I've decided to come over to the dark side: chilling. After a bit of deliberation, I've settled on a whirlpool immersion chiller, with a March pump driving the whirlpool. So my question is: can these pumps handle bits of hops passing through them? What about whole cones/flowers?
I've always just chucked pellets or flowers directly into the boil, and just let everything settle before running to the cube, so would like to be able to be able to continue that practice. If it's not advisable, presumably a Bazooka screen is a good option? I'd prefer that to a hopsock.
A big advantage, as I see it, of being able to pump the hop debris is that it (along with break material, etc) would get picked up from the edge of the kettle and deposited inside the chiller coil, aiding the formation of a stable trub cone, that otherwise might be impeded by the presense of the chiller on the base of the kettle.