Get a serious vac pump too. Those blue & white R2-D2 units are not up to this task.
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This one is no good?
I don’t know. We don’t have any of that brand.
There’s two major considerations I make when selecting chillers,
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Cooling Capacity
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Warranty and longevity
Now in terms of cooling capacity, you’re considering the energy available to change temperature/remove heat. More powerful chillers will almost always have greater capacity to exchange heat. That doesn’t mean that you have to buy a chiller that’s over powered, but you definitely don’t want one that’s underpowered.
Correct me if I’m wrong @SIMSAM, but I believe the thinking about a -30 over a -10 is that the -30 chiller probably has greater cooling capacity.
Now when it comes to warranty… I’ve owned American, German, and Chinese chillers and the Chinese ones were hands down the cheapest. But what I’ve found is that even if the company is good at communicating with you, their tech support can be seriously lacking, and the longevity of their product can be lacking. Speaking of longevity, I’m not talking a couple years, I’m talking decades. Take a look on ebay and talk to materials chemists who have been using chillers for decades, you’re going to find more German chillers running strong years after purchase than Chinese.
Chinese chillers are fine for getting your lab off the ground, but IMO get something German or American when you’re revenue kicks in. Many will argue that you can just buy another chiller when that one breaks but that’s not how I roll.
That polyscience you linked @tetramethylsilane is definitely up to the task, but also probably overkill. I used that same chiller for cooling CO2 during supercritical extraction years ago when I was working with SFE.
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Garbage.
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A 1.5hp polyscience chiller will never be overloaded by a 20liter rotovap. China chillers barely compete and anyone who said they killed a 1.5hp chiller is misusing it. A 20l rotovap should do 20-30 liters per hour recovery with a 1.5 hp chiller. And you won’t burn it out. Most of these 300 dollar china chillers people post are absolute garbage and the sellers know it. It’s markup and shit warranty behind it. At least poky will take it back and fix it fast.
Remeberberry never get open bath chillers for this. It’s the least efficient thing you can do. You want plate to plate chilling.
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What drugs are you on, this is a 300 dollar pile of shit china chiller.
You can tell it’s weak by just doing the math on the ampers it takes and it’s ratings.
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China chillers should avoided.
They doing gas leaks and turn into blow torches becusee of unsafe hardware and risk burning down labs
Worst part is. China chiller will burn your lab down and you can’t hold them liable, the following week they send you a dm asking you if need more chillers.
@tetramethylsilane Avoid this pump, get yourself a vacuubrand. You’ll love it and it won’t break. Welch makes bad pumps now adays.
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I’ve personally never heard of a Chinese chiller burning down a lab, but that doesn’t mean it’s never happened, and I would certainly agree that they should be avoided if at all possible.
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Of course everything I offered is cheap.
I propose the business case that people starting out should buy the cheapest equipment they can to get the job done and if they are any good at this business/science then the good stuff will pay for itself when the money comes flooding in because they’re so good at this.
It happens all the time. Alot of lab fires are kept secret bc people are embaressed to admit they are cheap morons doing cheap as shit without safety in mind.
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Sure but your comment also puts a low value on customer safety. Safety is number 1 in and. Import sellers and china manufacturing companies don’t care about safety, they just want to make a sale. Mainland be does who are insured, licensed etc…they care about you’re success and safety. Because they are held liable.
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Its just more sales tactics. Shit on the other guy to make sure your product is #1.
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I totally respect what you are saying.
However.
I have always lived dangerously (ask anyone) and have 3 different types of fire extinguishers and we never leave any of our equipment running unattended (except the AI vacuum oven heater with vac pump shut off).
We’re only doing it this way until we make enough moola to afford the good stuff, like your glass for instance, which is on the wish list.
IIRC almost everything in our lab is Chinese right now and turning back is not an option. It’s full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.
I get it. I had zero dollars when I started.
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That is precisely one of the reasons we like you so much. You made it work and nothing stopped you.
And you love metal. 
Polyscience has probably been the best bang for a buck I’ve worked with. They were affordable for us even back when we only had $16,000 for an SPD and had to drive to AI in Jersey to buy one in all cash. I was willing to buy AI glass to start, but not their chillers.
Julabo has been by far the best running chillers I have, 4 different sizes running a 4" WFE. And their customer service has always been excellent
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I’ve never used them, but I always hear great reviews of Huber, so based off reviews they sound like the best competition for Julabo
Everything can be good or bad, I’ve personally had China chillers arc out and burn out. I’ve actually only had a chiller catch fire once and it was a Huber. High end one too. And no alarms went off. So it’s a toss up. But I’d rather have the Huber or American company to deal with since they hold themselves liable for thier actions. My experience with china is mostly this, they will cause a fire, accident, injury, or even failure in your lab - and send you a email t following week asking you if you Wana buy more instant garbage.
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