Wort Chiller - how hard can it be?

Up until now I've been using ice baths to cool my wort, but recently I acquired a wort chiller as a gift, so I decided to use it on my latest batch.  You would think that using a wort chiller would be a simple process of 10-15 min left in boil put your chiller in (mine is an immersion) so it sterilizes.  Once boil complete, turn on the water and watch the temperature drop...   Ha...  Wouldn't you know it I made several rookie mistakes that I will not repeat (lesson learned) and I hope nobody else repeats.

First and foremost - make sure all your hose clamps are tightened.  Yep, I thought mine were as I was trying not to over tighten as I didn't want to crimp the copper tube, but low and behold as I turned on the water it began to leak at the joins.  Clearly I hadn't clamped it tight enough and foolish me I did not test out my equipment prior to immersing in the wort for cooling.  Luckily the leaking water did not contaminate my wort and I was able to tighten everything down and proceed to cooling.  Lesson learned, always check your fastenings for leaks and tension by doing some test runs prior to brewing.

Second mistake -  The temperature will rise once you remove your immersion chiller.  I had my temp down to the target, pulled the chiller out and transferred the wort to my fermentor, but as I was transferring I noticed a bit of steam coming out, which I thought was strange since in my previous brews I had never seen that before.  So I took another temperature reading and sure enough the temp had jump up 20 degrees.  Why?  Simple, an immersion chiller cools the liquid closest to the coils faster than the rest of the liquid, given that most thermometers will be near the edges (where the coils are dominant) the reading will be lower there than the actual temp.  Lesson learned, cool the wort lower than target, remove the chiller and check temp - if at target then done, if not cool a little longer and repeat. 

Just to let you know, I did cool the wort to the proper temp before pitching the yeast....  Since the beer is still fermenting I'll let you know if it turns out ok so check back later.