Do you turn your Chiller off at night/weekends?

[ZooCity]

My thoughts are the chiller is like a fridge, you leave it on.  Tech for my compressor agreed but says we could turn it off at night/weekends if we gave it an hour or so to get going before running.  I'm not sure which would save energy or be best for the chiller, what do you all do?

[inkman996]

We turn it off each night. But it is the first piece of equipment turned on in the AM.

[Socalfmf]

we shut ours down for the weekend...

never had a problem

sam

[Zelko-4-EVA]

i turn ours off at night along with the compressor. 

i cut the valve before the chiller to prevent air from the "wet tank" from going down stream.

our chiller has a digital temperature gauge - i only open the valve once its below 40 degrees, then i wait for the air to equalize (usually about 80-90 psi left in the wet tank every morning) and then turn on the compressor.

also --
without the hot compressed air flowing through it at night during the winter months ours has iced over. 

its not fun telling the boss that we cant run the presses for an hour in the morning. 

its the main reason we turn ours off now.

[3Deep]

Same here we turn ours off each night, and one of the first things we turn on at the a.m. before we run any air into the press.  Really don't see the need to let it run all the time....

Darryl

[JBLUE]

It is turned off every night when we shut down. Just like the compressor.

[screenprintguy]

we used to turn it off on the weekends but M&R recommended leaving the full air system on unless it's an extended period of down time. So our chiller never get's shut off much like a refrigerator, and we never have moisture at the press. They barely use any power so it's not even a concern there. I thought maybe it would extend the life span, but honestly, if it's running all the time, it doesn't have to work as hard every day, or after a long weekend, trying to draw moisture out of the air system. "Supposedly", it can take up to 8 hours to actually have a freshly turned on chiller at it's best efficiency on your system, I don't know how accurate that is, but a couple techs have told me that over the last couple of years.

[Sbrem]

We shut it off every night, so over the weekends too. No issues...

Steve

[Admiral]

Shut it off every night as well with the compressor (and close the valve on the compressor).  Haven't seen any moisture in the moisture trap on the auto in over a year...The black pipe also goes up 10-12 feet after the chiller then down the wall and out to different equipment which also helps not having moisture in the lines.

[Binkspot]

Ours is wired into the compressor. When the compressor is shut down at night and weekend the chiller is to. The compressor and water traps are drained every night.

If you have a cycling dryer there is not need since it only comes on when needed. A non cycling dryer could freeze up if left on in high humidity without air flowing through it for extended times.

[screenprintguy]

Huh, looks like a trend here. Why do ya'll think then that some manu's tell shops to keep their compressor active on their presses, and obviously with that, the chiller on all the time? I can see some "off" time would extend the life of a piece of gear. Thoughts?

[ebscreen]

CYA....

But also, the air in the lines/chiller itself wouldn't technically have been dried with it off, so I could see an issue there.
We turn ours off and haven't ever seen water in the separators at the press though. A 14" rise of pipe might
have something to do with that.

[Doug S]

we used to turn it off on the weekends but M&R recommended leaving the full air system on unless it's an extended period of down time. So our chiller never get's shut off much like a refrigerator, and we never have moisture at the press. They barely use any power so it's not even a concern there. I thought maybe it would extend the life span, but honestly, if it's running all the time, it doesn't have to work as hard every day, or after a long weekend, trying to draw moisture out of the air system. "Supposedly", it can take up to 8 hours to actually have a freshly turned on chiller at it's best efficiency on your system, I don't know how accurate that is, but a couple techs have told me that over the last couple of years.

That's what I was told also.  I've shut mine off maybe twice in a couple of years to clean it.  I've never had any moisture at the press either.  I do check it from time to time to make sure that the guage is still where it needs to be.

[DCSP John]

LOFO - Last off, first on...