What does the chiller do?
A chiller provides a reservoir of ice water to rapidly cool milk in the vat after processing or after milking. The ice water is pumped out of the chiller and circulated through the water jacket of the pasteurizer and then returned to the chiller. For faster cooling, food grade propylene glycol can be added to the water to lower the freezing point. The milk is not pumped into the chiller because our philosophy is that any time you move milk you have to clean something...so we prefer to move the water to the milk instead of the other way around.

Who needs a chiller?
Not every processing operation requires a chiller. Chillers are necessary if you are using the vat as a bulk tank and need to cool the milk to storage temperature (<45 degrees) or if you are bottling milk. Milk must also be cooled to 45 degrees before being bottled and you will need some method of chilling the milk. Note that many cheese makers and yogurt makers do not need chillers because they can just run tap water through the vat to cool the milk to culturing temperature (typically 110 degrees to 85 degrees). Yogurt can be packaged at culture temperature.


Low Capacity Deep Freeze Style Chiller (100 Gallons, 1/6 HP) - works well with smaller vats (4, 15 and 30 gallon) and with people who are just processing one batch a day. The compressors are small and the recovery time (to get the ice water cold again) before you can process another batch can be as much as 12-15 hours. We start out with a 25 cubic foot deep freeze, add casters so you can move the unit around for cleaning your processing room, drill ports so water can be pumped in and out of the chiller, add a circulation pump and a temperature controller to keep the vat from freezing the water to a solid block of ice and finally put a stainless steel lid on the top that allows the chiller to serve double duty as a sanitary work surface.


Medium Capacity Chillers(160 Gallons, 3/4 HP) - These work well with larger vats (30 and 45 gallon) and for people who are processing multiple batches per day. The compressors are much larger and the recovery time is typically 3-4 hours. We build these units from scratch.

Vertical - This popular and economical unit includes casters, pumps, temperature controller, and an insulated plastic tank integrated into a compact configuration. 34" Wide x 34" Deep x 6-1/2' High

Horizontal - We include casters, circulation pump, temperature controller, stainless steel tank, a sight gauge so you can see how much water is in the tank and a stainless steel lid to serve as a sanitary work surface. 72" Wide x 34" Deep x 30" High

High Capacity Chiller (300 Gallons, 3 HP). This is designed as a split system. The plastic chill tank is located in the processing room, but the compressor can be positioned remotely - outside, in another room or even on a roof. Larger compressors put off a lot of heat, and the advantage of this configuration is that you do not add all of that heat back into the processing room. This system is typically paired with large pasteurizers such as the 100 gallon system or multiple large pasteurizers. An optional 5 HP unit is available.