When it comes to chillers, figuring out where to start is the tricky part. Air-cooled or water-cooled? Used or new? What size do you need? The experts at Cold Shot Chillers cover all of these questions and more in today's article.
An industrial chiller is a refrigeration system that keeps equipment and materials cool, allowing operations to run smoothly. Air Conditioners dehumidify air while water chiller systems cool down fluids that can be used to condition spaces or cool processes, simply by removing heat. However, these units are not 'cooling' or 'chilling' anything; they simply remove heat.
There are a few general rules of thumb to keep in mind when selecting a new cooling system. Keep reading to gain a better understanding of the different chiller types available on the market.
Size is one of the biggest factors to consider when buying a chiller. Selecting a correctly sized chiller is paramount. A chiller that is too small won't properly cool your equipment or materials. On the other hand, a chiller that is too large will work just fine, but providing excess capacity will over time fail prematurely due to short cycling. In addition, you've spent more money than you needed to. So how do you know what size chiller you need?
Industrial chillers come in a variety of sizes, ranging from ¼ ton to thousands of tons in capacity. We recommend you use a chiller size calculator to determine what size chiller you need for your application. Below are some examples of chiller sizes based on industry standards.
Keep in mind that these sizes are only based on industry standards. Manufacturers like Cold Shot Chillers can design and build custom units of virtually any size. We highly recommend using a chiller sizing tool with exact measurements for the most accurate estimation. You can also reach out to our experienced team for additional help with sizing requirements or general questions.
Chillers have various applications for all types of industries. For example, they are used for medical applications such as radiotherapy, PET scans, laboratory operations, and even blood bank refrigeration. In addition, MRI chillers and CT chillers are used frequently in the healthcare sector.
Food processing chillers serve a variety of applications in the food and beverage industry. Depending on your specific setting, you can choose from bakery chillers, winery glycol chillers, brewery glycol chillers, dairy milk chillers, and even commercial yogurt machine chillers.
Metal finishing chillers can be beneficial for paint and powder coating, anodizing, die casting cooling, furnace cooling, quench cooling, and more.
Explosion-proof chillers are commonly used in chemical processing plants, coal plants, oil and gas refineries, and other work environments that interact with flammable gases and vapors.
Cold Shot Chillers offers additional industry-specific chiller types, including laser chillers, plastic processing chillers, government and municipal chillers, welding chillers, and more.
Industrial chillers can be categorized in a few different ways. Let's take a look at five types of chiller classifications.
Industrial chillers can range in price anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars. As mentioned before, water chillers are typically more expensive than air-cooled chillers. In addition, different chiller manufacturers all design and price their systems uniquely, so make sure to carefully compare prices and weigh your options before making a purchase.
Always familiarize yourself with the manufacturer and their policies ahead of time. Ask the following questions and more before choosing a chiller:
Looking to buy a new or used chiller? Look no further! Cold Shot Chillers is a Houston-based industrial chiller manufacturer with decades of industry experience.
We hope that you've learned some valuable information here that will help you make the best purchase. We're confident that we can find a solution for you, no matter what you're looking for!
Initially, choosing a chiller may not seem like a hugely important decision. You may assume that any chiller will get the job done, and that there is no need to spend significant amounts of time debating the merits of one chiller versus another. While it's true that all chillers perform the same essential function, there are more points to consider beyond a chiller's basic ability to cool. To truly achieve maximum efficiency and satisfaction, you'll want to take the time to choose the perfect chiller for your building or process.
To really be able to pick the perfect chiller, you'll first have to know what criteria you should be looking for, and what types of questions you should be asking. For example, you'll want to ask things like, 'What size chiller do I need?' and 'What are my chiller options based on load?' among others.
We want to help you find the best chiller for your operation and building. To help you figure out which type of chiller is the right choice for you, we've put together this guide on how to choose a chiller. We'll talk about the different types of chillers available, the different sizes, chiller maintenance and much more. By the time you're done reading here, you'll have all the basic knowledge you'll need to go out and shop for chillers with confidence.
When it comes to choosing chillers, there are many different categories that you might split different machines into. To help you find the best chiller for your intended application, it can be helpful to divide the options into these different categories and look at the merits of each different type of chiller. By doing this, you can see what one kind of chiller might offer you compared to what the alternative models might offer, and get a feel for which features are the most important to you and which ones aren't as crucial.
One of the several different ways you can break chillers into groups is by dividing them into portable or central chillers. Let's look at what these different types of models look like, and the various pros and cons of each.
As the name suggests, these machines are slightly smaller and can easily be moved from one location to another. They're not necessarily permanently installed in one spot, making it possible to uproot and re-install someplace else.
A portable chiller is often used to cool one specific machine, whereas a central chiller would be used to cool an entire building or whole production line. This means that a portable chiller is more practical in situations where you only have a few machines that need to be cooled, as you can purchase chillers for each machine individually, which is much less practical when you have many machines.
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However, keep in mind that while a central chiller can cool a whole floor, it can only do it at one temperature. A portable chiller, on the other hand, can cool each individual machine at an individualized and specific temperature. Also, if your machines require precise cooling, this is an application where portable coolers would be extremely useful.
A few of the other variables to consider when it comes to portable chillers include:
Unlike portable chillers, once central process cooling equipment is installed, it usually stays put. They might be installed in the equipment room, or even outside. They work to cool the entire floor or even the entire building. They work at one single temperature and work to bring their entire area of effect to the same level of coolness.
A central chiller is appropriate for situations where you have large numbers of machines that all need cooling. In instances where it would be impractical to buy individual chillers for every single machine, a central chiller can do the job for all of the machines at once. A central chiller is also most appropriate for situations where every machine needs to be cooled to the same temperature, or where precision and specificity of cooling is not extremely important.
A few of the other variables to consider when looking at central chillers are as follows.
One of the other major differences you'll notice between different types of chillers is that there are air-cooled chillers and water-cooled chillers. Both of these types of machines perform the same basic function and will have virtually the same effects. The difference between these two types of machines is the way in which they operate and the method they use to produce a cooling effect on your building and machines.
Because these two styles of machines operate by different methods, there are a few different pros and cons of each style to be aware of. To help you decide which one might be right for you, let's look at each type of machine separately.
A water-cooled chiller uses water to produce a cooling effect on your machinery. A few of the parts that work together to make this happen include the cooling towers, water pumps, chillers and the internal water reservoirs.
Because this system requires (additional) water for the cooling tower to operate, there are a variety of pros and cons to be aware of.
There are a lot of things that make water-cooled chillers great. Just a few of the highlights include:
Of course, nothing is without its drawbacks. When looking into water-based systems, you should be aware of:
Where water-based chillers rely on cooling towers to create their cooling effect, air-cooled chillers rely on ambient air currents. This means that these machines do not have the easily recognizable cooling towers that you will see with water-based systems, and they do not rely on water as a constant source to chill the surrounding spaces.
A few of the major advantages of using air-cooled chillers are:
As you consider buying an air-cooled chiller, be aware of the potential drawbacks that may exist, such as:
Another factor that you'll want to consider when it comes to choosing central or portable process cooling equipment is the tonnage. In other words, the total chiller capacity. Some chillers only have the capacity to cool very small spaces, while others have a much greater area of effect and are appropriate for cooling much larger spaces.
Chiller options based on load are as follows:
Two of the final variables that you'll want to be aware of when it comes to chiller evaluation are ease of maintenance and efficiency. While every machine and every brand will be slightly different and unique in this aspect, there are commonalities across the board that it's worth looking at.
Whether your chillers are serving office buildings, processing plants or someplace else altogether, you'll still need to perform maintenance on them. Ideally, you'll regularly perform preventative maintenance to prevent problems from occurring that will lead to the entire chiller shutting down. Accidents and mistakes happen, however, and you'll usually want to choose a chiller that will lead to the smallest amount of lost time, even if the chiller does need to be entirely shut off.
When it comes to the most energy efficient chillers, you may often find that water-cooled chillers are more efficient than air-cooled chillers. This has to do with the way these different machines condense at different temperatures. The lower the temperature a chiller condenses at, the more efficient it will usually be. Because of this, we can see why a water-cooled chiller, which condenses at a low temperature, would be the more energy efficient choice.
If you're making an active effort to keep energy usage down, or are trying to cut your energy bills, it might be worth looking into the options offered by water-cooled chillers. Remember, however, that these types of machines also consume more water and require more servicing. This makes it something of a trade-off. A water-cooled chiller will help you save energy, but it will have more maintenance cost. When performing your chiller calculations, decide which is more important to you and then move forward from there.
Looking to buy your first chiller? Looking to replace a chiller that's past its prime? We hope that you've been able to gain some helpful information here that can help you understand the wide variety of chillers available to choose from today. As you begin to shop different models and estimate chiller costs, we hope that you'll be able to better understand all the different factors and variables at play when it comes to choosing the chiller that will be best for you.
If you're looking for a process cooling manufacturer or seller to buy or rent from, then we hope you'll consider us here at Smart Family of Cooling Products. When you shop with us, buying isn't your only option. You can also join the large numbers of people who are increasingly choosing to rent their equipment. This is a fantastic option, especially if you only need the equipment for a short period of time. And because we sell equipment to many of the major rental equipment companies, we can help connect you with the right company to help. Portable chillers, in particular, are experiencing a sharp increase in rental usage. You might find that this is an option that works well for you too.
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