Louis A. Roser Company completed a comprehensive refrigeration system upgrade for a competition-level ice facility in the Salt Lake Valley, replacing aging heat transfer equipment, overhauling the secondary brine loop, and installing new compressor capacity with variable frequency drive control.
Facilities that host elite training and competition operate under a standard recreational rinks do not. Ice temperature, hardness, and surface consistency are performance variables that athletes and officials measure, and delivering them year after year depends on refrigeration infrastructure maintained with the same precision.
Project Background
Competition ice facilities depend on a secondary refrigeration loop, most commonly a calcium chloride brine circuit, to move heat from the ice slab to the primary system. The brine travels through piping embedded in the concrete floor, absorbs heat from the surface, and transfers it through heat exchangers to the primary system.
Maintained properly, this arrangement works for decades. It also creates several points where age erodes performance long before an outright failure occurs. Heat exchangers foul and lose transfer efficiency. Brine chemistry drifts, allowing corrosion to attack piping from the inside. Flow becomes unbalanced across the floor, producing hard and soft zones on a surface meant to be uniform. By the time this facility engaged Louis A. Roser Company, its original equipment had reached the point where continued reliance presented real operational risk.
Project goals included:
- Replacing aging heat transfer equipment before failure interrupted operations
- Protecting the long-term integrity of the in-floor piping system
- Reducing electrical consumption and operating costs
- Restoring uniform temperature control across the full ice surface
- Establishing ongoing monitoring so system condition is known, not assumed
Scope of Work
Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger Replacement
The facility’s shell-and-tube heat exchangers had reached the end of their reliable service life. These units are the handoff between the brine loop and the primary system, and their condition governs how efficiently heat is pulled from the ice slab.
As tubes foul, scale, or corrode, transfer efficiency declines. The system compensates by running longer and colder to hold the same ice temperature, increasing energy consumption and accelerating wear upstream. A tube failure also risks cross-contamination between fluid circuits. Louis A. Roser Company replaced the aging exchangers with new units, restoring designed performance and removing a significant single point of failure.
Brine Flush and Replacement
Calcium chloride brine is not a set-and-forget fluid. Over years of service it accumulates suspended solids and drifts chemically. As pH falls outside its target range and inhibitor levels deplete, the brine turns from a protective heat transfer medium into a corrosive one that attacks the piping it circulates through.
That piping is embedded in the concrete floor, and replacing it means demolishing and rebuilding the slab. The existing brine was fully flushed and replaced with new, properly formulated fluid, removing accumulated contaminants and re-establishing correct chemistry throughout the loop.
Brine Monitoring and Chemical Treatment
Replacing the brine solves the immediate problem. Keeping it within specification is what protects the floor long term. Louis A. Roser Company added monitoring and chemical treatment capabilities, giving facility staff ongoing visibility into fluid condition and the means to correct chemistry before corrosion begins.
New Compressor with Variable Frequency Drive
A new compressor equipped with a variable frequency drive was installed to reduce electrical costs.
Ice facilities rarely operate at full load. Demand shifts with outside air temperature, humidity, event schedules, and occupancy. A fixed-speed compressor meets that variability by cycling on and off at full output, wasting energy at part load. A VFD allows the compressor to modulate continuously to match actual demand, lowering consumption across the operating range, steadying suction pressure, and reducing the start-stop wear that shortens compressor life.
Full Flow Balance of the Calcium Chloride Brine
With new exchangers, new brine, and new compressor capacity in place, the system was commissioned with a full flow balance of the brine circuit.
This step ties the entire upgrade to ice quality. The floor contains many parallel piping circuits, and flow distributes unevenly across them without deliberate balancing. Uneven flow produces uneven heat extraction, which is exactly what a competition venue cannot tolerate: soft spots, hard zones, and inconsistent surface behavior across the sheet. Balancing ensures every portion of the slab receives its designed flow.
Project Results
Extended equipment life. New heat exchangers eliminated the most immediate failure risk and restored heat transfer performance the system had gradually lost.
Protected in-floor piping. The brine flush, replacement, and new monitoring and treatment capabilities defend the embedded piping against internal corrosion.
Lower electrical costs. The VFD-equipped compressor matches output to real demand rather than cycling at full load.
Consistent, uniform ice. The full flow balance restored even heat extraction across the slab, supporting the surface consistency that competition-level use requires.
An Ongoing Service Relationship
The facility continues to rely on Louis A. Roser Company for regular service on this equipment. A retrofit is a moment in time, but performance at this level is continuous. Scheduled service, brine chemistry monitoring, and preventive maintenance keep a well-executed upgrade delivering results in year five and year ten.
Expertise in Ice Rink and Industrial Refrigeration
Ice rink refrigeration is industrial equipment judged by how the ice feels to the people using it. Louis A. Roser Company brings more than a century of experience to that challenge, serving competition venues, community and municipal rinks, hockey facilities, bobsled tracks, and recreational ice centers.
Serving the Western United States
Louis A. Roser Company provides industrial refrigeration engineering, design, construction, and service throughout Utah, Idaho, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Headquartered in Salt Lake City with additional locations in Idaho and California, the company supports facilities that depend on reliable, high-performance refrigeration systems.
If your ice facility is facing aging heat exchangers, brine system concerns, rising energy costs, or ice quality inconsistencies, Louis A. Roser Company can evaluate your system and recommend a path forward.