The Wilson E. Bradley Research Center contains eight environmental chambers for testing industrial process cooling equipment, high pressure refrigeration and low pressure refrigeration and components. Evapco Inc. says its 60,000 ft² facility in Taneytown, Md., is among the largest of its type in the refrigeration industries.

Specially designed environmental laboratories analyze and test cooling towers and closed-circuit coolers up to 1,400 nominal tons (6,150 kW) in capacity — greater than the capacity of the company’s largest factory-assembled units. The ammonia refrigeration laboratories consist of an environmental test chamber — for testing high side evaporative condensers up to 700 nominal ammonia tons (3,015 kW) — and a low temperature evaporator laboratory. The low temperature evaporator section is powered by a 250 hp (186.4 kW) compressor capable of -40°F (-40°C) saturated suction temperature. In addition, Evapco constructed a low charge ammonia refrigeration system test stand to assess full-scale low charge ammonia systems up to 60 refrigeration tons at -20°F saturated suction temperature.

Another area of the testing center includes an air-cooled condenser laboratory for evaluating air-cooled heat exchangers condensing steam under vacuum or a range of operating conditions.