CHILLER MAINTENANCE

CHECKLIST – PROTECTING YOUR

SYSTEM
March 21, 2018

No matter the size of your business or production

process, downtime can be incredibly disruptive,
incurring large costs and even causing issues when
trying to meet customer demand. Chiller and system
maintenance is vital to mitigate the risk of downtime,
extend the lifetime of your equipment and provide
peace of mind that you are doing everything you can
to keep your process running and downtime.

Our Chiller Maintenance Checklist below will:

Give you day to day basics for keeping things

running smoothly

Inform you of best practice for chiller maintenance

Advise you on what to look for when checking your

equipment’s refrigeration circuit if you are F-Gas
certified

Allow you to have an educated conversation when

selecting your planned preventative maintenance
service provider

You must be F-Gas certified to work on temperature

control equipment in any invasive way. We
recommend that you check your partner is fully
qualified, but there are some surface level things that
you can do on a day to day basis in the interest of
keeping things running.

For advice about your chiller maintenance or

choosing an F-Gas qualified maintenance partner, call
our technical team on 0800 774 7426.

THE BASICS – A DAY TO

DAY APPROACH
Much like with your car, performing daily checks on
your chiller can go a long way to preventing a
breakdown. Performing checks that take less than
two minutes each day could make a massive
difference to your operation and enable you to
prevent rather than fix.

Daily, you should be checking for any unusual

sounds or vibrations, investigating if the cause for the
sound is not immediately apparent. Visual checks
should also be undertaken, looking for things like
debris in the area surrounding the chiller, including
loose components on the chiller, such as thermal
insulation. Be sure to check for fluid leaks and
excessive condensation, too.

If your chiller is displaying fault codes, it is time to call

in an expert, don’t just settle for a stop gap measure
to keep production running, doing so may void your
warranty if performed without care, and will almost
certainly cause heavy damage to your unit.

Don’t just delegate these checks to one person

either, as the issues above can quickly develop into a
serious fault, consider printing a daily log so that staff
can see if the equipment has been checked daily,
and train them to run the basic checks if it hasn’t
already been done.

A DEEPER LOOK
You will need to find the time to perform a slightly
more thorough investigation of your equipment,
preferably weekly, but monthly without fail. By
planning this ahead of time, you will be able to fit it
around your production process – remember,
planned downtime is better than preventable
downtime.

As necessary, you will need to remove the side

panels of your unit to begin your checks. In addition
to your daily routine, you will have to inspect for
debris inside your equipment.

It’s important to isolate the unit for the electrical

supply before continuing the checks

When the unit has been made safe, it is time to check

the fixings and fastenings on the unit, ensuring they
are all tightly secured, and tightening them if it’s
necessary. Leakage should be next on your list, and
you should check all the pipework to ensure that
there is no fluid seeping or leaking from the
equipment. If any is found, call an expert immediately.
You should also safeguard against the possibility of
leakage or condensation on your equipment by
checking all the boxes and enclosures on your unit
are sound – checking hinges, locks and screws are in
place.

YOUR REFRIGERATION
CIRCUIT – CERTIFIED
ENGINEERS ONLY
Before undertaking work on the refrigeration circuit,
the engineer should look through the logs you’ve
been keeping since the date of your last check or
commissioning. After taking note of the general
surroundings of the unit, such as ambient
temperature, the three main components of the
circuit should be checked.

Chiller compressor
The compressor acts as the pump for the unit’s
refrigerant around the system by using differences in
pressure to move the liquid through the system. The
key things to discuss with your engineer or check
yourself are:

The suction temperature and pressure

The discharge temperature and pressure

Oil level and pressure

Current voltage and current levels – Only if safe to

do so

Chiller evaporator
The next component to check is the evaporator,
which has the function of taking the heat absorbed
from your process or building. Depending on the
type of chiller, either air cooled or water cooled,
these checks will be slightly different. Again, the main
points to cover are:

Fluid or Air Inlet temperature and pressure

Fluid or Air Outlet temperature and pressure

Refrigeration inlet and outlet temperature

Insulation Condition

Chiller condenser
The final of the three components that should be on
your list is the condenser, which removes the heat
transferred into the refrigerant by the compressor as
described above. Again, as with the evaporator, there
are two types of condenser, air cooled and water
cooled, which will slightly alter your checks, which
will include:

Air intake and exhaust temperature

Refrigeration inlet and outlet temperature

Fan motor currents, noise and vibration

Condenser coil condition

Chiller glycol dosing

There are a few things left to take into consideration,
First, you need to be looking at your equipment’s
glycol dosage. Glycol, or anti-freeze is important as it
will prevent the fluid inside your system freezing as it
handles temperatures below zero. If incorrectly
managed, the water in your system will freeze,
causing damage to your pipework and halting
production whilst the issue is resolved. It’s important
to note that you cannot use generic glycol, the glycol
in your system needs to be inhibited, which means
that it is manufactured specifically to not corrode
your pipework. You can find more information about
our glycol range and correct dosage here.

Chiller water treatment

Whilst on the subject of water treatment, water
quality should not be neglected when looking at your
chilled water system. Water quality is important as
failure to manage it will cause your pipework to
corrode which will inevitably lead to equipment
failure. Whilst getting a water quality check is a legal
requirement, many service providers will not action
poor results, merely inform you of them.

Leak Testing
The refrigerant leak test is the most important aspect
of any refrigeration circuit check. Firstly, you will need
to check that you are happy for the equipment that
your engineer intends to use to be used on your
system. A leak test ensures that your circuit is
hermetically sealed.

All refrigerants have global warming potential,

therefore, if there is any disparity between the
refrigerant levels in the system and the levels
expected, it is vital that the source of the disparity be
verified and0800
fixed774 7426
before
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the refrigerant is recharged.

THE RESULTS AND

ACTION POINTS
Your action plan will depend on the outcome of your
daily routine checks or the refrigeration circuit
checks. This could include a water treatment
program, glycol dosage adjustment or even
performing a repair on your equipment.

For complete peace of mind and hassle-free

production, ICS Cool Energy can provide fully
comprehensive planned preventative maintenance
programs which include:

Extended warranties

Leak tests – performed by F-Gas compliant Service

Engineers
-

Chiller log book

Glycol check (%)

Discounts on labour & spares

24/7 engineer availability

Prioritised calls

Direct access to our technical support desk

More information about F-Gas certification can be

found here.

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05509182 · VAT Number: GB 123 4167 43
Registered Office: ICS House, Stephenson Road, Calmore
Industrial Estate, Totton, Southampton SO40 3SA