Common Glycol Chiller Customization

There are many types of chillers out there for a wide variety of applications. Our specialty is a packaged glycol chiller which would include the refrigeration condenser, compressor, glycol reservoir, process pump, and evaporator. Whenever possible, purchasing a packaged glycol chiller is going to be the simplest and most economical solution for your glycol chilling needs. However, many applications require customizations for a variety of reasons. Let’s take a look at the most common types of custom air-cooled chillers your project could require.

Remote Air Cooled Condenser

Foot print availability is a common obstacle we face when selecting the chiller location. All we require is that our chillers sit level and that it has proper air clearances. What if your facility is downtown Chicago with no space outside for the mechanical pad? Well, looks like this chiller is going on the roof. What if the roof can’t support the weight of a 5,000 lb. chiller? 70% of the time our solution here is a remote condenser option. This standard modification involves removing the air-cooled portion of the chiller (condenser). A separate housing is built and the condenser is placed outside on the ground or up on the roof. The remainder of the chiller is placed inside, usually in a mechanical room area. Depending on the chiller, this option could take the rooftop operating weight from 5000 lbs. down to 250 lbs. Refrigeration lines need to be run from the air-cooled condenser to the chiller inside.

Remote pump and Reservoir stand

If the vertical distance from the chiller inside to the remote air-cooled condenser exceeds the parameters of the equipment, we would likely recommend and alternate option. This leads us to the next custom chiller option: Remote pump and reservoir stand. Removing the reservoir, process pump, recirculation pump and associated components from the package chiller and building a base skid for them to be placed inside your facility. This will typically cut the weight of the rest of the chiller in half, making it feasible for the rooftop placement. Interconnecting glycol piping is required. This option is typically more costly than the remote condenser option but, it certainly has its place as a solution should your project require it.

Onsite Total Glycol System Build out

For years and years if you were in need of a glycol system, the solution was to build it up from the ground onsite. When done correctly, you are effectively building a packaged chiller (sometimes spread out and sitting on pallets but, packaged. sort of). Quite frankly this approach is why G&D Chillers exists. Our founder Dan Smith saw the void in manufacturers of high quality packaged glycol chillers targeted at his industries of expertise, Beer & Wine.

It is still common practice to this day to build out the chilling system in parts depending on the application. It is usually on larger systems. A design build project we are currently working on involves providing 100 tons of refrigeration. We are putting an air-cooled condenser on the roof. Below it in the allotted space for the chiller and reservoir we are going to build a custom skid for the chiller, small enough to fit through a double man door. Custom building this unit in our facility enables us to put the system through our run testing station making sure the perfection we require is in place prior to custom fitting this split system onsite. This is a huge, stream lined, factory built advantage over the standard onsite build up we compete against regularly.

Other Customizations

We once built a custom chiller in pieces small enough for an elevator so we could take it to the top of a hotel and put it together. The alternative was a helicopter air crane which the client was not budgeted for. We are working on several larger build out projects as I type where we must provide precise pressures to the process with custom pumps, where we have limited footprint and where we are using cooling towers in place of air-cooled condensers. Our most common selling chiller is our GD-7x7H. We actually have a design that we have built many times that is 2.5’ tall to accommodate city and county roof top height restriction codes. All of our standard line chillers are built in mirror configuration if needed. We re-locate glycol connection points regularly. We also move our electrical panel if needed.

While buying a packaged chiller is the most cost effective and easiest solution to your cooling needs, things just aren’t always that easy! Where there is a will there is a way.