Cold Case Radiators
- Thread starter mrblaine
- Start date
Yep. The sections between the wooden posts I think will be fewer iterations because the posts are pretty plumb and square so as long as my sections are the same width all the way down as the top rail (which I've already cut to length and test for) they should be pretty close on the first shot. The span I'm working on right now is an opening in drywall that is not square. No surprise I guess that the trim carpenter was more meticulous.
The rectangular ones we did were pretty easy to fit, drywall and rough in carpentry aside. The angled sections on the stairs were tough!
My brother had a stainless fabrication shop and did lots of that type of work. Residential stuff they would use wood like yardstick size and hot glue it together to make patterns to bring back to the shop for fabrication.
I'm saving the angle sections for last. Fortunately only two of them.
For the straight ones (of which there are 6) I built a fixture so I can place the smaller tubes (are they still called balusters when they're horizontal?) and they're by default correctly spaced, centered and square with the flat bar and the top rail. Hoping I might be able to modify it to use for the angled sections as well.
Talk about a thread detour lol
The concept holds water in that both increased tube count and fin enhancement would improve performance to allow for a core thickness reduction, which would then bring the pressure drops (which would have been decreased on the water side and increased on the air side) back toward spec.
The little photo they show to demonstrate fin enhancement is useless because it just shows the fin being narrower due to the reduced tube spacing...actual fin enhancement refers to features formed into the fin to influence air velocity, distribution, and turbulence to improve heat transfer, and can't really be shown without sectioning the fin. My employer offers 3 different fin profiles and they do make a significant impact to performance, but nothing is free - for a given core depth and fin density, a fin that offers more heat transfer will also have more pressure drop. There are also other considerations like how an evaporator might shed water or form frost.
The chart they publish is interesting because it not only shows a performance gain at the same airflow, but also less air pressure drop at a given airflow, which actually implies a compounding gain because applied with the same fan, it will see more airflow AND more performance vs airflow.
My main reservation is what they used as the benchmark "standard core". If it was a legit OEM radiator or something that truly matches it, fantastic. But as we know, basically all the aftermarket radiator suppliers claim to "meet or exceed OEM" and we know from experience that they don't.
A brief return detour to show why I'm building a 40" wide rail that goes between drywall.
