Howden Blower and Industrial Equipment: FAQ from a Quality Inspector

I'm a quality and brand compliance manager for a company that builds industrial air and gas handling equipment. I review every blower, fan, compressor, and refrigeration unit before it reaches customers—roughly 200 units a year. In our Q1 2024 quality audit, 8% of first deliveries had to go back because something didn't match the agreed spec. That number isn't the end of the world, but it's too high.

These are the questions I hear most often when people search for Howden equipment, plus one or two you didn't know to ask.

What is a Howden blower?

A Howden blower is an industrial machine that moves air or gas at elevated pressure. It's not a fan. You'll find them in wastewater treatment plants, chemical plants, cement terminals, and food processing lines. Howden makes both positive displacement blowers—lobe and screw type—and centrifugal blowers, so 'Howden blower' isn't one machine; it's a family of machines.

Positive displacement blowers deliver near-constant flow even if downstream pressure changes. Centrifugal blowers are more sensitive to the system curve; they can surge if you push them outside their envelope. Everything I'd read about blowers said bigger is safer. In practice, I've found that oversizing is more common than undersizing. An oversized blower can waste power, make controls unstable, and even cause vibration problems. The right size is the point.

What's the difference between a blower, an exhaust fan, and a dehumidifier fan?

From the outside, they all look like spinning impellers. The reality is the pressure range. A fan moves air against very little resistance. A blower generates enough pressure to overcome pipes, filters, and process equipment. An exhaust fan is usually for ventilation—it pulls air out of a room and discharges it to atmosphere. A dehumidifier's fan is part of a smaller system that draws air over a cold coil or desiccant wheel and pushes it back into the space.

If you've been searching for an exhaust fan for an industrial room, start with the pressure you need to overcome. If it's just a wall opening, a fan is fine. If you're pushing air through 60 feet of ductwork, a filter bank, and three elbows, you're probably looking at a blower. It's tempting to treat the names as interchangeable. They're not.

Does Howden make dehumidifiers?

Not as consumer products. Howden's world is industrial air and gas handling: blowers, fans, compressors, heat exchangers, and refrigeration equipment. Some of those components are used inside larger dehumidification systems. For example, a desiccant dehumidifier may use a blower to move air through a drying bed. So the answer is 'not for your basement, but yes in an indirect way.'

I should add that if you're building a machine that includes a dehumidifier, you need to define the operating environment clearly. A blower that works fine on clean, dry air can fail on air with solvent fumes or salts. Gas composition changes the material selection.

Is Howden Group the same as Howden Group commercial insurance services?

No. I'm asked about this more than you'd expect. Howden Group commercial insurance services is an insurance broking business. The industrial Howden, the one I work with, designs and manufactures fans, blowers, compressors, and refrigeration equipment. I don't know the ownership structure or legal details, and I won't pretend to. If you need a liability policy, search for the insurance broker. If you need an industrial blower, you're in the right place.

The thing that makes me nervous is seeing a project engineer send a blower specification to the wrong 'Howden' address. The names are identical. The solutions are not.

What blower specs should I send to a supplier?

Don't send a picture and ask 'how much?' A serious supplier needs details. In my experience, the single biggest cause of returned blowers is incomplete process data. This is the minimum list I check when reviewing an order:

• Gas or air composition, and whether it is wet, dirty, or hazardous
• Inlet temperature and pressure
• Required flow at the operating point
• Discharge pressure
• Ambient temperature range and site altitude
• Power supply voltage and hazardous area classification

In Q1 2024, we rejected a batch of blowers because the spec said 'air' but the process actually contained hydrogen gas. The elastomer seals were never approved for hydrogen, and the vendor claimed it was within industry standard. The batch went back at their cost. Now every contract I touch specifies the gas composition explicitly.

For fan performance testing, I refer to ISO 5801. For positive displacement blowers in oil and gas service, API 619 is often a contract requirement. Naming the standard in the inquiry filters out a lot of unsuitable options.

What causes the most blower failures?

Most blower failures, in my opinion, are preventable. The top three are oversizing, lubrication mistakes, and ignoring instrumentation.

• Oversizing: a blower larger than the system needs will run at turndown. That can cause surge, vibration, and control instability.
• Lubrication: blowers have gears and bearings that need the right oil. I've seen machines run for years on the wrong oil just because someone topped up with whatever was in the shed. That repair can cost $15,000.
• Ignoring instrumentation: a bearing temperature 5 degrees higher than normal is a warning. If you ignore it for a week, the unit fails for a month.

Five minutes of verification beats five days of correction. That's why I built a 12-point pre-shipment checklist after my third mistake. It has saved us an estimated $8,000 in potential rework, and it's just a laminated sheet.

Does Howden make heat exchangers?

Yes. Howden's portfolio includes heat exchangers for industrial refrigeration and gas processing. In a refrigeration system, the evaporator and condenser are heat exchangers, and their performance drives the efficiency of the whole plant.

It's tempting to compare heat exchangers by plate count or physical size. That ignores the effect of plate geometry, flow arrangement, and fouling factors. Two units with the same number of plates can perform very differently. I've seen it happen; the 'identical' spare had a noticeably different pressure drop because the internal flow passages weren't the same.

How do I clean a countertop ice maker?

This may look off-topic, but searches for 'how to clean countertop ice maker' often show up near refrigeration questions. So here is the fast, safe method:

1. Unplug the unit and empty any standing water.
2. Remove the ice basket and any removable parts.
3. Wipe the interior with white vinegar diluted 1:1 with water, or use the cleaner recommended in the manual.
4. Rinse thoroughly with clean water.
5. Run one or two cycles and discard the ice before using it again.

Most scale and mold problems in small ice makers come from skipping a weekly rinse. The same principle applies in industrial refrigeration: a dirty condenser raises head pressure, cuts capacity, and increases energy use. Cleaning is prevention, not a repair.

If you came here for Howden equipment, send the specs from question 5. If you came here for ice maker advice, now you know the checklist.