[Amps] Water cooled amp question

[Will Matney]

Joe,

I'd have to see the beast, it's application, and where everything was in order to cure the problems. I used to design quench tank systems for fastener manufacturers. The problems there was sometimes they'd only run one shift so 16 hours had to go between uses and freezing would occur in the winter time. I had to design insulated housings, heat tape lines, use heat lamps on pumps, water heater elements, anti-freeze on some things, it was a mess. The thing is on the systems you describing, this all has to be designed in at the initial project before it's built to make it correctly. It should be done job by job. Trying to patch something up after the fact can make things worse sometimes. It's odd that some of these manufacturers don't even take this in to account and leave the end-user the problem to deal with later on. As bad as it seems, I do miss doing that kind of work and wish I was still setting behind the board or running CAD like I used to. Ohhhh the good ol days.

Best,

Will

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 3/6/05 at 10:32 AM Joe Subich, K4IK wrote:

>Will writes:
>
>> I know some samll rual stations down in Kentucky that do 
>> still sign off. I'm not sure about how large they are power 
>> wise though. What I am thinking for any that would need this 
>> heater, they could add a threaded boss on each tank (after 
>> cutting ot a round hole behind it). Then use standard water 
>> heater elements screwed into the boss. Just wire them up with 
>> a thermostat. Cut them back to where they just keep the water 
>> from freezing up.
>
>One could certainly use one (or two) water heater elements in 
>the supply reservoir.  The primary problem location is the heat 
>exchanger ... it's large effective surface area and relatively 
>small, relatively thin walled copper pipes are the first place 
>the water will freeze.  Even with auxiliary heat, it is necessary 
>to run the pumps to keep the water moving through the heat 
>exchanger.  
>
>Fortunately, the smaller stations typically do not run power 
>levels that tax the capacity of the heat exchanger during the 
>summer (even with the 20% reduction in transfer capacity with 
>a 50/50 glycol water mix) so full-time use of propylene glycol 
>and water is an easy solution for them.  
>
>73, 
>
>   ... Joe, K4IK 
> 
>
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