To prevent ice buildup on the tubing and camera body in humid environments, we recommend running the chiller no colder than +5° C. To reduce condensation on the camera body, a gasket material isolates the cold plate. However, in some cases, condensation will be severe and the user may have to take measures to reduce the moisture around the camera body with a desiccated enclosure. Raising the temperature of the chiller can be helpful in warm, humid environments. For instance, a chiller operating temperature of 20 degrees C. can allow an AP7 or AP8 camera to operate at -35 C. This is ample cooling to achieve low dark current.

The camera's thermoelectric cooler generates a lot of heat that must be dissipated. To prevent overheating, it is recommended that you do not drive the camera's thermoelectric cooler to maximum cooling without liquid flowing through the cold plate. The liquid does not have to be chilled in order to dissipate heat, but chilled liquid will give best performance.

For normal operation with a chilled re-circulation unit, turn on the chiller first, and then use the camera-control software to set the camera's thermoelectric cooler. Temperature deltas in AP series cameras vary, but a nominal delta of 35 degrees C can be expected for AP1, AP2, AP4, AP6 and AP10 cameras. AP7, AP8, and SPH cameras have a nominal temperature delta of 47 degrees C. Program the camera cooler to 35 or 47 degrees (depending on your camera model) below the chiller's temperature setting. When the camera's cooler reaches its maximum cooling, the software will back off the temperature setting by 2 degrees and regulate there. Note that the software setting is in absolute degrees and not merely a delta from ambient.

When shutting down the camera, turn off the chiller unit first, and then program the camera's thermoelectric cooler temperature to go to ambient temperature using the camera-control software.