35
K.
COGEN, COMBINED HEAT AND POWER (CHP) & COLD-WEATHER CLIMATE
APPLICATIONS
Rocore’s limited warranty does not apply to our standard solder-bonded construction
radiator products that are used for severe-duty cooling systems such as cogen, heat
recovery, combined heat and power (CHP), dump radiators or any other system that
subjects the radiator to regular occurrences of thermal shock, unless the system is
designed to eliminate the thermal shocking.
This is especially the case for cold climates where a relatively cold radiator is thermally
shocked when it is suddenly subjected to hot coolant. The solder joint construction used
to bond the radiator’s core tubes to the radiator’s headers will eventually fail from
stresses created by the thermal expansion and contraction of the surrounding materials.
A proven method to avoid the above thermal shocking problem is to constantly circulate
some hot coolant through the radiator during any time that the system is in operation.
This can be done by adding a weep hole to the engine’s thermostats or by adding a
weep hole to an external thermostatic valve.
An alternative is to use another style of radiator product, such as Rocore’s Model RH or
Model MB radiators, that do not have solder-bonded construction and do include
provisions that allow for thermal expansion. Consult Rocore engineering for
recommendations.