Why you need a Shell and tube heat exchanger?
Shell and Tube heat exchangers have long been the heat exchanger of choice by chemical processing plants that have the need to heat and/or cool chemicals in their daily process. Shell and Tube heat exchangers are more dependable than any of the other vast array of heat exchangers that these chemical processing plants must choose from. Unlike the very popular gasketed Plate and Frame heat exchangers, there are very few gaskets to worry with as opposed to the plate and frame heat exchangers that have dozens if not hundreds of expensive gaskets. Quite often, the gaskets for these heat exchangers are more expensive than the heat transfer plates themselves. With a limited life cycle of the plate gaskets, the cost to replace these gaskets quite often approaches the original cost of the entire heat exchanger. Plus, it is not uncommon to need to replace these gaskets every 2 to 3 years. That original low price that was paid for these types of heat exchangers in now negated by this sudden cost