In order to get the most out of your heat exchanger, it’s important that you maintain an effective cleaning routine.
Cleaning a heat exchanger can improve heat transfer and control, supporting the exchanger’s long-term efficiency. It can also help to remove debris and fouling that may be detrimental to machine hardware and functionality.
Wondering how best to clean a heat exchanger? Here are a few tips to keep in mind!
Maintain a routine
Maintaining a consistent cleaning schedule is essential when it comes to keeping your heat exchanger in good working condition. By establishing a cleaning routine, you can ensure that maintenance is carried out often and properly.
Cleaning regularly can help to prevent deposits and sediment from gathering on your heat exchanger. This is important, as these deposits may compromise the exchanger’s ability to regulate temperature conditions. Correct maintenance allows you to remove dirt and reduce the risk of damage or harm.
When purchasing a heat exchanger, find out what the manufacturer has identified as the optimal cleaning frequency. Use this information as a guideline for your own cleaning routine.
Clean in place
Thanks to new robotic cleaning techniques, it is now possible to clean heat exchangers without disassembling parts of a machine or tool. This helps to reduce costs and damage, as well as limiting time demands.
By cleaning your heat exchanger without disassembly, you can avoid taking apart complex builds and systems when doing so could pose a risk of damage to fragile parts. Cleaning in this way also helps to reduce the burden of regular maintenance, making it easier to stick to a consistent routine.
Before choosing to disassemble items, find out if you can access robotic cleaning tools that allow you to clean heat exchangers without removing parts. Wherever possible, choose this option for practicality and ease.
Clean to bare metal
When cleaning a heat exchanger, it is important that you remove all sediments and deposits that could be damaging to the exchanger or that could reduce its efficiency. This means that you’ll need to clean all fouling until pipework is visible as bare metal.
Cleaning back to bare metal surfaces can improve the longevity of your heat exchanger, as well as allowing you to leave more time between cleaning cycles. By cleaning in this way, you can return surfaces to a factory-new standard, allowing for optimal functionality.
As you clean your heat exchanger, polish the insides and outsides of all pipework, and make sure that you remove even microscopic blemishes where new deposits may form. Aim for the cleanest possible finish to reduce ongoing demands.
Use the right tools
There are many tools you can use to clean a heat exchanger. If you want to achieve the best results, it’s important to choose the right option for your equipment and needs. This will make it easier to produce a more thorough clean.
Removing polymer deposits can be difficult, but you should never result to using chisels, chainsaws, and other potentially damaging general tools. Instead, try using ultra-high-pressure water jetting and bandsaws, and be prepared to put in the time to clean your heat exchanger well.
If you clean your heat exchanger effectively and regularly, cleaning should become less challenging over time. This will make it easy to clean well using non-damaging tools and systems.
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