Carrier Water Chillers

[Latte]

Hi Guys,

i havn't really dealt with these in the past so if the following is a stupid question please bear with me.

I have been called out to two of these units in the past two days, the units are
1) Carrier 30GC 035 900EE
2) Carrier 30RA-080A0148-PEE

Now Unit (2) was tripping out due to the fact both filters on the inlet and outlet were completly clogged up with green ####.

My Question is :confused: Should these units have some kind of additive added to them to stop this gunk causing problems in the valves/filters and motors.
I am assuming they should have something like cars have anti-freeze with rust inhibitors in them but don't know. Also should these systems be flushed as a maintainence job or in therory are they just topped up each time you remove and clean the filters

Regards

Fatboy

[Brian_UK]

Most water systems should have some form of inhibitor added to prevent scaling, bio-growth and the like.

I would suggest that you arrange for a water treatment specialist to visit site to take water samples and prepare a report for you and your client.

From that you would be able to decide on the action to be taken; it may need a 'chemical clean' before flushing out the old cr*p and starting again with clean water plus water treatment.

The efficiency of the system should also improve with clean water....

[US Iceman]

Hi,

A couple of questions for you...

Is the green **** being found in the condenser water, or the chilled water loop?

Are there filters on each side of the heat exchanger (inlet and outlet)?

If there are filters/strainers on each side, it sounds like someone has been having a lot of problems before you got there.

If this is occurring on the condenser & cooling tower side you have at least two problems to attack. As mentioned by Brian_UK, the water loop will have to be chemically cleaned. The water boxes on the condenser may have to be taken off and have the tubes rodded or brushed out. Chemical cleaning will not open an obstructed condenser tube. No flow = no cleaning.

The second issue is the chemical analysis of the water. Several points to check: an existing chemical treatment system is not working, there is no chemical treatment system, or there is a source of nutrients getting into the water to sustain the growth of the biological material.

If this much material accumulated in a season, and has apparently been doing so for some time (hence my comment about the two filters/strainers), something really strange is going on.

If the green **** is inside of the chilled water loop it may be due to bacteria. I have ran into several cases where iron eating bacteria, or believe it not, glycol eating bacteria (best description I can provide) has been found. This stuff is usually very slimy, and nasty, and smelly.

Another thing to check is the water makeup valve on the chilled water loop. If the chilled water loop is leaking, the makeup water valve will be allowing a lot of water into the piping loop. All of the makeup water can contain a lot of free oxygen that may support growth, depending on what the **** is.

First course of action I would recommend is to call a GOOD water treatment person.

Hope this helps.

[Latte]

Hi US Iceman,

There are two filter located on the water loop.

The first one is just inside the unit which is a cone type on the inlet side and the second one is a large cylinder type just outside the unit on the discharge side.

I will need to find out how long ago they were last cleaned but from the state of them i would say the whole system is full of it.

If anyone knows what chemicals should be added can they let me know

Regards

Fatboy

[Brian_UK]

If anyone knows what chemicals should be added can they let me know Don't guess, get an expert in. The wrong chemicals can make things worse - the right ones can make your task easier :cool:

[wambat]

If the chilled water system contains mild steel, copper alloys, aluminum or galvanized steel and uses makeup water that contains minerals and microbes then water treatment is absolutely necessary if you want to protect your system for many years. Also, you need to constantly maintain the water treatment and monitor the results for corrosion, deposits and microbiological control to ensure that protection is continuing. Cleaning is necessary such as pulling the heads and punching the heat exchangers (condenser and chiller) with rotating brushes and water prior to initial water treatment. This might even mean an acid cleaning to ensure clean surfaces.The initial cleaning should be followed immediately by protection with an effective water treatment program that is maintained and monitored. So be smart and get a good water treatment man.

[hiitsme]

Hi
carrier recommends in their IOMs (Installation and Operation Manuals) this:
"The water supply must be analysed and appropriate filtering,
treatment, control devices, isolation and bleed valves and
circuits built in, to prevent corrosion, fouling and deterioration
of the pump fittings."

[botrous]

hiitsme , well yes , at the airport we had 4 carrier chiller of 1720 T each , there was a special company assigned to supervise and treat the chillers water and the cooling towers . . . as i remember also , we had sensor and automated pumps to pump certain ammount of chemical in water to preserve it's quality for the cooling tower . . .

[Walshyd]

As with any water system there has to be water treatment otherwise the system will scale up and coarse the inline filters to block and give you low flow problems. Even the shortest amount of time running on hard water can coarse allsorts of issue's and require's water treatment speacialist to carry out a detailed inspection of the system

[vamchemicals]

the slimy growth that is chocking your filters seems to be algae. Please get a physio chemical test report of your chiller water also plz get a count of the bacteria E-Coli in that test and then we can recommend a solution for you

[Gibbo]

Get a water treatment company in they will test the water and tell you what they need to do to put it right. Looks as if this has not been maintained properly