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How can the Vapochill LS unit get so darn cold?!
In essence, there are four key mechanisms on the go in a phase change system. These parts are connected in a closed loop by tubing, this loop is filled with refrigerant which acts as a transport medium for the heat. Hence the name phase change as this coolant is when it is absorbing a huge amount of heat is changing from a liquid to a gas.
So the coolant is the moving around heat. The refrigerant material is unusual in that it has a very low boiling (or vaporizing) point well below 0°C at atmospheric pressure and a freezing point more than 100°C below zero. It is liquid when cold but easily becomes a vapor when heated and vice versa.
The circle of life heat
Please have a look at the image on your right. Basically we have a compressor in the heart of the VapoChill LS which takes the refrigerant in a warm low pressure gaseous state, and compresses it into a high pressure gaseous state before sending it to another level in the circuitry, the condenser.
A condenser is pretty much nothing more than a radiator equipped with a cooling fan. At this stage the refrigerant releases it's heat and it is the point where that heat is exhausted from the loop. Once heat has been removed the refrigerant changes phase again and condenses from the high-pressure gas to a high pressure liquid fluid.
When the fluid exits from the condenser it'll pass through the capillary tube. A very simple yet important part of a phase change system as it is the part where gas and fluid still both in the system are separated and create flow. A capillary tube is a very small diameter copper tube that creates a restriction in the loop. This restriction maintains the refrigerant in a high pressure liquid state on one side and a low pressure gaseous state on the other. Without this restraint, the refrigerant would never change phase so no cooling would take place.
The Evaporator chamber, where the magic happens.
The last in the process is the evaporator, the spot where daddy is doing business. Pretty much this is the cooling block mounted onto the CPU. The refrigerant is exiting the restraining capillary tube and enters the evaporator chamber, here the pressure will now drop and allows the coolant to rapidly change from a liquid state to a gaseous state, it is exactly in this momentum that the coolant will absorbs a colossal amount of heat. So the coolant changed phase again yet this time picked up all that heat and is now a low pressure gas. The heated gas now travels towards the compressor and the entire cycle is starting all over again.
This is a pretty simply explanation of what is happening inside the Asetek VapoChill LS. This method works so well that you can gain temperatures of -54 Degrees C (at the Evaporator position).
