cooling equipment

[christij]

I have been searching for a farm webpage that I thought I booked marked. The lady had a small dairy operation and on her website she showed cooling/filtering equipment. It sat on top of a counter.

I am not sure what to search for on line - every search returns links to large scale cooling tanks, etc.

I know I pretty vague, but my mind is zoombified after failed web searches.

Thanks!

[christij]

http://jekuthiel.com/DGJarticle.html

I guess it's the picture of the filtering device I am interested in....

[christij]

ANyone else use the cooler setup for bringing down the milk temps?

[steff bugielski]

I use a sink filled with ice water, and a pond filter to circulate . Works great. Gets it down to 45 degrees within two hours. Ny state requirement.

[christij]

Thanks, Steff. I am looking to make some upgrades to my home milking room.... anyone else have ideas or wish lists to share for their home parlors?

[steff bugielski]

Probably not an upgrade since we do every thing about as low tech as we can get but

[christij]

Sinks would be an upgrade in my milk room. Right now everything is hauled back to the house. Of course I wouldn't mind having some deep sinks in the house too...

Is that a hot water heater I see too??

Are you pouring the milk into the bigger tote after you milk? Then pour in the next doe's?

[steff bugielski]

Yes it is an electric hot water heater. I strain each doe into the large tote then when I am done with all does I transfer to 1 gallon jugs and continue to cool.

[catdance62]

A pond filter! That is a great idea! I use the ice water bath method to cool my milk and I was thinking of one of those wine bottle chillers, but the ones that are big enough for a container of milk are too expensive.

[steff bugielski]

The pond filters come in a varity of sizes. Mine was about $30 I think they move like 40 gallons a minute. It works great. What I also do is I leave the water in the sink from the previous milking, then when I am done milking and transfer to 1 gallon jars I replace the now warm water with cold and the ice. The leftover water really takes a lot of the initial heat out of the milk.

[oberhaslikid]

Yes, I use a cooler on a smaller scale.I used to put ice and water in it.I found that it works better if I freeze ice in small Gatorade bottles.Then I just refreeze them when I get to the house.

[hoofinitnorth]

You can also buy a pond fountain for about $10 at the home stores. They need to be submerged but will help circulate the water. They may quickly warm the chilled water, however, as they tend to squirt the water up above the pool's level, exposing it to warm air. Depends on how long you expect to leave the milk in the ice bath.