Paul Mueller Company Academy

This article is dedicated to identifying issues your plate heat exchanger (PHE) might be having, and setting you on the path to the right solution. Nearly all issues boil down to some form of plate fouling or gasket failure, but it’s important to determine whether it’s a one-time problem or an inherent flaw in your system (the PHE is specified incorrectly). The first step is to identify the symptoms of your underperforming heat exchanger.

Plate heat exchangers (PHEs) are a highly useful industrial component for passively (without extra energy) controlling fluid temperatures using other fluids that may already be part of the industrial process. Here’s a brief explanation of how they work and their benefits, as well as links to additional resources on plate heat exchangers.

On occasion, a plate heat exchanger (PHE) can fail when a plate develops a small crack or in some rare instances when a gasket is dislodged or damaged. When one of these failures causes the two fluids to mix, it’s called a differential leak. This can be particularly damaging in the food, beverage and chemical industries, and can lead to significant downtime. Fortunately, plate heat exchangers are modular, and once the defective plate or gasket is located, it and an adjacent plate simply need to be removed and the PHE can go back into service, operating at a slightly decreased capacity until you acquire the replacements. So how do you find the defective plate? We’ve outlined four simple steps below.