The Whalen Company had an extraordinary time showing attendees and customers what the company has to help them in the business. Before the AHR Expo even began, the company threw a customer appreciation reception at the Groovy Goat. There, guests enjoyed the Super Bowl on over 65 TVs, with an open bar and food.

There was a preview of what would be on display the next day at the booth as well. One of those new products was the Inteli-therm™ Vertical Stack Fan Coil. Designed to be stacked from floor to floor, this product utilizes vertical supply and return risers in buildings such as hotels, apartments, condominiums, nursing homes, and dormitories. They help reduce time, material, and labor requirements, as the units arrive fully assembled with factory-installed piping packages, controls, and risers.

A small footprint allows the units to be furred into columns, walls, or closets without the need for horizontal connection piping. In the product, the heating and cooling coil pack uses just four fasteners for easy accessibility. After unhooking these fasteners, the entire coil pack slides out without much effort.

“It is unique in that not only do we have a slide-out coil pack that we can quickly slide out, but if we wanted to just throw the whole coil out or do any type of maintenance or replacement, we very easily could,” said Tony Landers, vice president of sales and marketing, The Whalen Company. “Then we can slide it back in, or we can even pull it completely out of the unit if we wanted to. Rather than work on the unit in the occupied space, we could take it down to the maintenance shop or somewhere else, or if we’re in a hurry, we could just change it out entirely and then work on it at a later time. We can very quickly get the unit back running with little or no downtime.”

Another feature of the Inteli-therm Vertical Stack Fan Coil is the integrated ERV in the top section of the unit. According to Landers, this allows the unit to take room air from the bathroom, exchange it through the ERV exhausted outside and to pretreat the outside air that’s coming in.

“We can then take the air and drop it right into the return section so that we are bringing in conditioned air, but we’re also filtering that air before it goes back into the space,” he explained.

Another item at the booth that drew a lot of interest was the Insta-Lock™ connection technology that is standard on the company’s heat pump unit on a vertical stack and is optional for other units. The braided hose with push to connect feature started shipping the first of 2020 and was designed to be a quick connect hose so that installers don’t have to be concerned with getting the proper torque on the connection.

“This only pushes on and locks into place,” said Landers. “We have color bands so we can determine visually the supply and return and whether it is hot or cold. There is also a visual indicator to ensure that the connection is locked.”

Visual confirmation, however, is not the only sense used in connecting these lines. When the connection is made properly, the user can hear it click.

“Because it makes an audible sound, if we’re in an installation where we can’t see it, we can listen for it to make sure it’s engaged,” said Landers. “And when you hear that click, you know you are good to go.”

Also in the booth was a section for Nyle Water Heating Systems. Landers described it as currently a standalone partnership, but pointed out how well the company fits into the overall HVAC system.

“We have to have a method to introduce hot water into the building — and with the Nyle unit, it’s essentially a hot water heat pump,” he said.

One of the byproducts of a heat pump in cooling mode is hot water.

“The Nyle unit allows us to take that hot water and, rather than just circulate that within the HVAC loop, we can use it in the sink, in the kitchen, and for any other areas where we need hot water,” he said.

After the show, the company will be working on expanding its packaged product line of horizontal and vertical heat pumps.

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