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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    AquaEdge® 19XR/XRV/XRE Water-Cooled Centrifugal Chiller $250,000 Failure



    Impeller 1 a.jpgImpeller.jpg
    Hi Folks,
    It has been a while since I have required your assistance.
    We were monitoring the above compressor when it catastrophically failed at 13 months from new.(No Warrantee)
    Disappointingly all we are getting from the service agent is "Oh that is tough, we have the parts in stock.
    Prior to failure from commissioning we were noting a few to light amount of fine bronze and silver coloured metallic abrasive wear particles being defoliated in the oil samples. This wear debris was all too large for spectrographic analysis to detect and the compressors 5 µm oil filter and the high flow of lubricant was maintaining the particle count around the ISO 15/12 to 16/12 which is reasonable and this combined with a $10K oil and refrigerant change or a $1500 filter change there was not enough evidence to justify the expense of an oil or filter change.
    We have root caused the failure mode and it appears poor quality servicing and design is the cause and we are wondering if there is a history of these compressors being damaged in this manner and if so maybe we could gather just how many have failed as this is the second failure on this site, previous was 10 years before and we were not privy to obtaining that failures damaged components as we have in this instance.
    If none of you are aware of any other failures in the AquaEdge® 19XR/XRV/XRE Water-Cooled Centrifugal Chiller Compressors that’s OK we will handle this here but if there are other failures we would like to be aware of them.
    and if so we can provide the information to root cause those failures to ascertain if the failure mode is the same. The failure in this instance was the impeller moved forward and down and fouled the shroud.
    Thanks for taking the time to read this.
    Regards Rob S



  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
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    australia
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    Re: AquaEdge® 19XR/XRV/XRE Water-Cooled Centrifugal Chiller $250,000 Failure

    Rob,
    I know nothing about these units but,

    Would expect warranty was 12 months, so 13 months you would still have a claim on an item this expensive as long as it was serviced according to manufacturers recommendations.

    Also you were taking oil samples & found debris in oil, did you let supplier know, did they recommend change oil &/or filter.
    If you did not do as recommended, then that would be a problem for you.
    Anything in the oil on a system like this would be a major red flag.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Australia
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    73
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    Re: AquaEdge® 19XR/XRV/XRE Water-Cooled Centrifugal Chiller $250,000 Failure

    Thanks for the reply Ranger 1
    The supplier not cooperative, we have been requesting a parts list for 10 years on the previous compressor to check what was bronze in the compressor, reply no bronze and at failure we find the cylindrical roller bearings have bronze cages, I'll put the failure reports up once I remove the customer details to display the failure.
    The 30,000 rpm impeller shaft centrifuges any insolubles in the lubricant more denser than the oil into the outer rings of the bearing tracks and holds the dirt there.
    Once contaminated very difficult to remove from the compressor by oil change, $10,000 per oil change so you can't just oil change all the time either,
    Thanks and Regards
    Rob S

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    Somerset
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    Re: AquaEdge® 19XR/XRV/XRE Water-Cooled Centrifugal Chiller $250,000 Failure

    Just to verify it was I who sent you the manual Rob.
    Personally I would be keen to question your oil Change charges.
    Is that a normal charge for a Centrif Oil Change?
    Seems a bit extreme to me?
    Was is done as a result of oil analysis?
    Grizzly
    Despite the High Cost of Living it still remains Popular!

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