Dangers of Freezing! - a precautionary note!

The UK is seeing some exceptionally low ambient temperatures and the forecast is suggesting that these conditions may prevail for some time yet.

Chillers, air blast coolers, free coolers and cooling towers are all extremely susceptible to damage caused by freezing.

Some protection is assured when the cooling systems they are connected to are operational, but when shut down, for example over the Christmas period, they are exposed to the elements and are at severe risk.

Now is the time to check glycol concentrations in those applications where a glycol solution is already in use as the cooling medium. If glycol isn’t being used but could be, the advice is to add it to the recommended level of concentration.

Where glycol is not an option, the advice is to completely drain down the chiller, and cooling tower using the drain points, but it can be difficult and in most cases, is impossible to completely drain an air blast or free cooler, and the coil within a closed circuit tower. These should be operating with a glycol solution anyway.

So far as chillers go, drained down or not, if they are shut down operationally, the electrical supply should be left on to permit continued operation of any trace heating which might be installed and the compressor oil heaters.

Damage caused by freezing to such equipment is extremely expensive to repair and is unlikely to be covered under any warranty agreement which might be in place.

For any particular advice or assistance, please call freephone 0800 731 5466
or email website@coolmation.co.uk

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