Descaling Options

For those who ask any captain the highest three issues that give them nervousness on a ship, I can assure getting a excessive strain code on the air-conditioning show is true there on the high of the record. As boats have gotten bigger, the cooling and refrigeration calls for have additionally elevated exponentially. What was once a single pump to flow into the air-conditioning and refrigeration methods is now a chiller system or a number of bigger pumps.

Marine organisms that develop inside a ship’s raw-water circulation strains want oxygen and vitamins to outlive. By rising the movement of water by this method, we’re merely feeding them all the things they should develop at a quicker fee. So, what was once a small a part of a ship’s normal upkeep program has now turn out to be a serious downside for some crews, particularly when the boat sits for prolonged durations of time or travels to warm-water places.

Conventional Remedy Strategies

Till not too long ago, the upkeep concerned was extra reactionary than preventative. Because the marine progress accumulates within the hoses and coils, the system will shut down on excessive strain due to the lowering raw-water movement. Marine air conditioners want a certain quantity of movement to perform correctly, and if left untreated, very like a human circulatory system, the blockage turns into too nice and the system shuts itself down.

When this occurs, it’s essential to descale the boat’s raw-water system by flushing the system, often with muriatic acid. Some crews choose do it themselves, so a number of corporations have developed methods that assist simplify the method through the use of buckets with pumps and fittings or by putting in specialised tanks within the boats to make the method of flushing the raw-water system simpler.

To maintain the expansion at a minimal, some captains use chlorine or bromine tablets of their raw-water strainers, however this may be dangerous to the boat’s plumbing, and is often a unending job. Typically inside days the tabs have disintegrated and have to be changed, or the strainer baskets have to be cleaned once more. For those who put an excessive amount of chlorine within the baskets, flush too usually or with an excessive amount of product, the cruel chemical substances can eat by the fittings and develop leaks. Marine plumbing fittings are robust, however not bulletproof. So, similar to our personal well being, being a bit extra preventative is a greater long-term plan.

Descaling Issues

With out pulling manifolds and fittings aside, or having a digicam to look contained in the cooling strains, there’s no technique to see precisely how a lot progress has amassed. The method of descaling is simply that: eliminating the expansion that’s already there. So when it breaks free, it has to go someplace—hopefully making all of it the best way to the bucket or tank and never getting caught someplace within the cooling system, probably inflicting extra issues. So what about stopping the expansion as a substitute of coping with it after it’s there?

There are a number of choices to deal with a cooling system and stop progress as a substitute of chasing it. Some builders are utilizing a closed-loop cooling system that has coolant operating by it with a raw-water warmth exchanger, so solely a part of the system wants cleansing and descaling.

An alternative choice is the ElectroSea ClearLine system. It makes use of electrical energy and salt water to make and flow into low ranges of chlorine, protecting the raw-water system nearly growth-free. With a ClearLine management panel and a ClearCell electrochlorinator plumbed into the raw-water circuit, the ElectroSea system generates simply sufficient chlorine to stop progress however not sufficient to wreck the system.

Due to the half-life of chlorine, there are solely hint quantities—roughly the identical stage as consuming water—by the point it leaves the system. What appears to make the ElectroSea system distinctive is the power to continuously regulate the chlorine output primarily based on movement fee, and the power to fine-tune the system based on the boat’s wants.

With this info, I used to be keen to seek out some people who’re utilizing the ElectroSea system. In Jupiter, Florida, there are a handful of boats in the identical marina which have it put in.

Summers in South Florida can wreak havoc on marine refrigeration and air-conditioning methods, and it’s difficult to maintain the expansion at bay. With the water temperatures reaching the 90-degree mark in some marinas, I figured it’s a great testing floor. After talking with three skilled captains, the overall consensus appears to be that whereas it would take a bit little bit of time to get the ElectroSea system dialed in, as soon as it’s up and operating they’ve had practically zero progress after a number of months. One other profit is that the system may be retrofitted to older vessels, in addition to put in on new builds. So, if ElectroSea is straightforward to make use of, prevents progress from forming within the raw-water system, and can also be environmentally pleasant, evidently it might be a great way to be proactive as a substitute of reactive within the unending battle to maintain these methods clear and working at most effectivity.