heat exchange heating
Cleaning heat exchanger tubes is a procedure that may be tedious, time-consuming and expensive, but it is absolutely necessary to make sure that your equipment is in tiptop shape. It’s a known fact that high temperatures can and adversely affect machinery and equipment, especially when coupled with temperature fluctuations – and temperature can both rise and fluctuate constantly, to the detriment of your equipment and machinery, if they are not kept clean.
Cleaning heat exchanger tubes can very-well be tedious thanks to the fact that the structure or arrangement of the tubes themselves can often make them tough to access and clean. This means that traditional methods of cleaning such structures (i.e. blasting water through the tubes) are not always successful, and in some cases refouling takes place very quickly thanks to the fact that not all the debris could be removed. Blasting water through tubes that are not straight and are coiled or bent into other shapes is inadequate to clean them, as the water flows only in one way and, as it curves inside the tubes, tends to slow down and deposit the fouling materials in certain areas.
All this means that with traditional cleaning methods, in a very short time after the initial cleaning has finished, contaminants are accumulating once again. Neither is constant cleaning a solution, because in many cases the heat exchanger tubes must cease operating in order for them to be cleaned – and if the they have to stop working, the machinery itself cannot operate, for obvious reasons. And an increase in equipment downtime is nothing if not exceedingly problematic.
A good solution when cleaning heat exchanger tubes, therefore, is to make use of some of the new equipment that has been developed specifically to aid in cleaning this specialized equipment. There are physical cleaners such as abrasive balls and scraping tools, and chemical cleaners such as certain types of detergents or acids – as well as a potent combination of both physical and chemical cleaners with strong jets of water, for example. Users will just have to make sure that said cleaners are compatible with their heat exchanger tubes before cleaning them. For instance, some acids can react negatively with certain metals, so users of metal heat exchanger tubes who wish to use chemicals to clean them will need to check first with their local hardware store or an expert before they make use of these acids.
A final note regarding cleaning heat exchanger tubes – no cleaner in and of itself will be effective if one’s cleaning regimen is too lax. So if you are seeking to keep yours in perfect working order, make sure you keep that in mind!
About the Author:
Sabrina Rocca
Author: “The Ultimate House Cleaning Checklist Book”
For more great cleaning tips, visit http://www.housecleaningchecklist.ca and sign up for your FREE speed-cleaning course.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Cleaning Heat Exchanger Tubes
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