at most.

 

[Llmmm]

It wont drop by much, our water coming off the plate cooler is about 16-18 degrees, 5 hours after the end of milking its usually dropped 2 degrees at most.

Was this in winter or summer was thinking of putting the spring water going to drinkers in a stainless steel coil in the storage tanks so cold water would be flowing trough the tanks all day in an element and cool the storage tank during the day as the water would be pumped to drinkers anyway.Other simplier option would be a tube cooler and run the spring water to waste during milking i dont believe tube cooler could be blocked with sediment or am i wrong.

 

[Happy hillbily]

Currently have a plate cooler but dont use it due to sediment in main water source from spring have deep well water for plant washing but supply is very poor.Have been advised to buy an ice builder for plate cooler but cant see the bebefit as only one milking would be on off peak was thinkinking of just pumping water from a storage tank trough plate cooler to another tank and letting it cool naturally between milkings would this work my thoughts would be it would be cheap to set up and run

Couldn't you use a milk filter to take the sediment out of your spring water ?
A neighbour of mine uses them to filter the spring water coming in to the house.

 

[Fraserb]

Was this in winter or summer was thinking of putting the spring water going to drinkers in a stainless steel coil in the storage tanks so cold water would be flowing trough the tanks all day in an element and cool the storage tank during the day as the water would be pumped to drinkers anyway.Other simplier option would be a tube cooler and run the spring water to waste during milking i dont believe tube cooler could be blocked with sediment or am i wrong.

Theres very little difference between summer and winter, our water goes through the plate cooler then is stored for the cows to drink.

 

[Llmmm]

Couldn't you use a milk filter to take the sediment out of your spring water ?
A neighbour of mine uses them to filter the spring water coming in to the house.

Never thought of that would it be set up the same as milk line or direct inline

 

[DocPhil001]

Never thought of that would it be set up the same as milk line or direct inline

I use an old filter. Change the sock every few weeks. Works really well.

 

[jimmer]

I have storage tanks above parlour, they slowly fill with spring water, that is then pumped via a submersible through plate cooler, takes milk down to about 20 in the summer and 17 in the winter, not amazing but cheaper than running tank
I have converted old icebank tank to pump through second plate cooler which takes it to between 9 and 11 degrees

 

[som farmer]

the delights of having your own supply ! We had a spring fed reservoir, but fine in winter, had to top up with mains summer, all gravity fed, =low pressure. Drilled a borehole, pumped on a time switch, to the reservoir, plenty of water, but all low pressure, so big water tanks for the cows etc. Following hassle with leaks, on the mains supply, to the fields above the reservoir, the supply meter was 1/2 mile away, coming through road verge, and 3 different farmers fields, it just got a pain in the butt. So, fitted a pressure pump etc, new line, to feed those fields, fine. Then decided to power up the farmyard supply, including all troughs below reservoir, great, whereas we had been on gravity feed, the change to pressure, blew loads of couplings ! So, in the end, my hopes of ending 40 yrs of peeing about with water/lack off, was a pipe dream, the biggest difference is, before you didn't worry about turning the water off, before repairing/altering fittings etc, you now get soaked, because I was to tight to buy enough stop cocks.

 

[Mr Mackay]

We have sediment in the water from the canal for our plate cooler . I use an Ambic flowfilter just before the coolers , which I wash clean every day.
The mono water pump that feeds it is about 5 gallons a minute , which gets split . (I would prefer an inverter on the milk pump but at present I choke the milk down with a ball valve !! Removed the lever and added weld to it so that it isnt shut too much at any point and is set at optimum . I also would like to store the pumped water in a secondary large tank (we supply the drinking troughs at present ) and fit a booster pump that was activated by the milk pump coming on and pump for ten seconds afterwards to chill the plates properly after the initial milk flow ! )
But cost and simplicity means I am happy enough at present !
You , in your case could use a large plastic tank (3000 gallon ) as a settlement tank maybe too if you were still concerned about the remaining sediment , then pump through the milk pump!

The idea of tank to tank is ok , then reverse next time ??? but I feel that the second tank will retain the heat too easily and then you may lose the advantage of the cooling the next time you use it !!

Good luck with your choices