The copper/aluminum coils that you see are the condenser coils and it is refrigerant (freon) that flows thru those coils and the fan blows air over them to keep them cool and is an "refrigerant to air" heat exchanger. The heat from your tank is being expelled in this process. This section gets warm/hot just like a window a/c does on the outside.
The silver insulation (to the right over the condenser coils) is covering the evaporator coil where the water flows thru a reef safe titanium "water to refrigerant" heat exchanger. The heat from your tank is being removed in this process. This is the section that gets cold just like a window a/c does on the inside.
Just make sure that you clean the filter that should be attached to the cover, blow out the condenser coils with an air can for cleaning keyboards (do it outside and down wind so you don't inhale the dust), and get 2-3 gallons of distilled white vinegar, a 5 gallon bucket, some hoses and a pump.
The pump should be pumping into the "OUT" side and draining out of the "IN" side. Dump the 2-3 gallons of vinegar into the 5 gallon bucket and fill the rest with water. It is best to have a filter sock in the bucket so that all outgoing water/sediment has to pass thru the sock and the sock collects the debris.
Let it run for a week just circulating water/vinegar mix thru it. DO NOT plug in the chiller. You can even switch the direction of flow to make sure that it all gets freed up.
Reason for this is because the inside of the chiller can be caked up with sediment, especially calcium, and you can waste a ton of electric running the chiller because if those inner walls of the evaporator are caked with anything, it will stop the heat of the water from being able to exchange with the refrigerant in the evaportor which defeats the purpose of having a chiller.
...and just set it up on your counter with the bucket in your sink with running tap water going into the bucket and the pump, pumping the tap water into your chiller BUT draining into the sink for about 10-20 minutes to get the vinegar out after the week is up. Just test it on the 5 gallon bucket to make sure that it drops temp after you're done rinsing it and hook the pump up to the "IN" side for the test run.
You may even find these directions on Current's website but it will be vague as to the amount of time vinegar should be ran. If there is only a little bit of sediment then you don't have to do much, if there is a lot of sediment then you'll have to clean it for an extended, indefinite amount of time. If it hadn't been cleaned in the 5 years (for agrument sake) that it was used, it may take longer than a week to clean it expecially with a heavily dosed SPS & clam tank.
Best of luck!
. i had been using this chiller for more than 3 yrs. now. no problem with any corals or invert at all. i have a 300 gal. sps dominated mixed reef.
