chiller flow rate

Hey all,

Is the specified min. flow rate for a chiller needed or can it be slower. The reason i ask is cause if it was slower wouldn't the water cool better cause it is spending more time in the cooling pipe and the pump would be smaller and take up less room in my sump.I am returning the chilled water back to the sump near my main return pump. The chiller is a hailea 300 min flow rate 1000lph.

Rusty

 

I would not go below that minimum flow rate, thats only 250gallons per hour. You can get powerheads that do double that but are the same size. I would look at different brand pumps that are smaller.

Also remember with each 90degree bend in the feed and return line from the chiller you will loose flow.

 

no it wont work, since the tank is a closed system(no new water enters it) the overall temperature will remain the same, it will just be mixing colder water with warmer water since the longer the water stays out of the chiller the warmer it will be. this effect would probably be unpleasant for the animals.


side note: the reverse may be true, the faster the flowrate through the chiller the more effective it would be, because when removing heat(or energy) from matter, the more it cools down the harder it becomes to remove more from it. so the colder something gets the less effective cooling it down would be.
in actuality the difference would be so minute it wouldn't even matter for our purposes but yea faster is better.

 

I would stay in mid range of the chiller. Just remember that the more water you are pushing threw the chiller the faster the tank cools down.

 

Just to add the pump rating for the chiller also takes into account the back pressure or the water that will be put on the pump - so if you run a smaller pump than recomended - its lifespan would be shortened due to having to overwork in order to get the water through the pipes, coils etc

 

ok cheers for the info guys, been real helpful and will follow the advise.

Rusty