Continuing the discussion from Polyscience Immersion Coil for CLS Recovery?:
How are you guys going about prolonging the lives of your chillers? Any tips and tricks? Preferred brands?
cleaning your condensers regularly is the best 1st step, while cleaning them look around for potential leaks or signs of refrigerant leaking or just wear and tear.
if you notice reduced performance then check the charge before it gets to low and the compressor runs dry.
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depending on the temperature you want to lower your solution to
as for recovery no need to go to -80 C when -30C can get the job done with a longer condenser and thus be a more easy chiller in maintenance
most important so far has been cooling the chillers themselves when working environment temperatures rise over 30 C well water and havoc condensers cooling the units has worked well so far just make sure your condensing humidity has a place to go to
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Keep them away from keif, that is for sure.
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Could you line the intake ventilation with a good filter you think or would that potentially restrict airflow too much? Thinking about people with limited space.
What would you guys recommend cleaning your condenser with?
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Use the right fluid
Don’t run at max power and capacity constantly or it will fail
If your chiller has pump levels, each level of pump power is about 50 - 70 W of power (taken away from the chilling capacity) due to friction
Don’t power your chiller on if it has recently been moved, give it 24 hours
Compressors need service sometimes even before they fail, if you notice something has changed in power check oil level and refrigerant level
read the manual Holy shit the alarm you’re hearing is most likely because you haven’t told your non-chinese chiller what it should expect (delta T, fluid type, max and min Temps, etc).
Julabo chillers used to come with a bristle brush. That with a can of dust off and a shop vac you’ll be golden.
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Why do you say this?
You want all of the compressor oil and everything to be in the right place on start up. I guess 24 hours is a little long. Here’s the info but in the scope of home appliances:
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A bunch of my chillers are on wheels so maybe I’m thinking something different when you say “move”.
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Oh yeah I mean facility move where you’re likely tilting your units on ramps and doing dumb stuff to avoid using a forklift or whatever. Or after you just bought it although most nice chillers come with a tilt tag on the box to let you know what angle it’s been at during transport.
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For best results out the chiller outside the extraction room, run the plumbing through the wall.
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For sure, I wouldn’t recommend in the extraction room, but I’ve encountered a few places where the exterior room was the prep room. I guess really though you’d just put it in the post processing space which would already be a clean room of sorts.
I just know there are a few two room operations out there.
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Might have to do a little re-arranging in that case, your millage may vary.
If you absolutely cannot move the chiller, you may be able to run an air intake/exhaust. You may need to boost the flow with fans to achieve the needed air flow.Additionally your air ducting would need to be large In diameter, with as short of a run as possible.
So far the best option would be a liquid cooled chiller, that eliminates the need for air flow.
Additionally a small cooling tower can be added to boost performance.
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Refrigeration compressors don’t like ingesting liquids. It’s called “slugging” when they suck liquid refrigerant into the intake side and usually results in bent/broken valves and other carnage (will also happen to Huber Unistats after a power outage, because their dumb asses can’t figure out how to write in a time out timer in that fancy control module). Can also happen with the oil that is (at least ideally) spread thinly throughout your refrigeration circuit, especially if the unit has been tilted excessively or laid on its side for transport
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