Flushing AC lines

Just had my ac tech ask our chiller mfg what to product to use for cleaning the ac raw water system. The mfg said Trac Barnacle Buster! When we lost both chillers because of perforated tubing on the chillers we were told the Trac BB and Bromine tablets that we found on board after buying was the culprit. Go figure! Any solution that will dissolve barnacles, oysters, and heavy scale will likely corrode our cupronickel metal tubing over time. Like you said what else can we use and keep the system clean?

May have been your previous owner put bromine tablets in once/week or whatever... and that'd be different from occasionally flushing/rinsing with something like BB.

Given your chiller manufacturer recommended BB -- and presumably meant you should only use it when necessary, not every day -- I'd guess that'd be about as good a recommendation as you could get.

-Chris

I have seen tons of A/C outfits and owners clean the chillers with muriatic acid, more times than I can count because in 2 minutes you're done. My a/c guy flushes them with Barnacle buster for 6+ hours. I've found in South Florida you pretty much have to clean chillers once a year, and Package a/c units aren't too far behind that.

Don't know how often the po was using either. The chillers lasted 7 years which tells me they were over using something. I hope to only clean once a year with BB, and use tablets a couple times a month in the summer plus cleaning strainer weekly. Grows fast in the summer, get small barnacles, grass, and slime within a week.

Think we will stick with BB, way less corrosive than muriatic acid.

For the guys that are using bromine tablets, how many tablets do you put in and how often do you do it?

I put in 2 and once a month when I clean the strainer......

One tablet every two weeks when cleaning the strainer.

Do the bromine tablets only deter the growth or does eliminate what's grown. Don't know if there is much of a benefit up in the North east. Trac cleaning every three or four years is all I have ever done, but honestly haven't really seen much from it

My experience they only deter growth until dissolved. We have a lot of grass, barnacles, oysters, and a grass that grows in the perforated strainer that is attached, use liquid chlorine in a small bucket to remove grass attached to the strainer. In you area maybe a tablet monthly for slim if you have that, must be nice not to deal with a lot of marine growth.

I also put two tablets in monthly when cleaning strainer. It definitely prevents barnacles from growing inside strainer.