What Should Be Noted When Cleaning a Tube Condenser?

Oct 27, 2025

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Using a high-pressure cleaner to clean a shell-and-tube condenser not only offers high cleaning efficiency and good cleaning results, but also causes no damage or corrosion to the equipment after cleaning. It allows cleaning without shutting down the equipment, which reduces cleaning troubles and saves the operating cost of the cooling system. The following mainly introduces the precautions for cleaning shell-and-tube condensers with a high-pressure cleaner.

 

 

Precautions for Cleaning Shell-and-Tube Condensers with a High-Pressure Cleaner

 

 

  1. The working medium of a high-pressure cleaner is water, which is easy to use. However, it is necessary to properly filter the water to prevent blockage of the high-pressure hose-especially to avoid impurities in tap water entering the water pipe of the high-pressure cleaner.
  2. When using a high-pressure cleaner to clean the shell-and-tube condenser, it is essential to take protective measures for the operator, such as wearing a safety helmet. It is also necessary to strengthen the education for construction personnel to ensure safe construction.
  3. An 8-hole front nozzle should be used as the pipeline cleaning nozzle. This type of nozzle sprays water in a uniform direction and can fully clean the inner wall of the heat transfer tube.
  4. During the cleaning process, a dedicated operator must be assigned to operate the foot-controlled control valve. This ensures that the operator can cooperate with the cleaning staff at any time to achieve timely pressure reduction and water drainage.
  5. When cleaning the working surface, use a baffle to block the cooling water flowing out of the cooling tower pipeline, so that the nozzle of the heat transfer tube is fully exposed for convenient construction operations.
  6. After preparation is completed, start cleaning the heat transfer tubes. Two operators are required to hold the rigid tube and the nozzle, insert them into the heat transfer tube, and then turn on the power.
  7. After the power is turned on, the operator of the high-pressure cleaner should rotate the pressure regulating valve clockwise to gradually increase the cleaning pressure. The construction personnel should observe the descaling ability of the high-pressure water jet at any time. Once the appropriate pressure is reached, they must promptly inform the high-pressure cleaner operator to stop rotating the regulator. Subsequently, the construction personnel hold the high-pressure tube of the high-pressure cleaner firmly and move the nozzle slowly downward. The high-pressure water jet exerts a strong impact on the scale in the heat transfer tube, causing the scale to fall off. According to the scale condition in the heat transfer tube, the nozzle can be moved up and down multiple times to clean the inner wall of the heat transfer tube until all scale is removed. After reducing the pressure of the water supply pipe with the foot-controlled control valve, the operator removes the rigid tube and the nozzle, and then cleans the heat transfer tubes one by one.
  8. After cleaning, the heat transfer tubes need to be tested for ammonia leakage using pH test paper. The specific method is to place the pH test paper at the nozzle of the heat transfer tube. If the test paper turns blue, it indicates ammonia leakage; if the test paper does not change color, it indicates no ammonia leakage.

 

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In addition to Shell-and-Tube Condensers, GNEE also offers more high-quality products, such as shell-and-tube heat exchangers, copper heat exchangers, titanium heat exchangers, heaters, chlorine coolers, high-pressure reactors, LPG storage tanks, cryogenic storage tanks, VPSA oxygen generators, etc. If you are interested in the above products or other products, please feel free to send an email to sales@gneeheatex.com, and our professional team will be happy to answer your questions.

 

Heat Exchanger Design Parameters

Shell side dimensions

Value

Shell internal diameter

152 mm

Shell wall thickness

7 mm

Shell material

stainless steel,copper,titanium,carbon steel,etc.

No. of Shell Pass

1

No. of Baffles

7, 9, 11, 13

Baffle plate thickness

2 mm

Tube side dimensions

 

Tube internal diameter

14 mm

Tube wall thickness

1 mm

No. of Tube Pass

1

No. of Tubes

20

Tube Layout

Square

Tube Length

1400 mm

Tube material

stainless steel,copper,titanium,carbon steel,etc.