[tt_bala]

Hello there guys, I have been using Ice for years... Tons of ice, More ice than water. And I pump the water out every so often to make the ice last, since I am cutting 8 hours per day +. I have never had a problem with laser power, I replace the tube once on my 50W cutter.
I do get condenssation and I have been reading it's bad?

Is it really bad to get condensation on the tube?

Well, now, I have a 80W machine. Should I continue to use Ice? Or will this chiller be enough?

I read somewhere this chiller is crap, But I would like your opinion please.
I want to take better care of my 80W, the laser tube is like double the price, and I want it to last as long as my 50W is lasting.

***Note, I cut at 15 to 19% power only, but with the bigger work area on the new machine, I want to experience cutting some thicker materials etc.

Thanks guys, have a great day.

[GerryG]

What sort of temperature range are you working in? I never found anything more than a chiller to be necessary - ice sounds like total overkill to me. Set the chiller to keep the water somwhere between 14 and 18 celcius, and I don't see any reason why the tube would fail in a hurry. I ran three 90W machines 8 hours a day for years with that arrangement, and never had a tube failure. This included cutting at the full power range, from 15% for light engraving, right through to 100% at <15mm/s for thick acrylic and plywood.

[fixtureman1]

If you want a real chiller move up to a CW 5000 or CW 5200 the CW 3000 is just a radiator that a fan blows across so it will never get below the temp in your shop

[tt_bala]

Thank you for the response guys. This really helped, I never knew the cw 3000 wasnt refrigerated. I would never install this cooler on my machine lol, these tubes can get pretty hot when you are running them all day every day.

The shop stays at 65F~100F depending in weather.
I wanted a chiller, because adding ice, removing water from bucket due to the ice melting and creating more water, opening and closing the bucket, dust gets in there, etc etc etc. A chiller would save me a bunch of time.

I will go with the cw 5000 ! Healthy tube, happy tube !

[Dtcrafts]

hi
if you can get one go for the cw 5200
they are both the same kit but the 5200 has a biult in gas re charge nipple where the 5000 does not

Dave

[tt_bala]

Ohhhh wow, thank you. I will certainly keep that in mind. That way in the future if I have a problem I dont have to suffer trying to braze a mickey mouse fitting on the cw 5000

[fixtureman1]

How many times do you have to recharge your refrigerator.

[Dtcrafts]

Hopefully never but its nice to know it can be done easily should it need to be done

[Dean448]

I’m using a 5200 on a 50W tube and it has no problems keeping up. I was using a 5000 with ice and went thru a lot of ice. I try to hold it to 16 degrees.
The 5200 is a solid unit.


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[fixtureman1]

I run a cw 5000 on my 130 watt laser with no problems

[teyuchillers]

If you run the equipment all day, CW-3000 is not enough, please choose CW-5000 chiller