Choosing a Chiller — Factors to Consider

30, Jun. 2025

 

Choosing a Chiller — Factors to Consider

What Do Chillers Do?

A chiller is a refrigeration system that cools equipment to maintain proper temperatures. It prevents heat damage and ensures systems operate smoothly and efficiently.

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An industrial or commercial chiller system uses refrigerant to absorb heat. Water-cooled chillers use water towers to cool equipment, while air-cooled chillers rely on ambient airflow.

Types of Chillers

The main chiller types include air and water chillers. They are distinguished by their different vapor systems:

  • Vapor compression: Low-pressure refrigerant vapor is drawn into a compressor and compressed into a high-temperature and high-pressure gas. The gas then travels to the condenser, where it releases heat to a cooling medium.
  • Vapor absorption: The refrigerant vapor is absorbed by a solution like lithium bromide, and this process releases heat. The resulting solution travels to a generator, where a heat source turns the refrigerant back into vapor so it can be condensed into a liquid.

We’ve summarized air and water chillers below to help you better understand them. While both have the same parts, including a compressor, evaporator, expansion valve and condenser, their methods of extracting excess heat differ. This difference is indicated in their titles since air chillers extract heat using air, while water chillers use water to extract heat from the system.

Air Chillers

Fans blow cool air into air chillers to regulate the condenser and prevent it from overheating. These chillers are installed on a building’s exterior, saving internal space.

Water Chillers

In water-cooled chillers, water is pumped through a sealed condenser and sprayed through the cooling tower, extracting heat as the water evaporates. This highly effective method saves more energy and money spent on energy bills.

Some common applications for air and water chillers include:

  • Commercial buildings: Support HVAC systems to cool shopping malls, office buildings and other large commercial infrastructure
  • Data centers: Maintain IT equipment’s and servers’ ideal operating temperatures, as their heat sensitivity affects their ability to operate optimally
  • Cooling systems: Required for food and beverage storage and transportation to maintain their integrity
  • Medical and research facilities: Controls temperatures to ensure equipment and biological samples are stored correctly
  • Pharmaceuticals: Ensures optimal temperatures for drug production and storage
  • The automotive industry: Cools paint booths to maintain the correct temperatures for spray painting and helps control temperatures for vehicle component testing facilities

Considerations When Buying a Commercial Chiller

Before purchasing an industrial chiller, determine the right type for your specifications and choose the best product. Here are some aspects that may influence your decision.

Application

Equipment use is one of the first variables to consider when buying a chiller. Various applications require different chillers, and understanding which kind you need is an excellent start to the buying process.

Size

For many unit applications, size and efficiency go hand in hand. An oversized chiller can consume more energy than necessary, cutting your profit margins. Meanwhile, an undersized chiller may struggle to meet your facility’s needs. A compact chiller that removes the heat from your equipment allows you to cool it effectively while saving energy and money. To determine the correct chiller size for your facility, you must determine the heat load, temperature, flow rate, and coolant type required for your equipment.

While many industrial chiller manufacturers offer mass-produced cooling products, it’s best to partner with one that offers customization. An experienced chiller manufacturer can provide cooling options that meet your industry specifications. When you order a custom-sized chiller, you can rely on it to support your needs.

Location

The ideal chiller relies on your equipment location. Outdoor applications are prone to fluctuating ambient temperatures, while the air surrounding indoor applications may reach excessively high temperatures. Because of these natural temperature differences, indoor or outdoor equipment may require particular sizing or specific accessories such as sump heaters, heat tracing, insulated components, or special controls for components.

Safety

Installing a safe chiller is crucial for your equipment, employees and facility. If you operate in hazardous conditions or process flammable chemicals, an explosion-proof chiller is essential to preventing potential explosions. Only consult with an experienced manufacturer that designs and builds systems to meet National Fire Protection Association standards.

Temperature Control Needs

Choosing a high-quality chiller is vital for work requiring precise temperature control. Reliable, custom-designed chiller systems offer this feature to prevent damage and ensure your equipment operates efficiently.

If your leaving temperature must remain below 35 degrees Fahrenheit, you may require a low-temperature chiller. Choosing the correct chiller ensures your business operations continue smoothly without failure. Reputable manufacturers have the knowledge and technology to design and build quality low-temperature chiller systems, providing you with the necessary temperature control.

Cooling Fluid

Cooling fluid can affect your chiller system, so don’t neglect this factor. Common cooling fluids are propylene glycol mix, Dynalene heat transfer, and water and specialized fluids. Your municipal water supply can contain contaminants that corrode chiller components.

While using a glycol-water mix is always best, your cooling system may require additional filtration if you pull from a city water source. Consult with your manufacturer to determine if your operating temperatures can affect fluid viscosity.

Voltage

Some chillers may have voltages requiring specific electrical work. To decide which type of chiller you purchase, determine what voltage your facility can support and how much electrical work your budget allows. You should also consult the chiller manufacturer about which voltage options support more efficient operation.

Industrial Chiller Cost

Cost is also a critical factor. Before purchasing a chiller, consider its upfront cost, operating costs, potential maintenance costs, and expected life span. Air-cooled systems typically have a higher upfront cost and more installation work than water-cooled systems. They also consume a significant amount of energy to power fans, but they can reduce operating costs because they lack the cooling tower that a water-cooled system requires.

Consider your daily usage. While a central chiller typically costs less than a portable chiller, a portable system may better suit your needs if you need cooling for various purposes at different times.

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A chiller’s return on investment depends on its life span. While one model may have a higher initial cost, getting a system with longevity is worthwhile. Comparing different models and designs can help you choose the system with the best financial benefits.

How to Size a Chiller

Sizing a chiller depends on several variables. A critical factor in determining the cooling load requirements is all the heat the chiller must remove and where it originates. For example, several heat sources can exist in a building, including the processes that run machinery and equipment and the heat generated from them. People occupying the space also contribute to the total heat load.

Then, consider heat from external sources such as the temperature outside and heat that infiltrates, especially in warmer climates.

The correct formula helps determine the required chiller size. This process is represented in four steps:

  1. Calculate the temperature differential: Calculate this variable with the formula of incoming water temperature (for example, 65 degrees Fahrenheit) minus the required chilled water temperature (55 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature differential is 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Calculate BTU/hr: British Thermal Units per hour indicate how much heat is removed from a space in an hour. For example, 4 gallons per minute x 60 minutes (4 GPM x 60) x 8.33 x 10 degrees Fahrenheit = 19,992 BTU/hr.
  3. Calculate the tons of cooling capacity: Divide the BTU/hr by 12,000 to get the required tonnage.
  4. Round up after oversizing the chiller by 20%: Determine the chiller size by multiplying the ideal ton size by 1.2 and rounding it up. For example, if the ideal ton size is 1.666 multiplied by 1.2 to get 1., you’ll need a 2-ton chiller.

To explain this further, if you need to cool 6 gallons per minute (GPM) from 65 degrees Fahrenheit — the incoming water temperature — to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the required chilled water temperature, the flow rate is 6 GPM.

Other factors in chiller sizing include choosing the appropriate chiller type for your application and knowing the required flow rate, inlet and outlet temperatures, and the cooling and buffer capacity.

Why Work With Smart Family of Cooling Products?

Choosing a high-quality chiller is essential — now you know how many factors influence your purchasing decision. Consulting with a reputable chiller manufacturer can help you navigate your options.

Smart Family of Cooling Products manufactures high-quality chillers and offers professional consultation to guide you through purchasing, installation and beyond. Our unique expertise informs clients about their options and determines which systems best meet their needs. When you work with Smart Family, you can discuss your specifications with a knowledgeable engineer who will help you make an informed decision.

Our experts focus on technical details such as application, sizing, location, cooling fluid, temperature control needs, voltage and safety features, equipping us with the information necessary to design and build effective systems.

As a leader in the cooling industry and one of the top chiller manufacturers in the USA, we have experience manufacturing chillers according to custom specifications. We are also one of the few manufacturers able to build explosion-proof and low-temperature systems according to strict codes and standards.

Find the Right Chiller With Smart Family of Cooling Products

Purchasing the chiller that meets your specifications lets you cool your equipment while saving energy and money. Before committing to a product, consider essential details and consult a reputable manufacturer about your application.

Smart Family of Cooling Products can guide you through purchasing by focusing on your needs. We offer reliable, efficient chiller systems to provide your company’s equipment with the necessary cooling you can count on.

Contact us to learn more about our wide range of commercial and industrial chillers, or complete our form for an instant chiller quote!

Five Things to Consider When Selecting an Industrial Chiller

Industrial chillers are critical equipment in manufacturing, as they are essential in minimizing the threat of production downtime or product quality contamination that may be caused by excess heat in a process or application. Specifically, industrial chillers protect a process’ integrity by removing excess heat from equipment and applications that are sensitive to high temperatures; examples include those in the food and beverage, plastics, and printing industries. By using and re-circulating a facility’s own water supply, industrial chillers also help to decrease a plant’s water consumption, lower the costs associated with cooling water, and bypass the need to have access to a municipal water supply and wastewater discharge system.

Things to Consider When Selecting an Industrial Chiller

Thinking of specifying an industrial chiller installation for your facility? There are five key items that you should consider to ensure that you select the right product: the type of process fluid that will be used; the process cooling temperature; the pressure and flow requirements; the operating environment; and the chiller size needed.

  1. Process Cooling Fluid. When you’re choosing a cooling fluid for your process, you should consider both how a fluid performs and its equipment compatibility. The performance of a specific fluid is based on its properties at a given temperature, such as specific heat, viscosity, and its freezing and boiling points. When considering equipment compatibility, be sure to consider both the materials and fluids being used, given that the potential for corrosion and early seal degradation commonly happen in incorrectly sized systems.

  2. Cooling Fluid Temperature. Know your chiller’s performance data! A chiller’s cooling capacity is directly affected by the setpoint temperature, meaning that a direct relationship between the temperature at which the chiller is set and its total cooling capacity. A decrease in temperature will put an increased load on the refrigeration system, while increasing the temperature will do the opposite.

  3. Process Pressure and Flow Requirements. Did you know that a pump’s size and performance help to determine a system’s pressure loss, as well as its necessary flow rate? That’s right!

Pressure. To determine the pressure loss across a system, place pressure gauges at the process’s inlet and outlet and then apply pump pressure to obtain the values at the desired flow rate. Keep in mind that an undersized pump will reduce the fluid flow rate through the entire cooling loop. If the chiller has been equipped with internal pressure relief, the flow will be diverted around the process and back into the chiller. If there is no internal pressure relief, the pump will attempt to provide the necessary pressure and run at what is referred to as dead-head pressure, or limit. When this state occurs, the pump’s life can be drastically reduced; liquid ceases to flow and the liquid in the pump becomes hot, eventually vaporizing and disrupting the pump’s ability to cool. This results in excessive wear to bearings, seals, and impellers.

Flow. Inadequate flow through the process will yield inadequate heat transfer so the flow will not remove the heat necessary for safe operation of the process. As the fluid temperature increases beyond the setpoint, the surface/component temperatures also will continue to rise until a steady-state temperature that is greater than the initial setpoint is reached.

  1. Operating Environment. Knowing the site conditions of where your chiller will be operating is essential to selecting the best product fit for your process! Ambient temperature and spatial constraints are especially important to consider.

Ambient Temperature. An air-cooled chiller’s ability to dissipate heat is affected by the ambient temperature, as the refrigeration system uses the ambient air/refrigerant temperature gradient to induce heat transfer for the condensation process. A rising ambient air temperature decreases the temperature differential (Δ) which reduces the total heat transfer. If the chiller uses a liquid-cooled condenser, high ambient temperatures can still have negative effects on key components such as the compressor, pump, and electronics. These components generate heat during operation, and elevated temperatures will shorten their lifetime. As a guideline, the typical maximum ambient temperature for non-exterior rated chillers is 104° fF

Spatial Constraints. To maintain the proper ambient air temperature, it is important to provide adequate air circulation space around the chiller. Without proper airflow, recirculation of an inadequate volume of air rapidly heats it up. This will impact chiller performance and potentially can damage the chiller unit.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Air-Cooled Integrated Chiller. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

  1. Chiller Size. Selecting a correctly sized chiller is a crucial decision. An undersized chiller will always be a problem – never able to properly cool the process equipment and the process water temperature will not be stable. In contrast, an oversized chiller will never be able to run at its most efficient level and prove more costly to operate. To determine the correct size of unit for the application it is necessary to know the rate of flow and the heat energy that the process equipment is adding to the cooling medium, i.e., the change in temperature between the inlet and outlet water, expressed as the ∆T.