Just my own opinion and many will argue it but Southern California has been the gates of Hades all year. Ground water hasn't dropped below 82 since last winter and some of my regional brewing buddies on well water sources are seeing mid 90's. All these wonder chillers aren't going to do a thing.
5 gallons or less, drain the kettle directly into a plastic somethingeranother (sealed of course, maybe 5 to 10 bucks at home depot or some water or pool place), drop it into a bigger bucket (like a $7 feed bucket from tractor supply or wally world) full of hose water. Give it a few minutes of swishing the water around until it water warms up. Refill the water jacket and repeat. I find it much faster than a submersible chiller and I don't have to clean my counterflow or dick around with the 2nd pump or hoses. It also uses much less water for smaller batches.
Want it to chill really fast? Save up some amazon fresh ice packs (they give you like 10 of them free per bag) or go buy cheap ice packs in bulk and leave them in a freezer for brew days. Toss those in the water bucket. Swish the water around. Ten minutes or so you have nearly cold wort to transfer to the fermenter. Toss them back in the freezer during cleanup.
If you are a real purist, you can decant it again because a ton of trub, cold-break and gack will form chilling it that fast. I don't worry about it though, whats left in the kettle (after a quick whirlpool and a few minutes to settle) gets tossed, whatever settles after that, goes into the fermenter.
Anytime i'm doing more than 5 gallons, the CFC comes out. The water gets recirculated through the big bucket full of the ice packs. Running continuous gallons of water or buying ice seams like a waste to me.
