10HP Glycol Chiller question

[Cobra_Brewing]

Hello All,

We just upgraded our system. We have 2-20BBL FVT, 4-10BBL FVT, 1-10BBL BBT, 1-20BBL BBT, 1-5BBL BBT and 1-30BBL CLT. Knock out is via CLT and we have 2- 10HP Glycol chillers with a 20BBL Glycol reserve tank. One of the Chillers is down so we only have 1-10HP chiller cooling the Glycol reserve.

The Question is, Will the one 10HP chiller be adequate enough for the system? I have looked around for the answer here in the forums and while I found no exact answer, I found enough to think it will be, but wanted to get a second opinion on the matter. We have yet to brew on the system as we just fired up everything today for the first time. I know some will say just have your seller fix it; however we are up the creek without a paddle on that one as the whole install has been a complete nightmare. They didn't even stay to finish the installation and I pretty much had to figure out everything myself so far. I am sure we will get it fixed at some point but hoping that it will not stop us from starting up production until it can be.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jebzter]

I run 4-10bbl fv, 4-20bbl fv, 2-10bbl brite, 2-20bbl brite and my cold room off of a single 5 ton unit. Tons cooling to HP cooling makes it a 23HP unit, so your single 5 hp wont quite be up to the task I think. At least not for all of the tanks, you can probably limp by on a few tanks. You have a huge glycol reservoir, so your capacity to cool will be limited on how much cooling you store up, and how much you need at any one time. If you do not use all of the heat capacity in your reservoir faster than the chiller can replace it, you shouldn't have a problem.

[Cobra_Brewing]

I run 4-10bbl fv, 4-20bbl fv, 2-10bbl brite, 2-20bbl brite and my cold room off of a single 5 ton unit. Tons cooling to HP cooling makes it a 23HP unit, so your single 5 hp wont quite be up to the task I think. At least not for all of the tanks, you can probably limp by on a few tanks. You have a huge glycol reservoir, so your capacity to cool will be limited on how much cooling you store up, and how much you need at any one time. If you do not use all of the heat capacity in your reservoir faster than the chiller can replace it, you shouldn't have a problem.

each of our chillers are 10HP. so combine we would have 20HP.

[Todd Hicks]

Smells like one of those "American-made" "turn key" systems from China.

The equipment overall is generally sturdy, but those modular glycol packs have trouble surviving shipping. An HVAC tech should be able to fix it. I have seen the internal heat exchanger develop cracks in the copper pipe braised into it. He will have to check the charge and sniff for cracks.

Those massively oversized glycol reservoirs are a ridiculous waste of space.

[lhall]

Your biggest loads will be, in order:

1. Cooling down your CLT water
2. Crashing beer down to packaging temp
3. Maintaining fermenter temperature during primary fermentation

So it's not necessarily about how many fermenters you have, but more about how much you are brewing and packaging. If you are just starting out, that probably won't be as often as it will be once you get into full production. So you probably have time to work with just the one 10 hp chiller while you are getting the other one fixed. Just my opinion,

[Cobra_Brewing]

Smells like one of those "American-made" "turn key" systems from China.

oh, you have been swindled also. Wouldn't happen to of been an Irish themed company out of the northeast would it?

We fired up both glycol units, both were running fine, got the glycol down to the mid 30's and the one just shut down with a Phase AL alarm. Other is working just fine for two days now without a hiccup so far and has the Glycol reserve down to 28F and holding steady.

[Cobra_Brewing]

So it's not necessarily about how many fermenters you have, but more about how much you are brewing and packaging. If you are just starting out, that probably won't be as often as it will be once you get into full production. So you probably have time to work with just the one 10 hp chiller while you are getting the other one fixed. Just my opinion,

We have been operating for just under 3 years now and have had about a 2 month down time and money not coming in is really killing us so we are looking to get in to full swing production again. we can probably hold off on making 20BBL batch's for the time being while we get the hang of things. and hopefully get that glycol chiller back online. So essentially it will be full production on the 4-10BBL FVT, 1-10BBl BBT and the 30BBL CLT. that seems to be about half capacity so in essence the one chiller should do it for now

[Cobra_Brewing]

turns out that the disconnect fuses blew do to a faulty solenoid valve. Don't know how a solenoid in a brand new unit can go in a few hours but it did. I will tell you the cotter pin looked like it had been in a war so most likely the solenoid was not sitting correctly and it burned itself out.

[Todd Hicks]

oh, you have been swindled also. Wouldn't happen to of been an Irish themed company out of the northeast would it?

I would not say swindled, but there are many bugs to work out before it purrs like a Siamese kitty.

We fired up both glycol units, both were running fine, got the glycol down to the mid 30's and the one just shut down with a Phase AL alarm. Other is working just fine for two days now without a hiccup so far and has the Glycol reserve down to 28F and holding steady.

Phase AL would maybe mean that one of your phases is reversed and the unit is running backwards. Switch any of two load wires going into that unit and see if that fixes it. Can you test the flow direction of the pump on that one?

[Todd Hicks]

Saw the new post. If one or two of the fuses blew, that would throw the unit into phase protection.