Advantage BG Series Glycol Chillers

Standard duty is 25°F to 30°F leaving fluid with glycol in the loop, with the setpoint adjustable anywhere between 20°F and 70°F depending on the model. Without glycol, treat 48°F as the practical floor; run colder than that on plain water and you risk a frozen evaporator. The bottom of the range is where winery cold stabilization lives, and it costs capacity: a unit rated at the 25-30°F standard delivers less at 20°F, so tell us the coldest setpoint you will actually run and we will rate the model there.

The cabinet, not the chiller. Both share the same compressor and refrigerant platform; the "-N4" suffix marks a NEMA 4 weatherproof cabinet built to sit outside year-round in place of the standard indoor enclosure. The practical difference is where the condenser heat lands. An indoor BG puts roughly 15,000 BTU/hr into the room for every 12,000 BTU/hr of cooling, so a 5-ton unit adds about 75,000 BTU/hr to the mechanical room; an N4 leaves that heat outdoors. N4 units cover 2-10 HP, and larger outdoor duty moves to the OACS-BC models.

Same weatherproof platform, different duty. The OACS-BC units are configured, charged and controlled specifically for glycol duty at 25-30°F on a water-and-glycol mixture - different fluid, setpoints and controls than the plain-water OACS chiller sold elsewhere on this site. Don't plan maintenance or fluid changes off the standalone OACS documentation. The standalone OACS can run glycol too once its setpoint drops below 48°F, but it is a chilled-water machine first; a BC unit is selected to hold sub-freezing glycol all day, which is the duty a brewery cellar asks for.

You need glycol if your process needs a leaving fluid temperature below 48°F, or the unit itself will see freezing ambient temperatures. Above that, a plain-water MG (portable) or Titan/OACS (central) chiller from elsewhere on this site is usually the simpler, lower-maintenance choice. The case people miss is a warm process with cold piping: a 50°F loop whose lines cross an unheated loading dock or roof can freeze over a winter weekend shutdown even though the setpoint never goes near 32°F. Tell us your target temperature and the pipe route, and we'll confirm which line fits.

For the standard 25°F leaving fluid temperature, a 30-35% inhibited propylene glycol mix. The rule behind that number is a freeze point about 25°F below the lowest setpoint; on outdoor N4 units, protect to the lowest expected ambient instead if that is colder. Check the loop regularly with a refractometer. Water evaporates, so topping off with premix slowly raises the concentration, while making up spills with plain water dilutes it toward freezing the evaporator. Never use automotive antifreeze; its silicate inhibitors gel on heat transfer surfaces. Log each reading, because a slow drift is easy to miss between checks.

Plenty of both. An indoor Advantage BG rejects 25-35% more heat into the room than it removes from the process, about 15,000 BTU/hr for every 12,000 BTU/hr of cooling, and moves roughly 1,000 cfm per horsepower - about 10,000 cfm on a 10 HP unit. Give it at least 4 ft at the air intake and 6 ft at the exhaust, in a ventilated space where entering air temperature stays between 60°F and 95°F. Fan-condenser models cannot be ducted. Blower models can duct their exhaust outdoors, sized at rated cfm and 0.90 in. of water static pressure, and need a damper assembly where intake air will fall below 60°F.

Anywhere entering air stays from -20°F to 95°F and the coil can breathe. Allow 4 ft at the air intake and 10 ft at the exhaust. With vertical discharge, keep all sides 4 ft from walls; inside three walls, the top of the unit must be level with or above the walls and clearance grows to 8 ft. Space multiple units 8 ft apart side by side or 3 ft end to end, and never let one unit's discharge feed another's intake, which raises its entering air temperture. Fences or louvers need 80% free area and 4 ft clearance, and must not be taller than the unit. A low-restriction MERV 2-3 filter keeps debris off the coil.