Chillers

Add up the heat loads the chiller must handle simultaneously: jacket duties, heat exchanger loads, and tank pull-downs, expressed in kilowatts at your required fluid temperature. Capacity falls as the supply temperature drops, so a chiller rated at 100kW at 7 degrees Celsius delivers much less at minus 5 on glycol. Size for your peak coincident load plus a sensible margin, and have the seller confirm the rating at your actual conditions.

Ask for compressor run hours and service history first, since compressors carry most of the value. Inspect condenser coils for damage and fouling, check for oil staining that signals leaks, and confirm the refrigerant is a current, obtainable gas rather than a phased-out one. If the unit is still powered, review the controller's fault log and current operating pressures, which reveal more than a visual inspection ever will.

Air-cooled units install simply and avoid cooling tower maintenance and water treatment, which suits most small and medium plants. Water-cooled plant runs more efficiently at larger duties and in hot ambients, but brings towers, water chemistry, and legionella management obligations. As a rule of thumb, continuous loads above a few hundred kilowatts justify examining water-cooled options, while below that air-cooled usually wins on simplicity.

Chilled water covers duties down to about 5 degrees Celsius supply. Any process needing fluid colder than that, such as fermentation crash cooling or ice cream work, needs a glycol mixture to prevent freezing in the evaporator. Glycol concentration must match the lowest temperature in the circuit, and higher concentrations reduce heat transfer efficiency, so do not run more glycol than the duty requires. Sellers can confirm what fluid their unit ran.

Financing is available on qualifying listings through the platform's finance partners, with applications made from the listing page while your technical discussions continue. Delivery and rigging are agreed directly with the seller, and many can recommend hauliers experienced with refrigeration plant, where careful handling of pipework and coils matters. Buying, funding, and moving the machine all run through direct contact rather than layers of intermediaries.