Keep Your Brewery Running Smoothly: Essential Chiller Maintenance Tips

For any brewery, making great beer is the top priority—but ensuring your equipment stays in peak condition should be a close second. At the heart of every brewery’s production facility is the chiller, quietly working behind the scenes to keep fermentation temperatures stable and production running smoothly.

While maintenance for an established chiller is typically minimal, the fast-paced nature of brewing means it often falls into the “out of sight, out of mind” category. However, routine upkeep is essential to prevent unexpected failures and costly downtime.

Here are some key maintenance tips to help extend the life of your chiller and keep your brewery operating at optimal capacity.

Listen to Your Chiller

One of the simplest yet most effective maintenance practices is simply walking around your chiller and listening. Here are some quick tips:

• Pay attention to vibrations or unusual sounds.
• If you hear clunks, thuds, or bangs when the compressors cycle, this could indicate internal issues.
• Listen to the pump. Any changes in its normal operation sounds may signal trouble.
• Pay attention to cycling times (start/stops) on both the compressor – rapid cycling is not normal and should be addressed.

Perform Regular Visual Inspections

A quick visual check can help identify potential issues before they become major problems. Here’s what to be on the lookout for:

• Inspect insulation around the chiller. Torn or deteriorating insulation can lead to inefficiencies by allowing outside temperatures to impact your glycol.
• Check for excessive ice buildup around the compressors.
• Confirm that all fans are spinning properly. It’s not uncommon to see only one fan running at a time, but complete failure can lead to overheating.
• Look at the compressor’s sight glass. Oil levels should be around half-full while the compressor is running.
• Check for leaks. Any oil or glycol inside the chiller could indicate a system leak that needs immediate attention.
• Inspect the condenser for cleanliness. Debris buildup, such as cottonwood seed or dust, can restrict airflow and lead to high discharge pressure alarms. To prevent this, occasionally check the intake and clean it using a hose (spraying downward to avoid bending the fins) or a recommended cleaning agent from a refrigeration technician.

Monitor Reservoir Levels

Checking your glycol reservoir level is an easy way to prevent unexpected downtime. Each Made-in-the-USA G&D Chiller has a minimum level sticker on the reservoir—ensure that your level is at or above this mark. A drop in glycol level can result in hampered flow across the evaporator, leading to nuisance alarms. Over time, it can overwork the pump and cause liquid refrigerant to flood the compressor, resulting in costly damage.

aintain the Proper Glycol Mixture

Your glycol mixture is critical to your chiller’s operation. For G&D’s medium-temp chillers, a 35:65% mix of inhibited propylene glycol to water is ideal. Every G&D Chiller includes a refractometer, making it easy to check your glycol concentration.

Improper glycol mixtures are the #1 cause of chiller failures in the field. A lean mix (too much water) can cause the evaporator to freeze, leading to extensive damage. A rich mix (too much glycol) can cause the pump to overamp and eventually fail. Checking your mixture every few months ensures your system remains in peak condition. G&D sells glycol so be sure to reach out if you need assistance.

Check Oil Levels

Periodic oil level checks help prevent long-term damage. The compressor’s sight glass should show a level of about half-full during operation. Noticing changes in oil levels early can prevent compressor damage, particularly after extended power outages, when restarting a flooded compressor could harm the motor or pistons.

Partner with a Professional

While these quick checks should take only about 30 minutes per month, it’s also essential to work with a trusted refrigeration technician or mechanical contractor. A trained professional should inspect your chiller at least twice a year to ensure all mechanical components are operating correctly. They have specialized tools and expertise to catch issues that aren’t visible to the naked eye. For G&D customers, we offer 24/7 Tech Support and Remote Monitoring Services to keep your brewery running smoothly at all times. We also have a new convenient chatbot functionality available from our website at www.gdchillers.com.

Learn from the Experts

At G&D Chillers, we know that well-maintained equipment is key to a brewery’s success. That’s why we offer comprehensive maintenance training classes at our NEW state-of-the-art facility in Junction City, Ore. These hands-on sessions teach brewers and production teams how to properly care for their glycol chillers, prevent failures, and optimize efficiency. Investing time in learning best practices now can save your brewery thousands of dollars in repairs and lost production time down the road.

Also check out   explaining more about our popular training program.

About G&D Chillers

Since 1993, G&D Chillers have been manufacturing glycol chillers specifically for the commercial brewing, wine, dairy, cannabis, food processing and manufacturing industries. We are proud to provide chillers for our industry leading customers such as Ninkasi, Willamette Valley Vineyards, Sara Lee, Angry Orchard, Stumptown Coffee, Jim Beam, Samuel Adams, Boeing, Diageo and Brew Dr. Kombucha.  With well over 6,000 clients across the U.S. and beyond, we’ve built high-quality chilling units for specialty installations throughout the United States, Canada, the Bahamas, India, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, and the West Indies. No matter what your cooling needs are, whether you require a permanent installation, a portable chiller or a heater, we engineer the finest quality chilling systems in the USA. For more information, visit www.gdchillers.com.