How often are you pulling evaporator heads on your Centrifugals??? (York YK's here)

[leander311]

Happy "Friday Eve" e'rrrbody!

So, I've noticed lately at my current employer, we're falling further behind on our chiller annuals, and as a result being forced to run inefficient machines as these spring cooling loads pick up...

Annuals here consist of pulling both condenser and evaporator heads, brushing all tubes, borescope inspection of a few on each side, etc. Both sides are typically spotless. We have very clean chilled water on the evaporator side, with an abundance of side-stream filtration and impeccable water treatment. All chillers are either York YK or OM Titans.

At my previous employer, we had the same fantastic water treatment, York YK's, and only pulled evaporator heads to brush/scope tubes every 3-5 years, also finding them to be pristine... and this despite having no side-stream CHW filtration there.

I'm thinking of suggesting we move to a similar strategy at my current employer, with the obvious benefit of getting through annuals more quickly, and I'm curious what some of you guys have experienced with your annuals...

Thanks!

[WYLBEK]

Once every 3-5 years when we do eddy current test.

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[Chev5372]

5-6 years depending on owners insurance underwriters, due eddy current at that time on both heat exchangers.


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[daved222269]

Generally every five years

[Healey Nut]

Depends on how much money the customer wants to spend .

[CHILLERSVCMAN]

Eddy Current is very important .

[Nuclrchiller]

Assuming it's a closed chilled water system, I would follow York's recommendation on eddy current frequency and only pull the evaporator heads then. Unless I suspected problems, of course.

[Answer-Man]

We recomment clean and eddy current on a 5 year cycle with good water qaulity.

Question/comment. Your thought could be a two edged sword. If you are doing this for a customer your boss may not want to recommend this and give up that annual income. If this is for chillers your company owns there are no drawback just less maintenance cost. For the most part I base any extra cleaning recomendation on chiller performance, pressure, temps, amps, load changes, unexplained loss of refrigerant...... otherwise every 5 years

[AdrianOmarPerez]

Some people do ECT every 3 years for CDW and every 6 for CHW. Some do 2 and 4. Some do 3 and 5.

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[ChillerTech3384]

Condenser, Brush tubes annually and eddy current every 2-3 years
Evaporator, Brush tubes and eddy current every 5 years.
Once heavy wear or a problem is identified, eddy current is recommended every year

[JCN]

Condenser, Brush tubes annually and eddy current every 2-3 years
Evaporator, Brush tubes and eddy current every 5 years.
Once heavy wear or a problem is identified, eddy current is recommended every year

Very good advice here.

[71CHOPS]

depends on water quality. we have 2 sites with horribly dirty chilled water loops...neither will spend the money on filtration. One site we had to brush the evaporator twice in a year, the other, we had to do last spring, and I'm going tomorrow to do it again.

If you have good quality treatment and clean loops, what they said....

[leander311]

Thanks everyone. Very good insight. We're almost to that time of year again, so hopefully, with all your input, this will get some traction.

[wacko]

Every 3 years. Customers with multiple machines we only do 1/3 of the machines at a time. One of my jobs has 6 chillers so we do 2 each year.

[Bklyntek]

You may need to confer with the boss, if the customers are paying for this every year. It is additional charge and there fore income for tour company.
2nd: your customer Base will notice the lack of attention. Which could him to question the contract structure and cost.
This can open the door for a competitor to walk in.

[Bklyntek]

Hi guys, in our office in Miami, we would alternate removing heads during the annual inspections and tube brushing. Giving us an opportunity to install fresh gaskets and exercise all nuts and bolts. The evap was usually done on a 2-3 year basis in same manner. forgive the spell check errors above

[pecmsg]

Last facility I was at had 4 Carriers. No ECT since install, 10 years. Did 1 every year each year until I left 3 years ago. Oil analyses on all every year!

It's more about a base line and history to see problems Before they arise!