THIRD QUARTER 2018 15 FE ATURE WITH SUMMER UPON US, YOUR DRYCLEANING MACHINE’S COOLING SYSTEM WILL BE UNDER GREATER STRESS. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a water tower, chiller, or city water for cooling, conditions that weren’t an issue during the cooler months may become problems as the ambient (surrounding) temperature rises. Most cooling problems rear their ugly heads during the drying segment of the drycleaning cycle. Drying, in the drycleaning machine sense, is all about moving heat energy. The media which moves all this heat is called a refrigerant. Most machines use R22 Freon. Some of the newer models and K4 machines use R400 Freon as refrigerants and some form of coolant (generally water or a water and glycol mixture). It doesn’t matter which Freon is used. The process itself requires a device called a REFRIGERATION CONDENSER, which changes hot, vapor rich, Freon gas back into liquid Freon which is constantly being recycled during the drying segment of the drycleaning cycle. In almost every case this condenser is cooled by a liquid (there are a few air- cooled condensers which are not the topic of this article). Hot, compressed Freon gas if forced by the REFRIGERATION COMPRESSOR into the REFRIGERATION CONDENSER where it is cooled and condensed by water (called a COOLANT). In this case we are transferring the heat from a vapor rich, hot, compressed Freon gas to the coolant flowing through the refrigeration condenser. THREE METHODS OF SUPPLYING COOLANT TO THE REFRIGERATED CONDENSER 1. CITY WATER - water from the city main is forced through the drycleaning machine’s refrigeration condenser propelled by existing city water pressure. The exiting water is then sent down the drain. 2. WATER TOWER - water is circulated by a pump through the drycleaning machine’s refrigeration condenser; over evaporative cooling media (looks like corrugated plastic tubes) that uses forced air to aid in evaporation; into a sump where the suction inlet of the pump is connected. The evaporation of the water from the surface of the media cools the remaining water which drops into the sump for recirculation through the drycleaning machine’s refrigeration condenser. 3. CHILLER - water or a mixture of water and glycol (this mixture is called a brine) is circulated by a pump through the drycleaning machine’s refrigeration condenser; cooled by a separate refrigeration system; re-circulated through the drycleaning machine’s refrigeration condenser. No matter what method is used for cooling and HotWeatherCoolingProblems By Bruce Grossman, EZ Timers Manufacturing continued on page 16