Put simply, a heat exchanger is a device which transfers heat from one medium to another, a hydraulic oil cooler, for example, will remove heat from hot oil by using cold water or air.

It is common knowledge amongst heat exchanger designers that a counter flow heat exchanger installation is more efficient than the parallel flow alternative, but for everyone else it can be a bit of a mystery. In this article we will explain what counter flow is and why it is more efficient than parallel flow.

If you've ever researched liquid cooled products, you may have come across two options, shell and tube or plate heat exchangers. Both the shell and tube and plate type heat exchangers work with the same principles, exchanging heat between two fluids through thermal conduction, but with very different construction methods