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Direct Expansion v's Ice Bank

  • 27-01-2012 9:51pm
    #1
    TheWeasel
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12 ✭


    Hi Guys & Girls, This is my 1st Time Posting a Thread on Boards, I'm more of Facebook Person :D.. I am Looking at Bulk Tanks at the Moment, I've had Mueller, Dari-kool & Paco out to my yard trying to sell their Tank. Of course each one will tell they have the best Product on the Market! But im finding it hard to Pass Paco, cos we have a Paco here for over 35 years,& the trouble it gave was very Little over that time. & its still going perfect. My Question is which system is cheaper to Run? & Which is better? Direct Expansion or Ice-Bank? With electricity prices on the Rise its going to be one of the Biggest costs on Farms in the Future! Ice-Bank seem to be about 3,ooo euro dearer & im wondering why this is, they also take up more space "Height" Which could pose a Problem with me... Just Wondering what people think? Sorry for the Long Post :)..


Comments

  • #2
    TheWeasel
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12 ✭TheWeasel


    Anyone any advice or experience of either? Thanks.


  • #3
    5live
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,438 ✭✭✭5live


    TheWeasel wrote: »
    Anyone any advice or experience of either? Thanks.
    We have DX with years and are happy enough with it.
    The only issue of ice bank V DX for us was collection time. With Ice Bank the fresh milk hits the tank at 4 degrees, ideally, whereas in DX it can be over 10 degrees even with a good plate cooler. So you can get collected right at the end of milking with no temperature penalty with the ice bank but have a good bit of cooling still with DX.

    A lot will depend on the ammount of ice you can build and the volume of water you can put through the plate cooler (in both types) to reduce the milk temperature before hitting the 4 degree coolant from the ice bank or the milk itself in DX. The more water the lower the temp of the milk and the lower cooling casts overall.

    I tried the Farmers journal for a link as they had an article on both a while back but nothing came up. Maybe you might have better luck or someone else might post a link for you. Hope thats some help


  • #4
    TheWeasel
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12 ✭TheWeasel


    Thanks for your reply 5live, very helpful. We don't have a plate cooler and our milk is collected around 5am usually so the cooling wouldn't affect us. It's looking like we will probably go with DX as it would fit in better, we're a bit caught for space in our dairy. Just wanted to know if anyone had experience of either, good to hear that you haven't had any problems with DX. Another thing was if we had a power cut the Ice Bank would be better as the ice would be built up but I suppose it isn't very often we would get a power cut anyway.

    I have a load of old Farmers Journals here so I'll have a look through them, see can I find that article. Thanks again for your help.


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