Can ATC help me replace an older or obsolete chiller?
If an existing process chiller is approaching the end of its working life, has become difficult to maintain or is no longer available, ATC can help to assess an appropriate replacement.
This includes older ATC and Thermal Exchange equipment, as well as chillers from other manufacturers.
Rather than simply matching an obsolete chiller like-for-like, we will review the existing equipment alongside the current requirements of your process. This allows us to identify an appropriate replacement from our current chiller range, or, where necessary, assess whether a non-standard solution is possible
What information should I provide?
The more information you can provide about the existing equipment, the easier it is for us to understand what it was originally designed to do.
Where available, please provide:
- Chiller manufacturer
- Model number
- Serial number
- Existing chiller specification or datasheet
- Photographs of the chiller and its nameplate
- User or service manuals
- Refrigerant type
- Cooling capacity
- Operating temperature
- Pump or flow information
- Electrical supply
- Any options or specialist features fitted to the existing unit
If you don’t have all of this information, send us what you do have. A clear photograph of the equipment nameplate can often provide a useful starting point.
Why do you need my current process requirements?
An older chiller’s specification tells us about the equipment that was previously installed, but it does not necessarily tell us exactly what the process requires today.
Applications and operating conditions can change over the lifetime of a piece of equipment. The original chiller may also have been oversized, undersized, or selected according to requirements that are no longer relevant.
For this reason, we will normally ask about:
- What is being cooled
- Required heat load
- Required process fluid temperature
- Required flow rate
- Any known system pressure requirement
- Process fluid
- Ambient operating conditions
- Electrical supply
- Installation location
- Any additional control, connection, or application requirements
This allows us to select the replacement around the actually cooling requirement, rather than simply attempting to duplicate an old model.
Can you replace an old ATC or Thermal Exchange chiller?
ATC can review requirements for older ATC equipment and legacy Thermal Exchange products.
Where possible, we will identify a suitable replacement from our current standard product range.
Our current range is based around a focused selection of approved chiller platforms, configurations, Option Packs, and Accessory Packs. This provides a more standardised approach to product selection, manufacturing, documentation, and long-term support.
An older model may therefore not have a direct like-for-like equivalent, but that does not necessarily mean that we cannot provide a suitable replacement.
Can ATC replace another manufacturer's chiller?
You don’t need to be replacing an ATC chiller to speak to us.
If you provide the manufacturer, model, and available specification of your existing equipment, we can use this information alongside your current process requirements to assess whether a suitable ATC chiller is available.
We recommend providing the original datasheet or manual where possible, particularly where the existing equipment has specialist temperature, flow, pressure, or control requirements.
What if my existing chiller uses an older refrigerant?
Refrigerant technology and legislation have changed significantly during the lifetime of many chillers currently in service.
Older equipment may use refrigerants such as R134a or R407C, which are now considered legacy refrigerants within ATC’s product strategy.
ATC’s current product development focuses on lower-GWP refrigerants. R290 is our preferred long-term refrigerant platform where its charge limits and safety requirements can be met, while R454C provides a lower-GWP transitional solution for applications where R290 is not currently practical.
When replacing legacy-refrigerant equipment, we will therefore consider whether an appropriate current lower-GWP chiller can meet the requirements of the application rather than automatically reproducing the original refrigerant technology.
The appropriate refrigerant will depend on the chiller, application, market, and relevant regulatory and safety requirements.
Will the replacement have exactly the same specification?
Product technology, components, refrigerants, and regulatory requirements evolve over time. Our current standard chillers may therefore differ from older equipment in areas such as:
- Physical dimensions
- Cooling performance
- Pump characteristics
- Electrical requirements
- Process connections
- Controls and communications
- Refrigerant
- Available configurations and options
We will highlight relevant differences so that they can be considered before the replacement equipment is ordered.
It is important that the replacement is assessed as part of the complete cooling system, particularly where existing pipework, process equipment, or controls will remain in place.
What if there isn't a standard replacement product?
Not every legacy installation can be replaced directly using a standard current model.
If your requirements fall outside ATC’s standard product range, our Sales team can refer the application to Engineering for assessment as a non-standard requirement.
This may be appropriate where an older installation has unusual temperature requirements, specialist fluids, particular hydraulic requirements, legacy interfaces, or other application-specific features.
Engineering can then assess whether a technically and commercially viable solution can be provided.
Planning a chiller replacement?
You don’t need to wait until an older chiller fails before considering its replacement.
Reviewing an ageing or obsolete cooling system in advance gives you more time to establish the current process requirements, understand any differences between the old and new equipment, and plan for installation.
Send us the details of your existing chiller and current cooling requirements, and our team can help to identify the most appropriate route forward.
