From the November 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Why buy refurbished?
The most obvious reason to purchase a used medical chiller is, of course, the lower cost. Another reason customers may be motivated to buy refurbished is for a quicker delivery time.

“I’ve had people call me at five o’clock in the afternoon wanting to know if they could send a courier to pick up a chiller that night,” says Chiller City’s Wylde. “Not very many people are going to do that for them.” He adds, “In the medical industry that sometimes makes all the difference in the world; to get the stuff delivered as fast as possible.”
Recent trends
One of the biggest trends in the sector—similar to that of any business in the current economy—has been the growing amount of customers who are looking for opportunities to save money. One way for them to do that is to seek out a high-quality chiller that will provide them with as much operating time as possible.

“Uptime is extremely important to [customers],” says Filtrine’s Hansel. “If an MRI is down, they’re losing money and that’s a lot of money. It’s not just an inconvenience; it hits the bottom line. So people understand that you can buy cheap and possibly save money today, but [you will] lose money tomorrow.”

Wylde says that the biggest trend he has noticed is the market’s lack of available spare parts. “Everybody’s trying to cut costs, so the easy way to cut costs—at least in the near term—is not keeping spare parts for anything on hand like they used to,” he says. “So when something breaks, they’re just frantic to try and replace it.” As a refurbisher, this trend has been beneficial to Wylde’s business.

Cold Shot Chillers’ Marrone has noticed that more and more customers seem to want their chillers to be hooked up to building management software, a computerized system that controls and monitors a building’s electrical and mechanical equipment.

Going green is the way to go
In recent years, the chillers sector has been shifting toward more environmentally friendly technology. “Energy efficient stuff is definitely at the forefront of everybody’s mind in the market,” says Johnson Thermal Systems’ Sheri Johnson.


One of the most popular ways that chillers are becoming more energy efficient is with an economizer, which uses free cooling. “When it’s cold outside, we don’t have to spend a bunch of money running a refrigeration system to make 45 degree water when it’s 20 degrees outside; you let the air do it,” explains Jeff Johnson, vice president and sales engineer for Johnson Thermal Systems.

November 2011 Magazine

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