McQuay oilless magnetic bearing centrifugal?

[Randy S.]

Anyone have any comments on McQ oiless centrifugals with magnetic bearings?

I hadn't heard of such a thing, and now an energy consultant is trying hard to sell us on one. My comments have so far been to stay away from these snake oil concepts and stay with a normal machine.

[clarryd]

Im not sure if your referring to TUROBCOR or not but my company has just become reps for them and and is getting trained on them as we speak by the looks of it, its going to be an amazing improvement over standard semi and hermetic compressors by the sales pitch it almost cant fail and it seems bulletproof but thats the sales pitch we will see how it fails in the marketplace.

[flange]

i have witnessed one going in and now running for about eight months. this particular machine is 175 tons. two compressors and it replaced an old screw. you literally can hear the refrigerant running through the discharge line and about nothing else. the machine runs really well, pulls down great, is very stingy when it comes to energy consumption, and the customer at this time absolutely loves it to death. I have also seen the internals of the machine via a cutaway model, the one thing that i dont particularly care for is the inlet guidevanes are made of some sort of plastic. the demo model once turned on has no resistance whatsoever due to floating between the bearings, and you can spin the shaft very easily with two fingers. Also there is no oil to speak of so it eliminates any oil related issues, especially those found on some model screws.

[freonrick]

I have not seen one yet. but I like equipment that breaks down once in a while so I can work on them.

[drivewizard]

Originally posted by freonrick
I have not seen one yet. but I like equipment that breaks down once in a while so I can work on them.

If the rumors are true, you should like these. I heard they have had about a 50% failure rate. Not sure as to why, but I think it would be pretty tricky to keep those magnetic bearings centered.

[refrtech]

Originally posted by drivewizard

Originally posted by freonrick
I have not seen one yet. but I like equipment that breaks down once in a while so I can work on them.

If the rumors are true, you should like these. I heard they have had about a 50% failure rate. Not sure as to why, but I think it would be pretty tricky to keep those magnetic bearings centered.

They had a problem with condensation dripping into the electronics and smoking them. That problem has since been corrected. Literally you have to feel the chiller just to make sure it is running . They are that quiet, and super efficient.They only go up to 175 tons so they are not for everyone. I can see them catching on and doing well.

[turbovac]

the co i work for has been awarded the state contract for
turbocor & have installed some of the origonal chillers &
retrofitted the compressors to existing hp units with great
results. the energy savings are very good which ofsets the
price. i think this is the future.

[joey791]

I heard through the rumor mill that Trane also have some already installed and running too, if the transition can be made to blower motors think of the possiblity of energy savings(heard that is being worked on now too)

[freonrick]

http://www.kingsbury.com/magnetic_bearings.shtml
check out the web site I listed above on magnetic bearings.

[d raler]

Great concept, just not there yet! A couple more years and it probably will be. It's not the bearings that are the problem, the electronics tend to overheat and fail. Of the hundreds of these i've seen on non McQuay equipment most need a babysitter to take care of them.

[islandcool]

In our territory you won't get the chance to touch a Turbocor unless you work for Trane or McQuay or get invited to a one day Trane sales seminar so you can go and promote the Turbocor and have Trane grab another customer.

[jd 07]

I have had the unfortunate experience of working on quite a few of these and the 50% failure rate is almost right.It is closer to 75% They have problems with leaks and exploding electronics, but when they run properly they are very quite.I think a few years down the road they will have the bugs worked out.

[absrbrtek]

http://www.turbocor.com/ Looks like Danfoss has bought them up since the last time I looked at their site. I wouldnt expect anything great if Danfoss owns them.