Coil Replacement Options
Leaky Coils -- Everybody gets them at some point or another. There is a good chance that if you have a coil, eventually it will leak. It is only a matter of time before interior fluids erode the tubes or airside contaminants corrode them.
They are a pain, no doubt... it's not as easy as changing a filter or a belt. To do something about them you've usually got three feasible options:
Sometimes, coil repair is quick, easy, and inexpensive. A leak in a braze joint, return bend, or header can sometimes be easily fixed by a qualified professional.
However, not everyone is that lucky. Sometimes leaks spring up in places difficult to access, like behind the sheet metal casing or underneath the fins. Other times, the coil may be beyond it's expected life and fixing one leak causes another in a seemingly endless cycle.
At some point (I think of typical life span of a coil as around 5-10 years) it just doesn't make sense to keep repairing it. Something like this just won't work:
When coil repair fails or is not an option, the next logical step is to call the manufacturer (Trane, Carrier, McQuay, etc.) of the air handler, fan coil, or whatever the coil is in. You could tell them something like "I have a coil I need replaced, it's the chilled water coil for model XXX". It sounds pretty easy, but there are a few caveats to that:
Some coils are old enough that original manufacturing records are not available, or the manufacturer can no longer provide the coil.
It can take a while to get your coil in some cases. Trying to fit in a single replacement coil in a production schedule of hundreds of units at a time can mean a long wait.
Original equipment manufacturers mark up replacement parts (coils included) by a large amount. Depending on the manufacturer, the distributor may mark it up an additional amount.
This is what we do:
This is kind of the best of both worlds option. You get a new coil -- so no performance loss, no corrosion, no erosion of the tubes, without having some of the drawbacks:
If we can build it (and we can build just about anything you've seen in a coil), we will build it for you. If you don't have drawings, we can make them. If you want the coil with heavier fins or stainless steel casing, it's no problem.
Custom coil plants are set up for building custom, small quantity, fast lead time coils. We can build a 6" long coil next to a 120" long one. This gives us flexibility in production time. At the time of writing our production times are 4 weeks, standard. If that's not fast enough, we offer expedited production options of down to 3 days.
This one is the kicker -- custom coils can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars over OEM coils. It is not uncommon for us to save a customer 30-40% of the price of the OEM's coil. We tell customers this up front, but they are still shocked when they get our quotes.
Words only go so far.