While some medical equipment engineers are familiar with the technology of the chiller and the basic concept, very few, if any, will try to repair a
broken chiller. An MRI technician will replace parts and a cold head, or
load liquid helium, and a CT engineer will diagnose high voltage problems
in a CT scanner, but neither has the skill to work on a broken chiller.
Sometimes chiller problems result from design flaws or while installing the chiller. But the vast percentage of breakdowns is attributable to poor maintenance.

According to Gary Julian, GJ Maintenance, Garland, TX, "The biggest cause of chiller death is not cleaning the condenser coils," he says. "These are hard to get at within the compressor system. It takes some effort to disassemble and get access."

Julian's specialty is medical chiller maintenance for display trailers, 18-wheelers hospital and medical centers set up to house MRI and cath labs. According to Julian, costs for a correctly re-furbished chillers averaging seven to 10 tons is anywhere from a few thousand to more than $20,000.

Sig Carlson, president and founder of Recovery Systems, acknowledges that his company, based in Crystal Lake, Il, "gets a very high percentage of business for chillers related to GE, Siemens and Philips equipment."

Chiller manufacturers must work closely with independent and sometimes
authorized service personnel around the world. These service personnel
install the machine, perform preventative maintenance, and repair it when
it breaks.

"The key is that chillers must be sized for the right range of outside temperature, whether its 40 below or 120," says Sig Carlson, president, Recovery Systems, Crystal Lake, IL. "What we do at Recovery Systems is offer compressors that can be integrated to operate separately or in sequence."

Carlson estimates smaller chillers, five to 10 tons, for example, cost roughly $10,000. Larger ones can run to $50,000 and up with refurbished equipment "half those costs."

Chiller Repair and Refurbishing a Vital Service

Among the chiller refurbisher and repair companies polled, most agree preventive maintenance several times a year is key.

"I would say a mobile unit should be looked at every three months," says Ronnie Taylor of SVSR, Inc, Statesville, NC, "With fixed sights every six months." Over or under powering a chiller means, "the motor windings overheat and short. This could cause contractors and controllers to fail also, causing major downtime," Taylor adds.

Laurence Frayne of Prairie Imaging, Hurst, TX suggests that checking "all systems" twice a year is sufficient but Mitchell Guier, broker for North American Medical in Sweet Springs, MO, thinks four times a year is best. "I think a service contract should require maintenance every few months, with personnel actually going up on the roof to make sure the chiller isn't leaking," he says.

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