Choosing The Right Heat Transfer Fluid For Your Unit

Choosing the right heat transfer fluid for your unit can be tricky. It is important to pick the right one ensure a long life out of your unit. A very important thing to consider is the compatibility of the heat transfer fluid with the wetted surfaces. It is very important to know t the cooling components or system and the application. Some other thing that you need to factor in when trying to decide on the right fluid is specific heat, the viscosity, the freezing point, high flash point, low corrosivity, low toxicity, and the thermal stability.

Once you have figured these questions out then you can begin to decide which heat transfer fluid to use. It is helpful to know what the more commonly used ones are and what they do. It helps to steer you in the right direction. Some of the more common fluids that are used are water, deionized water, inhibited glycol and water solutions or your other choice can be dielectric fluids.

The reason that water is one of the most common used fluids is because it is affordable and it has a high heat capacity. Water is usually mixed with other things such as corrosion inhibitors and antifreeze. The deionized water has low electrical conductivity. It is used to cool some electrical equipment, often high-power transmitters. When using the pure water it is important to maintain the ph in the water otherwise it will corrode the copper piping in your unit. The best thing to do is call a chemical company that supplies boiler and cooling tower chemicals and ask them for their opinion.

Inhibited glycol and water solutions are more commonly used for food processing machines. It is used in chilling and freezing food and beverage products. The food industry uses the inhibited glycol and water solutions for immersion freezing, cooling liquid foods and fermentation cooling. It is also used to defrost equipment and dehumidify facilities, with specific applications including refrigeration coil defrosting and humidity control in the operations of meatpacking.

A dielectric fluid is non-flammable and non-explosive. Because it is non-conductive it is chosen over water especially when the equipment that you need the fluid for is electronic. It is also less corrosive than water. It is more commonly used in high performance units.

Knowing all of the information will make choosing the right heat transfer fluid easy. Picking the right fluid will extend the life of your unit and it will also have your unit working at peek performance.