We have tried and tested the new chiller from Teco new line Tank Chiller Line, the Teco TK 500, throughout last summer and this winter, and we can only proclaim it the king of chiller. [versione italiana]
Teco had unveiled a preview of its new line of refrigerators last year at its offices and on that occasion we had left two chillers very different to try, the Teco TK 500, the subject of this review, and Teco TK 150 , the subject of a forthcoming review.
We see together the technical characteristics of these chillers, completely redesigned and profoundly different from its predecessors, the Teco TR 15 (review) and the series to which belonged which we reviewed a few years ago.
The chiller has a very different shape from what we used to see, where the TR15 was a “parallelepiped” the new TK 500 is basically a cube, and given the same plant were created the TK series with different heights, TK 500, 1000 and 2000, as we can see in the following pictures of all the new models.
TECO, company based in Ravenna, Italy, has in its catalog several chillers to choose from the most suitable. The range currently consists of the following specific models for Aquariums:
| Technical Data | TK 150 | TK 500 | TK 1000 | TK 2000 |
| Cooling Power | 150 w | 240 w | 340 w | 480 w |
| Ecological Gas | R134A | R134a | R134a | R134A |
| Minimum water flow | 400 lt/h | 400 lt/h | 500 lt/h | 600 lt/h |
| Tank volume (water temp. 25° C-ambient temp.° C 30-thermal load 0.5 w/lt) | up to 150 lt | up to 500 lt | tu to 1000 lt | up to 2000 lt |
| Dimensions | 215x361x315 (h) mm | 310x310x416 (h) mm | 310x310x458 (h) mm | 310x310x500 (h) mm |
| Weight | 16,5 kg | 19,7 kg | 21,4 kg | |
| Connections | by fitting 1/2 “-12 mm hose int. diameter | by fitting 3/4 “-16 mm tube diameter int. | by fitting 3/4 “-16 mm tube diameter int. | by fitting 3/4 “-16 mm tube diameter int. |
Until the previous series each chiller existed in two versions, the base version TR working only as chiller and the equipped version TC that integrates inside even a heater. The current choice is to equip all three larger chillers with a 400 watts heater, and of course leave the small TK150 without the chance to do so.
Building
The new Chiller Teco Tank TK 500 was designed from the ground up and forgetting just about everything seen so far. And his form is here to testify.
It starts from a square of 31 cm which is placed the cooling coil and at the top is located a large fan which serves to evacuate the hot air coming from the cooling group.
This type of path of the warm air leads to a huge improvement on the paper. First of all the construction that places the air inlet at the front and the upper exit exploits the convective motions of the hot air, so the flow is naturally risen upwards, thus increasing the efficiency, and the generous size fan allows to decrease noise much better than the two fans present in previous models. Thanks to larger dimension can rotate much more slowly with the same evacuated air.
But the news does not end here, because the designers of Teco have had a stroke of genius, even if the idea came to us of MagnaRomagna guys during the first Teco Open Day held at Aquarium of Cattolica, where we had asked to have the outlet also in the front and not only in the back. To avoid the problems of positioning inside the cabinet of the old models as you can see here. But Teco took this idea and expanded it by designing a removable top that can be rotated in any direction.
The system is so ingenious and extremely versatile. Moreover the top has been constructed so as to be able to connect to an “extender“; that can be easily mounted on an opening made in the cabinet, and for which Teco itself provides a template to make the hole in the cabinet with easy. Furthermore, these extenders may also be coupled so as to also cover a larger space.
Very ingenious and practical. Definitely a step forward compared to the old unbelievable chillers.
