Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The budget way to cool a tube is a bucket of water and a pond pump. This works for low power tubes in a cool climate (so it is thought). If your tube is more powerful, you will be persuaded spend more money and buy a CW3000. In reality this is still a bucket, pond pump and fan but housed in a fancy case. If the room temperature is greater than the temperature you want to run your tube at (most think that is 20C), then both these cooling systems will actually HEAT your cooling water. Hmmm.
So it appears that only a refrigeration based cooling system offers the 20C control confidence that most believe they must have.
Why 20C??? What is the evidence for this "ideal" temperature?
In this session, I decode how a refigeration system works and how it's operating efficiency changes significantly with demand temperature. A CW5200 has 1500 watts of cooling potential if used efficiently. However, running at 20C is far from efficient. I build and analyse my own very efficient 500watt chiller system that has the capabilty to support a 150 watt tube. In the process it provokes some interesting questions.
When you understand how your tube is specified, perhaps a bigger bucket and a different temperature mindset is all most laser users ever need.
The budget way to cool a tube is a bucket of water and a pond pump. This works for low power tubes in a cool climate (so it is thought). If your tube is more powerful, you will be persuaded spend more money and buy a CW3000. In reality this is still a bucket, pond pump and fan but housed in a fancy case. If the room temperature is greater than the temperature you want to run your tube at (most think that is 20C), then both these cooling systems will actually HEAT your cooling water. Hmmm.
So it appears that only a refrigeration based cooling system offers the 20C control confidence that most believe they must have.
Why 20C??? What is the evidence for this "ideal" temperature?
In this session, I decode how a refigeration system works and how it's operating efficiency changes significantly with demand temperature. A CW5200 has 1500 watts of cooling potential if used efficiently. However, running at 20C is far from efficient. I build and analyse my own very efficient 500watt chiller system that has the capabilty to support a 150 watt tube. In the process it provokes some interesting questions.
When you understand how your tube is specified, perhaps a bigger bucket and a different temperature mindset is all most laser users ever need.
