How to Rent Mechanical Equipment

Kruse’s focus on commercial construction, retrofit, and service brings to question the differences between commercial buildings and the residential buildings most people are familiar with. Is there really so much of a change from one to the other, that Kruse can focus entirely on commercial projects?

While both commercial and residential buildings (hopefully) keep the rain out, this comparison doesn’t get you far if work needs to be done on the building itself. From profoundly different building codes, to solutions that are suitable for larger commercial buildings, the “how” of a commercial building’s maintenance and repair can be a world apart from the maintenance for your home.

This means, while work on residential and commercial buildings both require planning, those plans can be vastly different. All the more different are the solutions once emergency strikes.

The short answer is that sometimes you need to rent a chiller, and our applied division is more than happy to take care of you when the need for a rental chiller strikes. The long answer is how we know a chiller rental is needed, and what the process of renting a chiller even looks like for your building, should the need arise. To walk through this answer, we have a very recent case that shows this specific but severe problem that Kruse is ready to solve with incredible efficiency.

This venue heavily relies on its main building for high-dollar events. Like many event venues, there is a profound amount of advanced booking that relies on the building to be ready once the time comes, which can become a problem when the need for updated cooling goes from a 2-year question to a “this week” one.

Installation of a new system takes time. From getting an aging system out to ordering, shipping, and delivering a new piece of equipment. A major factor in helping this along has been placing more mechanical equipment outside, from the package HVAC units on smaller commercial buildings to more dedicated systems like chillers and DOAS (Dedicated Outdoor Air System) units, but changeout can still take months or even years.

When our client’s cooling gave out at the height of wedding season, a different solution had to be reached. Cue the rental chiller.

What Even Is a Chiller?

For the uninitiated, the goal of a chiller is essentially the same as your air conditioner at home, the difference is what it makes cold. Where your conventional AC cools a coil that air is forced through to cool your house, a chiller cools water. That water is then conveyed in a large loop around a building more effectively than a fully ducted system can. From this loop of mechanical pipe, there are branches that feed smaller units that are responsible for opening and closing valves to let chilled water in the path of a forced air system.

This system allows for a single piece of equipment to serve a very large building with individual temperature control throughout the building, and it achieves efficiency due to the scale of cooling that it provides.

Applied systems like these chillers are very common throughout Kansas. While we’d love to say that equipment like this can last forever, most property owners have to be prepared to replace a chiller every 15-20 years. In that space of uncertainty, disaster can happen.

Day 1-2. The Emergency. The Transportation.

The call went out during some of the hottest days this summer (we hope), and it was looking like they would need to cancel some very large-scale events. Kruse got the call on Tuesday. By Wednesday, a space on site was determined and our chiller was shipped.

Day 3: Pipefitters Fighting the Good Fight

Thursday began the real work as our pipefitting team filed in to connect this equipment to the existing pipe system. It was also defined by rain, because even the weather knows that it’s rude to go easy on pipefitters.

This job had two different materials for the supply and the return water. For one, we used Schedule 80 PVC pipe, known for its durability in extreme temperatures and fetching gray hue. For the other, we used Victaulic fittings and a specialized hose because cutting and grooving that much cast-iron verges in the space of permanent install. These were mostly done for routing purposes. One cut-in would have been too obstructive to the day-to-day work if it was a hosed system, while the other was far enough out of the way that the time-saving of a large hose became an advantage again.

These are tapped in to the original piping using temporary fixtures. the tie-ins are focused on flanged connections to assure that everything can be disconnected once the chiller is no longer needed

It’s hard to overstate what can happen in a day. From developing a plan of attack that works the first time, to cutting pipe and having necessary joints on hand, there’s an incredible amount of skill at play, but the fun doesn’t stop here.

Day 4: All Coming Together

On Friday, our lead Applied technician for Wichita, Brian Doffing, sets up the chiller itself. In preparation for a job like this, Brian has done extensive inspections and maintenance to tune this equipment for withstanding travel to multiple locations, as well as being able to deliver the chilling needed for as long as required. This means the lion’s share of questions and wrinkles that can occur with this complex machinery have all been answered months ago, as Kruse acquired equipment to provide this service.

With this installation’s same-week turnover, this venue is back up and running! Rather than sacrificing a whole season’s worth of revenue for their property over one mechanical failure, Kruse empowered this facility to keep delivering great events to their market.

Every solution we provide starts somewhere. The recent acquisition of our rental chillers has presented Kruse with a question we’ve often faced: how do we get that first job? With this project, we don’t just have hypotheticals, we can show you exactly what happens when a unique problem needs an immediate solution.

The good news is that this solution is far beyond the scope of what almost any residential system would require, but for the people that rely on their buildings as a primary business partner, they know who to contact when the unexpected happens.