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Advantage Central Water Chillers

Plant-Wide Process Cooling, 5 to 300 Tons

One chilled-water loop feeding multiple machines

Overview

One chilled-water loop from an Advantage central chiller feeding multiple machines or process points, sized to grow with the plant.

An Advantage central chiller replaces a scatter of portable units with one refrigeration plant and a single chilled-water loop distributed to every point of use. It's the right move once several machines are drawing from separate portables, when a new building or process line is being planned from scratch, or when the plant's total cooling load has grown past what makes sense to serve machine-by-machine.

Advantage packages central capacity three ways: an indoor unit with its own reservoir and pump station for 20 to 180 tons, an outdoor air-cooled package with reservoir and pumps built in for 5 to 210 tons, and add-on chiller modules that parallel onto an existing pump-tank station to push a plant-wide system toward 300 tons. A single factory-standard machine tops out in the 180-210 ton range; higher combined capacity comes from paralleling modules or a custom-engineered plant, not from one larger box.

All three configurations share the same underlying engineering: scroll compressors (screw on the 150- and 180-ton Titan models) staged across one or more independent refrigerant zones, an evaporator sized for the fluid temperature and flow the process needs, and a factory-matched process pump moving fluid through the loop at the head the piping actually requires. What changes between the three is where the reservoir and pump live, whether the condenser sits indoors, outdoors, or is remote from the compressor package, and how the system grows if the plant's load grows with it.

Configuration Capacity Best Fit
Indoor Central 20 to 180 Tons Air- or water-cooled, reservoir and pumps on one frame, inside the building
Outdoor Air-Cooled 5 to 210 Tons Reservoir and pumps included, sits outside, no mechanical room needed
Add-On Modules 5 to 180 Tons per module, plant-wide to 300+ Parallels onto a pump tank station to expand an existing system

TYPICAL FACILITIES

Food & Beverage

Food & Beverage

Plastics Plants

Plastics Plants

Chemical Processing

Chemical Processing

Data Centers

Data Centers

Which Size Is Right?

Fluid temperatures across the Advantage central range are generally 20 to 80°F, on R-454B refrigerant (R-513A on a few of the largest models). Capacity is rated at 50°F leaving fluid and falls at colder setpoints, and anything below 48°F needs glycol, so confirm the setpoint during selection rather than after the unit ships.

If you're not sure whether your plant needs an indoor package, an outdoor package, or a module added to what you already have, send us the current or projected total tonnage, the building's available mechanical space (or lack of it), and whether this is a new plant or an expansion of an existing loop.

5 to 300 Tons

20-80°F Leaving Fluid

Indoor or Outdoor

Expandable, Add-On Ready

What Sets Central Cooling Apart

Capacity

5-300 Tons

One Loop, Whole Plant

A single factory-standard machine covers 5 to 210 tons; paralleling add-on modules onto a shared pump tank station is how a plant reaches 300 tons and, in custom-engineered combinations, beyond it without a scatter of separate portables.

Fluid Temp

20-80°F

Setpoint Sets the Capacity

Standard ratings reach down to 20°F leaving fluid, but capacity is rated at 50°F and shrinks as the setpoint drops, and plain water stops at 48°F - so confirm the setpoint and any glycol during selection, not after the unit ships and the process needs more cold capacity than the frame delivers.

Location

In or Out

Mechanical Room or Pad

Indoor packages need a mechanical room plus either an outdoor spot for a remote condenser or a tower connection; outdoor air-cooled units skip the room entirely and sit on a pad with reservoir and pumps already on the frame.

Growth

Add-On Ready

Built to Expand

A refrigeration-only module parallels onto a pump tank station a plant already has, adding tonnage to a working loop instead of replacing it - the right tool when today's chiller was sized for yesterday's plant.

SHOP BY CONFIGURATION

Indoor central chiller mechanical room package

Indoor: 20 to 180 Ton

A complete mechanical-room package - compressors, evaporator, reservoir and pumps on one frame, air- or water-cooled.

Learn More
Outdoor air-cooled central chiller on an exterior pad

Outdoor Air-Cooled: 5 to 210 Ton

Weatherproof, reservoir and pumps included - no mechanical room, no tower, single- or dual-zone.

Learn More
Add-on chiller module paralleled onto a pump tank station

Add-On Modules: to 300 Ton

Refrigeration-only modules that parallel onto a pump tank station you already have to expand plant-wide capacity.

Learn More

Loop flow, diversity and headers for a central plant

About 240 GPM if the machines send the water back 10°F warmer than it left. Flow in GPM equals tons x 24 divided by the temperature rise, so the same 100 tons at a 5°F rise needs 480 GPM - twice the pump and a size or two more pipe. The usual mistake is letting each machine's old portable habits set the rise: molds and spindles piped for a 2-3°F rise drag the whole loop toward enormous flow. Pick the design rise first, typically 8 to 12°F for a plant loop, then size the headers and the pumps to it.

No - size to the load that actually runs at the same time. Portables are usually bought with margin and rarely all peak together, so twelve 5-ton portables do not add up to a 60-ton plant. Log supply temperature, return temperature and flow on the busiest shift instead: 100 GPM coming back 9°F warmer is 500 x 100 x 9 = 450,000 BTU/hr, or 37.5 tons. Add growth on top of that measured figure rather than on the nameplate sum, and the central unit often comes out a size smaller than the arithmetic suggested.

The coldest user, unless it is split off. A central loop delivers one supply temperature, so a single 45°F process pulls every machine down with it, puts the whole loop below the 48°F plain-water floor so all of it needs glycol, and the colder evaporating temperature costs capacity and power across the whole tonnage, not just that one machine's share. Two common fixes: give the cold process a small dedicated chiller and run the plant loop warm, or choose an Advantage dual-zone outdoor package that makes both temperatures from one frame.

Less than it sounds, because the compressors are staged across independent refrigerant zones - losing one circuit takes away part of the tonnage, not all of it. The real single point is the process pump: if it stops, flow stops at every machine on the loop. Where an hour of lost production costs more than a second pump, specify redundant pumps on the models that offer them. Plants that mix critical and non-critical machines on one loop also put isolation valves on each branch, so a leak at one press can be shut off without draining the loop or stopping its neighbors.

Big enough to keep water velocity in the 4 to 8 feet per second range at design flow. At 240 GPM, 4-inch schedule 40 pipe runs about 6 feet per second; 3-inch runs over 10, which brings noise, erosion at fittings and pump head the chiller never planned for. Size the mains for the plant's expected growth, since the header is much harder to replace than a chiller. Give every machine branch it's own isolation valves and a balancing valve, so one press can come off for a mold change while the rest of the loop keeps running.
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