NEED INFO

Flame-Tail · October 25, 2005

Hi all. Just wanna check if the reccomended flowrate of a chiller is an important factor for the chiller to function to its maximum capability.

For example if the flow rate is 1800l/hr and I use a pump that is 1000l/hr , wil it make a difference in the cooling of the water.

Or if the flow rate is 1800l/hr and I use a pump that is 2500l/hr ???

Please share your views so that many can benifit from it. :thanks: :peace:

dominik · October 25, 2005

i think some thread discuss about this before. The flowrate will determine the contact time the chiller have with the water. High flowrate means less contact time and vice versa.

Flame-Tail · October 25, 2005

i think some thread discuss about this before. The flowrate will determine the contact time the chiller have with the water. High flowrate means less contact time and vice versa.

So does it mean that with high flowrate, the chiller will not chill the water enough??

But quicker the flowrate the faster it should cool right?? :unsure:

mUAr_cHEe · October 26, 2005

whats the difference between high flow rate and quick flow rate?

isn't it the same?

if you talking about speed of water vs volume of water...

all i can say... volume is pretty much fixed as u can not adjust the size of your piping in the chiller mah......

southpaw23 · October 26, 2005

Will attempt to explain this in a meaningful and understandable way...

Firstly, chillers have recommended min flow rate and max flow rate usually. The reason for this is that if the pump goes beyond the max flow rate, there would not be enough contact time to cool the water thus reducing the efficiency of the chiller. Seeing that water has to pass through a cooled copper or titanium coil, there has to be enough time spent through the length of the coil for the water to cool down....if the pump is over the recommended rate, the water will barely cool down when passing through the chiller just due to the fact that it wasn't given enough time to dissipate it's heat.

On the other hand, there is a minimum flow rate with some chillers as well. I'm not a 100% certain on the reasonining for this but i believe it revolves around the fact that if the water flow is too slow, the chiller could be producing more cooling capacity than the water passing through it can absorb....thus causing freezing of the coils etc...i think.

As for the overall chilling time it takes to cool down a tank..if you were to compare running a chiller on a min flow rate pump and a max flow rate pump, well, the one running on or close to the max flow rate will end up chilling the tank faster just simply due to the higher turnover of water being cooled.

So bottom line, it's always better to run a chiller on a higher flowrate pump but not overly exceeding the chillers recommended max flow rate. Also remember that although the flow rate of a chiller may state 1000lph for example, using a 2000lph pump may well work seeing the possible headloss it may encounter on the way to the chiller and also while going through the chiller. So in essense a 2000lph pump may well only produce around 1000lph of flow after minusing the headloss from the journey to the chiller and also the headloss obtained from water running through the chiller coils.

Hope i make sense....

cheers....

Flame-Tail · October 26, 2005

Hope i make sense....

cheers....

That made lots of sense bro. :thanks:

southpaw23 · October 27, 2005

Glad to hear it....

BFG · October 27, 2005

Can a chiller really freeze up? Imagine this scenario-I am using less than the min flow for a chiller but I set it at 25 degree. That's not even close to 4 degrees where water start to freeze. Is it over rated? This been bugging me.

mUAr_cHEe · October 28, 2005

as in the pipings freeze up....

not water.....

the pipings will be significantly much much colder compared to the water chilled.... make sense?

BFG · October 28, 2005

I don't think that will happen. It might be a myth. When we set a temperature to the chiller, the chiller will be activated if the set temperature increase by a few degrees and the chiller will de-activate as soon as it gets to it's preset temperature. It won't 'freeze' up as the temperature won't go below the preset temperature. Muar Chee, the piping will be significantly colder that I agree but it won't freeze as the temperature may be ard 1-2 degree cooler. That is still way beyond freezing level.

mUAr_cHEe · October 28, 2005

alright...

then again.... i was nv an expert in hardware and stuff..... just contributed my 2 cents... which apparently... quite worthless.....

i am also not an expert in marine...

to be honest.... i still dun know most fishes scientific name.... i do not know what is millipora or staghorn..... i only know pink colour sps, brown colour sps, blue colour sps......

i know that as long as i like it... i get it..... i put it in my tank.... i enjoy it.... :peace:

oh.... and i like woonming too..... and boy..... do i enjoy.... :fear: