Beer cooling pods?

[bottles]

Hi I currently use a maxi single line cooler. By the end of a 19litre keg I'm getting a bit tired of that style of beer. I can't fit a larger maxi 310 or similar in to the space available. I've seen beer pods around, how easy to they work? Are they worth the expense and do they over work the maxi cooler? Is it possible to fit valves into the water lines to control when you use the pods lines, to keep energy consumption down.
Andrew

[bottles]

Are these things really that unknown?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beer-Line-Coo ... 1438.l2649
I see these appearing on evilbay from time to time.
Andrew

[Fil]

the pods come in a few flavours but are all afaik passive heat exchangers, that is they dont contain any cooling only a counterflow heat exchanger to take in both products and coolant. while its feasible to supply smaller pods from a shelf chillers recirculation pump (if fitted) but afaik these are generally limited to supplying beerengines without an integral cooling jacket around their cylinder. I think however that pods are best employed with the bigger chest chillers?

But thats a commercial set up, with a home set up a shelf chiller and pod could be employed to chill a 2nd brew or maximise the chill with a double pass for a highly conditioned brew..

just expect a longer delay in chilling down to serving temps when you frst flip the switch on the chiller of an evening.