Thorough and regular maintenance is crucial to ensuring that your heat exchanger remains properly functional. Without a consistent cleaning schedule, the risk of malfunction, build-up, and even injury increases significantly. However, there are multiple processes to utilize depending on the type of heat exchanger you’re working with, and the level of cleaning or descaling necessary.
Chemical Cleaning
This is a common formof heat exchanger cleaning and involves running specific chemical solutions through the unit to break down calcium/iron basedbuilt up scale. During this process, the unit itself is fully isolated from the inlet and outlet piping withmany exchangers having access connections built in. The chemical solution you choose greatly depends on the types of metal composition and deposit build-up within your exchanger, and most often will include a combination of fluids to target specific deposits: acids to break down tougher scale, oxidants to prevent corrosion, etc. While this process is often easier and more autonomous, continuous chemical cleaning can erode equipment over time.
Mechanical Cleaning
Compared to chemical cleaning processes, mechanical cleaning is a bit more manual and intensive. The exchanger often must be taken off-line, isolated from the balance of the system, and manways or bell housings accessed. Once the exchanger has been prepared, tools such as drills, brushes, and scrapers are used to manually remove scale and deposits from the equipment. For tougher build-up, mechanical processes like hydro jetting can be used to specifically target areas without damaging the tube itself. While this process minimizes the deterioration that can come from chemical cleaning, it’s also much more time-consuming and requires more manual labor.
Often a combination of chemical and mechanical cleaning is used to keep heat exchangers in peak condition, with the latter being utilized to target deposits that have withstood routine chemical cleaning. It’s important to have a comprehensive understanding of the current state of your heat exchanger to determine which process is necessary at which point in its service life, as well as the appropriate tools or chemical solutions to best target the build-up on your specific equipment.
The Wheelhouse Industries comprehensive line of chemical and mechanical cleaning products for heat exchangers and condensers are designed and formulated to offer the safe and cost-effective performance.