Plate cooler

[Davy]

Can I just plumb up a 2nd plate cooler in the line? Will it affect the milk pump having 2 coolers to push it through? I'm guessing it should be no different to having a dual stage cooler.

 

[Fraserb]

Can I just plumb up a 2nd plate cooler in the line? Will it affect the milk pump having 2 coolers to push it through? I'm guessing it should be no different to having a dual stage cooler.

We had a dual stage cooler and added a second single stage cooler after it and didn't seem to make any difference to the milk pumps.

 

[upnortheast]

Can I just plumb up a 2nd plate cooler in the line?

Not a problem

 

[onesiedale]

Straight forward. To get the best out of it though, make sure that your water runs in reverse flow to the milk.
ie - into 2nd cooler first then 1st cooler second.

 

[upnortheast]

Straight forward. To get the best out of it though, make sure that your water runs in reverse flow to the milk.
ie - into 2nd cooler first then 1st cooler second.

Ours has borehole water through 1 & chilled water through 2

 

[Adam@Rumen]

Easy to do.

Friend replaced one of his 2 with a glycol chiller which made a huge difference... and then he realised the second one wasn't even switched on.

 

[onesiedale]

Ours has borehole water through 1 & chilled water through 2

Even better

 

[TheRanger]

It may struggle during the wash depending on the output of your milk pump and the size of the two plate coolers. If it does you can easily fit a bypass pipe with a roll clip that you can open during the wash.

 

[Mr Mackay]

I fitted a second plate cooler after the first, a few years ago. My dairy engineers said ,thats enough for it to push through , although they frown at the choke valve !!!
So far it hasnt burnt out any pump seals prematurely !
I was advised tosplit the water equally between the 2 , although I would have preferred 2 sources really . But chilled water has a cost if you need an ice builder ,so it probably is a happy medium for us , although ,I have visions of storing water during nightime from a body of water nearby ,and shooting that through the second one (but it never gets done !!)
I intend to fit the inverter and 3 phase pump later this month ,so that will be interesting , as I expect the choke valve will go ,and we will see if the pump can shift the required milk without having to run at the higher speeds (depending on what the probes tell it )

 

[Blue.]

As posted fitting a 2nd cooler is fine if it doesn't slow flow when washing,fitting a by-pass is a recipe for disaster because flow always takes the path of least resistance.
The best way is fit a tube cooler because they have more surface contact and are free flow.

 

[Mr Mackay]

We have never had a washing problem ,but there again , it may depend on plate cooler sizes , as ours is a small setup !!

 

[farmerbill]

Any thoughts on plate vs pipe/tube coolers?

For equivalent size the pipe cooler is an extra £1000 but it’s more free flowing and unblockable. We had a real palava with some cheap filter socks which blocked the plate cooler with fibres so I am wary of that.

Question is, which is more efficient at cooling milk?

Also what temperatures are you getting your milk down to with plate/ pipe coolers alone using non cooled water?

 

[upnortheast]

Also what temperatures are you getting your milk down to with plate/ pipe coolers alone using non cooled water?

Bore hole water takes it to about 10degrees
Chilled water to 4

 

[arbel]

Bore hole water takes it to about 10degrees
Chilled water to 4

Bore hole water in the UK is pretty stable at around 12C. If you can pre-cool to 10C, you are doing rather well! From experience in manufacturing and selling milk cooling tanks with integral data logging, an average would appear to be around 18C after pre-cooling. Of course, the surface area of the heat exchanger and the cooling water flow rate has an influence.

 

[Blue.]

Plate cooler fed via a booster pump from a tank then chilled water pumped through a tube cooler takes mine down to around to 8/9 degrees.

 

[arbel]

Plate cooler fed via a booster pump from a tank then chilled water pumped through a tube cooler takes mine down to around to 8/9 degrees.

Sounds like you have a good setup. Tube coolers certainly seem to be preferable and the chilled water is the icing on top of the cake.
I see many cases of plate coolers suffering from a partial blockage (on the water side) with the farmer being completely unaware.

 

[upnortheast]

Bore hole water takes it to about 10degrees
Chilled water to 4

ore hole water in the UK is pretty stable at around 12C. If you can pre-cool to 10C, you are doing rather well! From experience in manufacturing and selling milk cooling tanks with integral data logging, an average would appear to be around 18C after pre-cooling. Of course, the surface area of the heat exchanger and the cooling water flow rate has an influence.

Spent a bit of time with our (accurate) thermometer. Borehole water is 11.2C Difficult to get a good reading after the 1st plate cooler but looks to be about 15 C
Milk into the tank 5C.

 

[arbel]

That looks like a good result. Those of you using a chiller or ice builder are presumably taking into account that the ice is being made during the cheap rate tariff. If not, the only advantages that I can see from using a chiller is that the milk temperature going into the vat is near collection temperature and blend temperature does not creep up to a level that wakes the bugs up.
I am often surprised at how many dairy farmers are using minuscule plate coolers that are simply not large enough to take advantage of relatively cheap bore hole water pre-cooling. I was on a dairy farm this afternoon and our equipment was showing that the milk temperature after pre-cooling was still up at 23.4C. The plate cooler (which is somewhat small) will be stripped down shortly to investigate. But of course, it could be down to inadequate water flow.
I have attached a screen shot of their data log graph

 

[upnortheast]

If not, the only advantages that I can see from using a chiller is that the milk temperature going into the vat is near collection temperature

Advantage when robot milking as the milk can take a while to reach the paddle

 

[arbel]

You might be interested to see the data graph from one of our customers robot milking farms. Screen shot taken this evening. You will note that they had a milk collection and subsequent vat wash at about 2.00pm this afternoon. Once again, pre-cooling giving variable results from 15 - 21C