Recommendations For Chillers?

[islander]

hi to all,i would like to know ur opinions on which is the quietest chiller on the market.pls tell brand n product no.

thks to all reefers who PM me.

[clowntrigger]

as far as I know, Reef/Titanium relief is the quitest around among Teco, Haliea, Slifigoi, Ocean free, Resun and NSEW. This is my personal experience, thanks.

[SpiderOne]

i love your avatar man hahahaha. funky mice.

its also my experience after seeing many chillers that reef relief is the quietest around

[Coral_ClamS]

wat's the power comsumption of tecoRA 680.. izzit too much for a 3fter

how much is one unit and where selll the cheapest?

btw which one is more efficient and saves more on bills....no need to be quiet(either teco/reef relief titanium) comments and advice are free to suggest!

TIA

[hijackng]

tecoRA 680 is about 400+ watt

for up to 1200L

Price $2000+

Wat is the wattage for Reef/Titanium relief 1/2 hp?

[williammuk]

its also my experience after seeing many chillers that reef relief is the quietest around

I have both Reef Relief 1/2HP and Hailea 260 1/4HP. I feel that both noise levels are about the same.

Still, I would recommend Reef Relief simply because Dr Chill gives excellent service and it is "Made In Singapore".

[clowntrigger]

Hi Williammuk

for comparison, you will need to compare it 1/2hp to 1/2hp. The reason why I say that is I have a chance to compare a same brand of chiller but with different h/p. The 1/4hp ones was very quite indeed, but when the 1/2hp turn on, immediately you can hear the difference, the 1/2 hp was like roaring. This is what I gather from my experiences in that brand of chiller, just my thought.

[alvy]

hehe..would you guys believe my huge aircon compressor chiller is virtual silent too??

[Achilles Tang]

My fridge compressor is louder than my Titanium chiller.

I have not compared my aircon compressor noise levels with my fridge and chiller though...

[vagabond]

Can anyone explain to me, why is an additional pump needed to connet to the chiller before going into main tank instead of the using the huge sump pump directing water into chiller and out straight into the main tank?

Please explain.

[CalciumReef]

A chiller should have a seperate pump due to the following reasons:

Fellow reefers correct me if i'm wrong...

1)main return pump flowrate could be quite high

2)should the main pump break down what will happen to your chiller?

hope this helps

[Clownfish]

Can anyone explain to me, why is an additional pump needed to connet to the chiller before going into main tank instead of the using the huge sump pump directing water into chiller and out straight into the main tank?

Please explain.

flowrate into the chiller shldnt be too fast, so that there is betta heat exchange... hence when u were to pump back water using this as a main pump, u wld find that it is not efficient enough for ur overall filtration system....

[vagabond]

So I see, thanx. But, from chiller do I pump it back to the sump or return direct to main tank? Which is a preferred practise?

Cheers.

[alvy]

flowrate into the chiller shldnt be too fast, so that there is betta heat exchange... hence when u were to pump back water using this as a main pump, u wld find that it is not efficient enough for ur overall filtration system....

actually, it should be fast. Let's not talk about heat transfer from the chiller coil to the water with regards to flow rate (thermo dynamics and therma heat transfer theory again), but it makes sense to move more water through the chiller so that warm water from the tank can be replaced with chilled water fast! Something like the logic behind flowrate through a sump or a skimmer. Imagine u run a 600lph pump through the chiller to chill a 600L tank (ard 4-5ft), theoretically u need one hour to completely pump all the tank water through the chiller. depending on how many deg the chiller manages to pull the temp down per pass, by the time it tries to do a 2nd pass, temp of the water has already increased! So the chiller will take a very long time to cool the tank! If you check online for flowrates recommendation for commercial ti coil units for chiller, you need a 1500gph (5000-6000+lph) pump to be efficient on a 1HP Ti coil!! Of coz the design of heat exchanger coil can vary, resulting in various flowrate recommendations!

[Achilles Tang]

Interesting topic! I always wanted to ask about this!

Logically, by the same deduction, water flowing too fast thru a chiller... does this mean that less cooling effect is passed on to the water as it kinda passes throught the coil too quickly ie. before it even has the chance to chill down, it is already out of the chamber?

I didn't study physics/mechanics, so perhaps someone can enlighten me? Haha!!

[clowntrigger]

Interesting topic! I always wanted to ask about this!

Logically, by the same deduction, water flowing too fast thru a chiller... does this mean that less cooling effect is passed on to the water as it kinda passes throught the coil too quickly ie. before it even has the chance to chill down, it is already out of the chamber?

I didn't study physics/mechanics, so perhaps someone can enlighten me? Haha!!

Indeed this is true for me. I have tried various flowrate through my chiller and I find that if I allow a bigger flowrate through the chiller, the time to cool down take longer for the same delta set. I am puzzle now.......

For your information, I used a Sicce Extrema which able me to switch the various flowrate, also tried eheim 1250 and some China brand power head. Conclusion, higher flowrate tend to take longer time... my 2 cents.

[Achilles Tang]

Hey... check this out! I got it off a Yahoo search!

--------------

Poor operating practices

Poor operating practices not only can decrease chiller efficiency, but also chiller life. Most such practices are the result of one of two situations: trying to get a chiller to do something that it was not designed to do or not understanding the consequences of a particular action.

For example, one common practice when trying to provide more cooling water to a facility is to increase the rate of chilled water flow through the chiller. The belief is that with a higher flow rate, more cooling water will be available.

In reality, however, increasing the flow rate through a chiller beyond the manufacturer’s recommendation actually reduces the operating efficiency of the chiller. Equally important, flow rates higher than those recommended increase the rate of erosion in the chiller’s tubes, leading to early tube failure.

The problem with poor operating practices is that their impact on chiller operation generally goes unnoticed. Chillers continue to operate, meeting various building loads under a range of conditions. Soon, however, poor operating practices become accepted as standard operating procedure, and one day, a problem in the chiller’s operation might become obvious, or the chiller might not be able to satisfy a cooling load that previously had never been a problem. When that occurs, technicians often blame the weather or the chiller itself; not the way the chiller is being operated and maintained.

Making certain that poor operating practices do not become standard operating procedure requires training personnel in both maintenance and operating practices. Proper training helps operating and maintenance personnel set up and operate chillers in an efficient manner.

It also allows maintenance personnel to develop an ongoing chiller maintenance program to ensure long and efficient equipment life. It allows maintenance personnel to recognize and correct problems early before they develop into more extensive and costly ones. Finally, training helps operating and maintenance personnel identify poor operating practices before they become accepted as standard operating procedure.

[Achilles Tang]

Dr Chill (Reef Relief/Titanium Chillers) also told me before that he has designed his chillers to reduce the amount of turbulence inside the cooling coils and having too high a water flow isn't too good.

Perhaps he can help enlighten us? I'd drop him a PM!

[Clownfish]

So I see, thanx. But, from chiller do I pump it back to the sump or return direct to main tank? Which is a preferred practise?

Cheers.

let's not worry bout whether high rate or low rate is betta first ( cos from AT, we need PROPER TRAINING )

i assume u r using OF where ur main tank is placed higher then sump.... u can pump direct back into the main tank but it is however not recommended to use that as a main pump.... u will find that in this way, u need a really long pipe to achieve this, which is not nice in terms of outlook...

ur sump shld be designed in a way that water comes into the first column then eventually there's this overflow into a last cloumn where ur pump will pump back water... ur inlet pump to the chiller shld be in the first column n then the outlet hose directed to the last column...

main objective is not to create a 'short-circuit' where u chill the already chilled water...

[vagabond]

Chim...

Any sketch to illustrate?

[Clownfish]

Idea is not to let the water from outlet pipe from the chiller to be pump back into the chilller again (short-circuiting)

[vagabond]

OIC!

Thanks.

[heckers]

Idea is not to let the water from outlet pipe from the chiller to be pump back into the chilller again (short-circuiting)

Clownfish,

i am currently usin' the method tat u hv illustrated 4 the pazz 1yr but it worriez me everytime. let me explain.

it make sense tat u draw in the water frm the down stream sump where it iz believed 2b the warmest & draw out in2 the return sump az tatz where u need the coolest water so tat the main getz 2 enjoy the low temp.

but hv u ever consider wat happenz if ur main return pump iz faulty???

den u will just b chillin' ur sump which ur main will not get the effect of ur chiller. oso by drawin' water frm the sump & return chilled water to the main oso actz az a backup in cause ur main return pump turn faulty.

make sense??? my 2cent

[XPeriment 626]

actually you are right, and i think there are many reefers doing that method, and i am switching to it too. The idea is that if your return from the chiller goes direct to the tank, it has 3 benefits:

1) chilled water goes directly to main tank, making cooling more efficient

2) acts as extra pump to increase the rate which water is cycled through the entire tank and sump setup

3) in case of main return pump failure, acts as a backup to keep some kind of flow going, though much weaker. still better than nothing.

as to earlier comments by clowntrigger about how increasing flowrate makes it slower to cool down his tank, it is not strange at all. it makes perfect sense that this should happen. for heat exchange, the rate at which heat is transferred from a warm object to a cooler object is related to the difference in temperature between the two. i.e. if you put a warm cup into cool water, the water will slowly rise in temperature and the cup will slowly cool down. But if you put a boiling hot cup into freezing cold water, the temperature of the water will rise much faster and the temperature of the cup will drop much faster.

because of this, if you have a slower rate of flow, your chiller return water is coming out much colder into your tank and the heat from the warmer water is being absorbed into this chilled water at a much higher rate than if your chiller return water is not so cold.

similarly, the warmer the water going into the chiller, the faster the rate at which the heat from the water is removed by the chiller. thus, if fairly warm water is constantly going into the chiller, the cooling effect is more efficient than if colder water is going in. if your flow rate is higher, it increases the chance that already-cooled water in your main tank finds its way back out of your tank into your chiller, and then you get inefficient chilling.

hope you guys arent too confused... cos i am almost confused myself!!