SWEP B10T

The B10TS and V10T share the B10T's 289 x 119 mm plate and 39.63 GPM ceiling, so the three look the same on a wall. They are not interchangeable. The SWEP B10TS is the All-Stainless version: 316 plates with stainless braze, for systems that must be copper free or run hot. The V10T is an evaporator on 316/316L plates, built for refrigerant on one side.

The B20 is a neighbor, not a variant. It is 324 x 94 mm, taller and narrower, with a 42.71 GPM ceiling, 316 channel plates with 304 covers, and it is a single-circuit unit aimed at heat pumps. None of these can be ordered from a B10T nameplate.

Liquid-to-liquid work where a close approach matters and the flow is moderate.

Look elsewhere in four cases. Ammonia or deionized water needs a copper-free unit, and the B10TS covers that in the same footprint. A refrigerant evaporator duty belongs on the V10T. Chloride-bearing water such as a pool loop is hard on the 304 plates of the datasheet build. And a design flow near the 39.63 GPM ceiling needs larger ports, which means another frame, not more plates.

The catalogued strings on file run from 10 to 116 plates, and the frame goes to 140. Adding plates adds surface and splits each stream across more channels, so the approach temperature tightens and the pressure drop falls together. Few other selection changes improve both.

The limits are these. The ports do not grow with the pack, so the gain flattens as the count climbs. Depth and weight grow steadily: by SWEP's formula a 116-plate unit is about 12.3 kg (27.1 lb) dry and a 140-plate unit about 14.6 kg (32.2 lb). And an over-plated unit runs slow in the channels and fouls sooner.

Both exist, and the material code says which. The datasheet build is NC: 304 plates with copper braze, the lower-cost choice for ordinary treated water in closed loops. The catalogued strings on file are SC: 316/316L plates with copper braze, the general-duty choice and the safer one where the water quality is uncertain or the loop is open.

Neither suits ammonia or deionized water, since both use copper braze. Neither is a chloride answer: 316 pits in chloride-bearing water and 304 has less margin still. When replacing, order the code that is on the nameplate.

Start with the frame: 289 x 119 mm across the plate and 243 x 72 mm between port centres. Count the plates on the pack edge. That gets you to "B10T, so many plates", which is half the string.

The other half is what cannot be measured. A B10TS and a V10T have the same footprint, so look at the braze color at the plate edges - copper-colored on a B10T, not on the All-Stainless unit - and tell us whether refrigerant was on one side. Material code and pressure class are the usual casualties; on file this frame appears in both M and S classes. Give us the operating pressures and temperatures and we will confirm the class.

No. 39.63 GPM (9 m3/h) is the most the ports will pass, not a flow to select at. A unit run at its port ceiling spends its pressure drop in the ports before the plates have done any work.

A real selection lands well below the ceiling and is set by the pressure drop the pump can spare. If the duty flow is in the upper part of the range and the pressure drop will not come down by adding plates, the ports are the restriction. That is the point to move to a frame with larger connections in the same 18 to 75 GPM band, such as the SWEP B12.

These models are catalogued alongside the B10T. Each has its own page with its dimensions, materials and part numbers.

SWEP B10TS - An All-Stainless brazed plate heat exchanger - 316 plates, stainless braze, no copper.

SWEP V10T - SWEP's most compact evaporator, 289 x 119 mm, copper-brazed 316/316L, up to 141 plates.

SWEP B20 - Ultra-compact single-circuit brazed plate heat exchanger aimed at heat pumps, to 42.71 GPM.