With hundreds of on-site visits made every year, we have literally seen it all. That includes coils that you can’t actually see! Like this recent job at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.

The customer was replacing three, aging chilled water coils that were hidden behind a wall. Capturing precise measurements for each chilled water coil was imperative, so the customer wouldn’t have to do any re-piping.

From the tag, we knew we were measuring a Trane AHU-1 M-Series with three different-sized chilled water coils. What we didn’t know, was that most of the coils were hidden behind a wall and we couldn’t access them.

Since we couldn’t see the coils, we got creative and located set points to measure from — in this case, the vents.

The vents were used as reference points to determine the bottom of each chilled water coil casing. Each vent is located exactly 1/2 inch above the bottom of the coil casing, which gave us a consistent measurement baseline. For coils that were not fully visible, we measured from the vents that extended through the wall and added 1/2 inch to account for the distance to the bottom of the casing. We then added half of the connection diameter to pinpoint the exact connection location. Using this method allowed us to accurately determine casing heights and connection points, even in areas that were not directly visible.

When replacing a coil — hidden or not — going with an experienced team like Nationwide Coils ensures the replacement will fit perfectly and perform properly, every time.