York YVAM

Air-cooled magnetic-bearing centrifugal chiller with no cooling tower or condenser water loop

York YVAM is one of 5 chillers tracked in the SecondWatt catalogue, each with specifications, lead times and indicative secondary-market pricing.

Chilled water is only the upstream half of a high-density cooling loop: once heat is picked up at the die rather than in the room, the plant feeds coolant distribution units and immersion tanks tracked under liquid cooling, which run off the same chilled-water supply as the units on this page. The catalogue entries closest to that decision are CoolIT Systems DCLC Direct Liquid Cooling and ZutaCore HyperCool Two-Phase Immersion.

York YVAM air-cooled magnetic-bearing chiller from Johnson Controls: verified capacity, refrigerant GWP position, and pre-purchase inspection checklist.

Why it matters

Refrigerant identity is the decisive fact on any YVAM: an R-1234ze(E) unit sits comfortably under the EPA's 700 GWP comfort-cooling limit and outside the AIM Act's tightening HFC supply caps entirely, while a documented R-134a variant would not meet that limit for new US installation after January 1, 2025. No absolute efficiency figure is public, so code-compliance claims require a direct AHRI-format request. The line is young enough that no secondary-market pricing exists yet.

Who buys it

Hyperscale and colocation data center operators specify YVAM where centrifugal-class part-load efficiency is wanted without a condenser water loop, including water-constrained sites where zero on-site water consumption is a siting requirement rather than a preference. Mission-critical facility owners buy into the Quick Start restart feature for power-interruption resilience. A buyer should read refrigerant off the nameplate rather than assume it, since two options exist.

Role in the data center

Chiller-plant heat rejection for hyperscale and colocation facilities that want centrifugal-class part-load efficiency without a condenser water loop, feeding CRAH units or cooling distribution units downstream rather than conditioning room air directly.

Key specifications

Technical summary

Capacity range: 250-475 TR (880-1,670 kW) per product page; Engineering Guide title states 250-500 ton (880-1,750 kW) Refrigerant, primary: R-1234ze(E), GWP approximately 7 (AR4) / 1.37 (AR6), ASHRAE 34 A2L Refrigerant, alternate (model YVAM0350 only): R-134a, GWP 1,430 (AR5), ASHRAE 34 A1 Compressor: single-stage magnetic-bearing centrifugal, direct-drive, 1 compressor, 1 refrigerant circuit Evaporator: shell-and-tube, hybrid falling-film type Condenser: microchannel, parallel-flow aluminum-alloy tube coil, 16-26 variable-speed EC fans Refrigerant charge: approximately 750 lb Operating weight: 23,850-28,500 lb, model-dependent Sound level: 65 dBA at 10 m (brochure) vs. 96 dBA or less (product page, basis unstated) Ambient operating range: -20F to 125F per US Engineering Guide vs. -29C to +55C per Europe launch Capacity turndown: 100% to 15% of design Quick Start restart: as little as 3 minutes to full load after power restoration

Configurations and options

Refrigerant is a real configuration split, not a marketing choice: model code YVAM0350 is documented against R-134a in Johnson Controls' technical literature, while model codes YVAM1150, YVAM1500, and YVAM1650 are documented against R-1234ze(E). Condenser fan count scales by frame size, from 16 fans on the smallest documented model up to 26 on the largest. Quick Start restart is standard across the line, though the dedicated Quick Start sales guide scopes its published restart-timeline detail specifically to the 250-375 ton models.

Compatibility and dependencies

Ambient operating range is documented two ways, -20F to 125F in the US 60 Hz Engineering Guide versus -29C to +55C in the 2025 Europe launch material, so a buyer should confirm the applicable figure for their unit's build region before assuming either range. Electrical supply is 3-phase at the site's scheduled voltage with a single-point power connection, so voltage and frequency must be matched before assuming a cross-region relocation is straightforward. A2L-classified R-1234ze(E) units require mechanical-room leak detection and ventilation interlocks under ASHRAE 15/UL 60335-2-40 that an R-134a unit does not need.

Pricing and availability

Comparable secondary-market band: 800–1300 $ per ton. Trend: flat

Common failure points

• Magnetic bearing controller / power amplifier — repeated touchdown-bearing events, bearing fault codes, or a compressor that will not levitate on start
• Microchannel aluminum condenser coil — refrigerant staining, pitting, or galvanic corrosion at fin-to-header joints, especially in coastal or de-icing-salt environments
• Variable-speed drive / active front end — capacitor bulging or discoloration, fault history, loss of IEEE-519 harmonic compliance
• Integral UPS battery — unit fails to hold bearing levitation and control power through a simulated outage
• EC condenser fan motors — one or more of the unit's fans not spinning, vibration, or bearing noise
• A2L refrigerant leak-detection and ventilation interlock — expired sensor calibration, disabled interlock, or missing mechanical-room ventilation tie-in
• Evaporator waterside fouling — rising approach temperature, reduced capacity at rated flow

Inspection checklist

Magnetic bearing levitation log — pull the OptiView controller's full levitation and touchdown-event history for the unit's entire service life (YVAM launched May 2023 in the US, so the oldest units in the field are roughly 3 years old as of 2026) and confirm no unexplained gap Compressor start count and run hours — request total compressor starts and total run hours from the OptiView trend log; a unit logging more than roughly 15,000-20,000 starts warrants closer bearing-electronics diagnostics before purchase Backup/touchdown bearing wear — physically inspect the mechanical touchdown bearings that support the shaft on any loss of levitation; YVAM ships as a single-compressor, single-refrigerant-circuit machine, so there is exactly one compressor's worth of touchdown-bearing wear to evaluate Magnetic bearing controller and power amplifier diagnostics — run the OEM self-test routine on the bearing control electronics and pull fault-code history for the last 12 months; a fault or degraded-mode entry in that window should be treated as a pending failure Microchannel condenser coil corrosion — inspect the aluminum-alloy microchannel condenser for pitting, staining, or galvanic corrosion at fin-to-header joints across every one of the unit's condenser sections, ten sections with two fans each on the smallest documented model Condenser fan count and function — confirm every fan is present and spinning against the nameplate count of 16 to 26 fans, model-dependent; a reduced fan count means the unit has been running outside its rated airflow Refrigerant charge verification — weigh or calculate the current charge against the roughly 750 lb factory charge; a material shortfall points to an undetected or unrepaired leak Refrigerant leak-rate history — request the unit's EPA Section 608 leak-rate log; comfort-cooling equipment above 50 lb charge carries a 10% annual leak-rate repair trigger under the pre-2020 framework A2L refrigerant leak-detection and ventilation interlock, R-1234ze(E) units only — test the mechanical-room refrigerant sensor and ventilation interlock; this system does not exist on an R-134a unit, so confirm which refrigerant is aboard first OptiView control board and microboard revision — confirm the installed microboard model and current firmware version, the Y.OPT.20.xx.yyy series was still being issued as of the documentation reviewed, and whether it remains under active support Variable-speed drive and active front end condition — inspect for capacitor bulging, discoloration, or fault history; this single component delivers both the zero-inrush start and the IEEE-519 harmonic compliance the unit is sold on Integral UPS battery for Quick Start — load-test the integral UPS that powers the bearing controller, OptiView panel, and VSD through an outage; a battery that cannot hold the roughly 3-minute bridge invalidates the Quick Start feature Evaporator waterside fouling — request flow-rate and approach-temperature trend data, or schedule a borescope inspection; the shell-and-tube hybrid falling-film evaporator still scales on the waterside like any chiller Freeze-protection heaters and low-ambient controls — verify function of evaporator and piping freeze-protection heaters; YVAM's US-rated operating window runs down to -20F (-28.8C), and a failed heater there is a guaranteed freeze event ASME nameplate and pressure-vessel data — confirm the evaporator's ASME Section VIII Division 1 nameplate is present, legible, and matches the unit serial number before assuming code inspection at a new site will be routine