Glycol

[Fred Scheer]

HI All:


We have in the Glycol tank 60% Glycol and 40% Water,
and our Glycol mixture runs at ~ 30*F.
Now, I want to get the Glycol mixture to 28*F, do I have to ad
more Glycol?

Cheers

F

[beertje46]

HI All:


We have in the Glycol tank 60% Glycol and 40% Water,
and our Glycol mixture runs at ~ 30*F.
Now, I want to get the Glycol mixture to 28*F, do I have to ad
more Glycol?

Cheers

F

Fred,
I assume your talking % volume. You are already off the chart: greater than -31 degree F or -35 C protection. Check the *Brix, 26.9 *Brix will have a freeze point .8* F. which is 35.4% by volume Glycol.

Read this.

[GlacierBrewing]

Either add more glycol or remove the water. The helpful folks at prorefrigeration.com can help you determine exactly what you need to do.

Prost!
Dave

[beertje46]

Either add more glycol or remove the water. The helpful folks at prorefrigeration.com can help you determine exactly what you need to do.

Prost!
Dave

He already has WAY too much glycol for proper heat transfer. The numbers I quoted and the link are to the ProBrewer refrigeration article posted by ProRefridgeration, my chiller supplier BTW.

[jimvgjr]

We have a chart located on our website with a degree brix conversion. Please let me know if you have any other questions or need anything further. http://prochiller.com/reGlycolChart.html

We suggest the glycol freeze point to be 20 to 25 F below your chiller system setpoint temperature- so a 27 F setpoint, would require a freeze point in the +2 to +7 Range- or between 26.9 and 23.6 brix.

We do have customers that operate at a higher concentration, but only if the chiller system is located outside and exposed to extreme cold ambients- in these cases you need the freeze point below the lowest ambient temperatures.

Good Luck,

Jim

[Fred Scheer]

Glycol

Thanks Jim for your quick reply, here on the forum
and private message.


HI All:

That's service......................
After 10 minutes I had a response from Jim on the subject.

Also, thanks to other responses.

Cheers

F

[Sulfur]

0% glycol?

On a similar note, does anyone know of any drawbacks to running my cooling system with "ice water" that is, I have a reservoir of chilled water with 0% glycol. The temp is just above 0 C. I could add glycol to the reservoir and bring the temp below 0 C. One benefit that I see is in case of a leak, it would only be ice water leaking. Does this however put excessive load on the chiller? I get the cooling I need now - down to about 2 deg C...

[jimvgjr]

keep in mind the refrigerant temperature has to lower than your chilled water temperature in order to exchange heat. Our systems have heat exchangers where we will counterflow refrigerant at approx 17 F to chill the glycol water solution to 27 F. Without glycol we would freeze up this heat exchanger, and risk damaging the heat exchanger.

I assume on your system that operates without glycol you have a submerged coil in your chilled water bath, this style has a low risk of of freezing but is not very efficient.

Hope this helps,

Jim

[Sulfur]

Thanks Jim. The heat exchanger is in the reservoir. There is a sensor connected to the compressor that is signaled via ice thickness. The plates always have ice around them, once the ice gets too thick the compressor will turn off. There is an additional "blower" that stirs up the water to promote heat transfer from the liquid water to the ice on the plates.

The system specs recommend maximum glycol at 10%. Again, I'm wondering if there are any drawbacks besides limited cooling when running with 0% glycol.

[jimvgjr]

Hi Sulfur,

My experience with icebuilders is very limited, I'd suggest contacting the manufacture with your questions.

Sorry I couldn't be more help, good luck,

Jim

[Moonlight]

I used an ice builder with no glycol years ago. It was amazingly efficient when you consider the entire thermal load for cooling of the wort can be spread over a day or two, as long as you have this much time between brews. Therefore you can run a much smaller compressor efficiently with no starting or stopping until you have accumulated sufficient ice to accomplish the cooling. Wort cooling is exactly the type of load that ice builders are best suited for.

It is not the temp of the coolant so much as the "heat of fusion" or the energy for the water to turn into ice that when melting, cools the wort.

Jim, help me on this, but I would expect that in Puerto Rico it would be less a concern to get the ice water colder than 0 C compared to say Montana where the differential temp between ambient cooling air for the condenser and the ice water would often be too small for efficient heat transfer.
I most heartily agree to check with the equipment manufacturer.