Nickel brazed FPHE

[rlyons124]

I am trying to do my conversion with no yellow metal (copper brass). I have been trying to find an alternative to the copper brazed FPHE and wanted to get everyones opinion on the one I found.

10 Plate Water to Water Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger - eBay (item 300493351176 end time Feb-12-11 17:11:20 PST)

Here is the description so people can read this when the link expires. Price is $123 for the 10 plate and $172 for the 20 plate.
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10 Plate Water to Water Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger. 1" Ports

These are true 5" x 12" Units, if hooking up to an indoor boiler do not settle for anything smaller in width or length.



These are made of 316 Stainless Steel and are UL listed, do not settle for ones made of 304 stainless. These are an expensive item and no reason to have to replace them sooner than needed.


Brazed plate heat exchanger
Plate material:stainless steel AISI 316L
Brazing material: Nickel
5x12 plate specs
Max pressure 652 lbs per sq in
Test pressure 971 lbs per sq in
Volum per channel (L) 0.05
Exchange area sq ft .417 per plate
Max Temperature 437F
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From what I have read nickel is ok to use in our applications, does anyone object to this? As far as the size goes, this is a 10 plate unit but it is much bigger than the ones commonly sold for svo/wvo. 5"x12" VS 7.5"x3" If I did my math correctly this 10 plate should be just a touch bigger than the common 30 plate FPHE. The seller also has a 20 plate FPHE that should be about double what a 7.5"x3" 30 plate FPHE is.

I like these for two reasons. No copper and they are much longer than the common ones sold for wvo/svo. I read a couple articles about heat exchangers and found out that the longer the FPHE the more heat transfer you will get. You will also get more pressure loss but I am not too worried about that considering the pumps we have offered to us.

Thoughts, questions, comments, concerns? If anyone is interested in buying one of these I think we could get them at a cheaper price if we do a group buy. They are a lot more expensive than the copper brazed ones but I have no problem spending money where it needs to be spent and cutting corners where corners can be cut. My goal, NO POLY.

[simone0414]

Interesting. Nickel has to be better then copper but I am unsure how much better. I really have no idea if a larger 10 plate would be ok. I would guess that it would be but don't know for sure. Keep in mind all you really need to do is get the oil near 160 before the heads. The fuel rails in the heads act as I heat exchanger as well which is one reason why the 7.3 is such a good VO candidate. The V3 doesn't even come with a FPHE & we all know it works great. So a 10 plate may do just fine. My VO is 180+ coming out of my 20 plate FPHE but that is overkill. I'm ok with overkill though.

Hopefully more will chime in on this.

[CharlieC]

10 plate sounds WAY too small for the fuel demand of a PSD. I want to say that mine is 26 plate, but at least 20 and I wouldn't go any smaller. You won't regret buying a bigger FPHE than you need, but it's a PITA to tear out if it's not big enough.

Poly is the big topic right now, but there are a lot of us with copper in our systems that haven't had problems. Pick where to spend your $$. One thing all of us can agree on is that you want the biggest baddest fuel pump you can afford, for example.

[hheynow]

Nickle is the ticket as long as the price is right. My PSD has a 13 plate HE which is sufficient so going with a nickle 20 plate HE is beefy. Good price!

[simone0414]

Originally Posted by CharlieC

10 plate sounds WAY too small for the fuel demand of a PSD. I want to say that mine is 26 plate, but at least 20 and I wouldn't go any smaller. You won't regret buying a bigger FPHE than you need, but it's a PITA to tear out if it's not big enough.

Poly is the big topic right now, but there are a lot of us with copper in our systems that haven't had problems. Pick where to spend your $$. One thing all of us can agree on is that you want the biggest baddest fuel pump you can afford, for example.

There may be many running ok but it is proven fact that copper is the most reactive metal to VO. There are other options to copper that aren't too pricey.

[bbboomer]

I would have no hesitation to use the nickel brazed over the copper brazed.
In terms of reactivity, nickel is very similar to stainless and is a component of stainless.
On the other hand if you are using your system all the time how much poly could form on either? Probably not much if any.
Given enough time poly will form on anything if the conditions are right . I doubt over night would be enough but stretch that out to a week and that is a much different story.

[rlyons124]

Has anyone found any nickel brazed FPHE except for the ones on ebay or Omar sales?

[erbilabuc]

dudadiesel

[muns53]

I went through the same debate in my mind before I finally pulled the trigger on a 16-plate copper brazed FPHE. (NOTE: I only needed a "booster" heater, so the small size works perfect for me - probably need a bigger one if it's your only source of heat on the oil aside from the tank/filter.)

It was $100 vs. $300 for the nickel-plated at Omar's. I am purging mine with diesel when I shut down, so I figure that's helping cut down on the poly formation. I believe the poly problems have been in FPHE's that weren't purged of WVO upon shutdown. I figure I'll pull it off and inspect it after about a year of use. If it will last me 2-3 years, I'll just replace it in kind for another $100. If it's gunked up before then, I'll definitely replace it with something different.

[muns53]

Wow! Duda's prices rock - scratch what I said about replacing in kind... I'd replace with one of their's.