My name is Ron Coutts. We have been manufacturing aquarium chillers since 1988. One day in October of that year I received a phone call from a school teacher at Highland Park Elementary School in Armstrong B.C. He explained they were hatching salmon eggs in a classroom of their school, but they could not get the water temperature of their 33 gallon tank below 11 deg. C. They were circulating city water through a grid system in the bottom of the tank and most of the eggs were dying. That same day I went to the school and met with Community Advisor for the Salmon Enhancement Program Dennis Demontier from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. He said if we could get the temperature of the water below 10 deg. C., most of the eggs would survive. I decided the system needed a chiller that would control the water temperature between 6 and 8 deg. C.

The next problem, there was no budget money for refrigeration units so I built a chiller out of used parts that I had lying around our shop and donated it to the school. The chiller worked very well and we soon had units in other schools, making improvements to the machine as we went along.

We now have over 2,000 aquarium chillers for salmon and trout in classrooms operating in British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon Territories, Alaska, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada.

All the components in our chillers are CSA approved. In addition, our chillers are inspected for safety by a representative from QPS Evaluation Services who places an approval decal on the machines.