Advantage Portable Water Chillers

1/4 to 40 Tons, Air- or Water-Cooled

Self-contained units that sit next to the equipment they cool

Overview

Self-contained Advantage units that sit next to the equipment they cool - no plant chilled-water loop required.

An Advantage portable chiller is a complete refrigeration package in one cabinet: compressor, condenser, evaporator, pump and reservoir wired and piped at the factory. It rolls up to a molding press, laser, EDM machine or lab instrument, connects to the process water lines, and runs on its own without tying into a plant-wide loop.

Advantage builds these in three practical size groups. The smallest units handle a single small tool or instrument; the mid-range covers most single-machine plastics, machine-tool and laser applications; the largest portables step in where a job needs more capacity than a single machine chiller but a central system isn't justified yet.

Every frame in the line is factory-charged, pressure-tested and shipped ready to connect - apart from the line set on remote-condenser (ARC) models, there's no field refrigerant work or start-up commissioning beyond power, water and process connections. That's the core trade portables make against a central system: less up-front engineering and a shorter lead time, in exchange for one refrigeration package per machine instead of one loop feeding many.

Size Range Cooling Typical Duty
1/4 to 1.5 Ton Air-Cooled Lab equipment, EDM, small lasers, single small presses
2 to 15 Ton Air- or Water-Cooled Injection molding, machine tools, medium lasers
20 to 40 Ton Air- or Water-Cooled Larger presses, multi-machine cells, higher-heat processes

COMMON APPLICATIONS

Plastics & Molding

Plastics & Molding

Machine Tools

Machine Tools

Laser Systems

Laser Systems

EDM

EDM

Which Size Is Right?

Fluid temperature, not just tonnage, decides the right unit: a chiller running 50°F water behaves differently than the same frame running 34°F for a low-temperature process, because low leaving-fluid temperatures cost capacity. Tell us the required leaving-fluid temperature, ambient conditions, and glycol percentage (if any) along with the heat load, and we'll match a standard model rather than guess from tonnage alone.

Air-cooled Advantage portables are simplest to install - no cooling tower or plant water needed - and are the default choice unless the equipment room is tight on ventilation or the ambient runs hot. Water-cooled units trade a tower or plant water connection for a smaller footprint and steadier performance in a hot mechanical room. Remote-condenser (ARC) variants keep the compressor and pump at floor level while the condenser mounts outdoors or on a roof - worth asking about anywhere the production floor can't tolerate a fan's noise or heat.

1/4 to 40 Tons

Air- or Water-Cooled

Self-Contained

Ships Ready to Run

What Sets Portable Cooling Apart

Range

1/4-40 Tons


Three Practical Steps

Fractional-tonnage bench units, mid-range 2 to 15 ton frames for most single-machine duty, and 20 to 40 ton units for larger presses or small multi-machine cells.

Cooling

Air or Water


Match the Mechanical Room

Air-cooled is the simplest install with no tower or plant water needed; water-cooled trades that connection for a smaller footprint and steadier performance in a hot room.

Setup

Self-Contained


Compressor, Pump & Tank in One

Every air- and water-cooled frame ships factory-charged and pressure-tested with its pump and reservoir already piped in - no field refrigerant charging, no plant loop to tie into.

Ready

Ships to Run


Connect and Go

Power, process water and a drain are all a portable needs on site - the shortest path from order to a running chiller of any configuration Advantage builds.

SHOP BY CAPACITY

Bench-top portable chiller for lab and EDM duty

1/4 to 1.5 Ton

Single-phase, air-cooled-only units for lab instruments, small EDM tanks and point-of-use loads.

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Mid-size portable chiller for injection molding and machine tools

2 to 15 Ton

The workhorse range for single-machine plastics, machine-tool coolant and mid-size process cooling.

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Large portable chiller for a multi-machine cell

20 to 40 Ton

Larger presses and small multi-machine cells where the load has outgrown a mid-range portable.

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Moving, plumbing and filling a portable unit

Yes, but check it against the new machine before it rolls over. Casters make the move easy; the selection does not move with it. Compare the new load in BTU/hr, the fluid temperature it needs, the flow and pressure its cooling passages require, and the voltage at the new location. A unit chosen for a 50°F mold may run short at 40°F, where it also needs glycol, and a pump that suited short hoses on one press can starve a machine 60 feet away. Ten minutes with the data for that Advantage model avoids a summer of warm molds.

Divide the heat load by the temperature rise you are willing to accept across the machine. A 5-ton mold (60,000 BTU/hr) kept to a 4°F rise across it needs 60,000 / (500 x 4) = 30 GPM; allow a 10°F rise and 12 GPM will do. Molds and spindles usually want the tighter rise for even temperature, which pushes flow up. The mistake is pushing that flow through 1/2-inch hose and small-bore quick couplers, so the pump spends its pressure on the hose and the machine sees a fraction of the flow.

Not if the tank sits lower than the chiller's reservoir. The portable's pump pushes fluid out to the process, but nothing pulls it back; return flow depends on gravity or a second pump. Quench tanks, open baths and floor-level sumps are the usual trouble: the supply keeps filling the tank untill it overflows while the chiller's own reservoir runs low. The fix is a return pump at the tank with a level control, or a pump tank station between process and chiller. Describe any open process, its height and the distance when you Request a Quote.

Clean water with a corrosion inhibitor, or the glycol mix the unit was selected for - not whatever runs out of the nearest hose. Hard water leaves scale in the evaporator and in mold or tool passages, and the loss of heat transfer is gradual enough to get blamed on the equiptment. Very pure deionized water on its own can be aggressive toward copper and brass, so it needs inhibitor too. Flush new process lines before connecting them; weld slag and thread sealant from a fresh install are what most often clog a strainer in the first week.

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Questions?

1-805-484-2992

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