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Troubleshooting2026-08-0710 min read

Heat Exchanger Troubleshooting

If duty has fallen, decide whether the process changed, the unit is dirty, the bundle is bypassing, or a leak is mixing streams — before you buy a larger exchanger.

troubleshootingfoulingleakperformance

Performance complaints are usually one of: lower heat transfer, higher pressure drop, or contamination from a leak. Treat them separately.

Duty lower than design

  • Confirm the process case: flow, inlet temperatures, and composition vs the datasheet.
  • Check instrumentation (orifice plates, RTDs) before blaming the exchanger.
  • Fouling: approach temperatures close up; ΔP often rises.
  • Bypass: missing or damaged sealing strips, baffle-to-shell leakage, or a failed longitudinal baffle on F-shells.
  • Vapour binding or non-condensables in a condenser vent path.

Pressure drop higher than design

Debris at inlets, crushed packing, collapsed tubes, or severe fouling. Do not raise pump speed as a permanent fix without checking vibration and erosion.

Cross-contamination

Tube leaks, gasket blow-by at the tubesheet, or a cracked pass partition. Isolate, depressurise per procedure, and hydro or dye-check as the ITP allows. Mixing of the two fluids is a safety issue when they are incompatible — treat it as such.

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